Every few weeks, Paul Costello, chief communications officer for the medical school, talks with innovators in modern medicine and health policy for our 1:2:1 podcast series. The most popular podcasts for 2012 were:
"Sully" Sullenberger takes on patient safety: Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III is best-known as the pilot who miraculously landed US Airways Flight #1549 in the Hudson River, after a flock of geese struck and disabled the plane’s engines. In this podcast, he talks about a proposal to create an independent agency modeled on the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate and prevent cases of medical harm and why he believes it’s critical for medicine to adapt safety lessons from the aviation industry.
Medical school without lectures: Charles Prober, MD, senior associate dean for medical education, and Chip Heath, PhD, professor at the Graduate School of Business, argued in a recent New England Journal of Medicine piece that it's time to re-think the traditional medical school lecture. In this podcast, Prober sketches out his vision for a new medical curriculum.
Sex testing for elite female athletes: This year, the International Olympic Committee adopted sex verification policies (.pdf) for women athletes completing in the 2012 London Olympic Games. Stanford medical anthropologist Katrina Karkazis, PhD, and Rebecca Jordan-Young, PhD, a sociomedical scientist at Barnard College, challenged the proposed policies as unfair, unscientific and unethical.
Stanford medical school's new leader: Lloyd Minor, MD, an otolaryngologist and former provost of Johns Hopkins University, became dean of the School of Medicine on Dec. 1. During this podcast, Minor discusses what he has learned about Stanford since arriving on campus in September, what he values in himself and other people, and where health care is headed as new reforms become reality.
The legacy of Philip Pizzo: On Dec. 1, Philip Pizzo, MD, ended his remarkable 12-year tenure as dean of the Stanford School of Medicine. Shortly before passing on the leadership of the school to Lloyd Minor, MD, he reminisced about past accomplishments and shared what’s next for him.
Prebiotics, probiotics and the digestive system: Jo Ann Hattner, RD, a nutrition consultant at Stanford and a dietician with more than 30 years of experience, strongly believes the consumption of probiotics and prebiotics are key to restoring a body's natural balance and well-being. In this podcast, she discusses easy-to-eat foods that, incorporated regularly into a diet, will increase a sense of wellness, and she offers simple-to-follow advice on how consumers can navigate the tricky waters of food and nutrition marketing.
Hannah Valantine on fostering diversity: Hannah Valantine, MD, senior associate dean for diversity and leadership, is working to develop a more-inclusive faculty at the School of Medicine and to ensure that all faculty members have the resources they need to become leaders. By fostering broad range of viewpoints and backgrounds, she hopes to help solve challenging problems of medicine as well as translate research findings into effective treatments that benefit the entire patient population.
Keeping the pounds off: Stanford researchers published findings this year showing that women who mastered skills for maintaining their weight before they began a diet were better able to avoid regaining the weight. Michaela Kiernan, PhD, a senior research scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the lead author of the study, explains the unorthodox “maintenance-first" approach and how it could help those who are trying to slim down and be healthier.
Robert Jackler on Big Tobacco: In the 1920s, tobacco companies began a campaign to manipulate throat doctors into helping calm the public's growing fears that smoking might be bad for their health — a practice that continued for half a century despite overwhelming scientific evidence pointing to the hazards of smoking. Robert Jackler, MD, professor and chair of otolaryngology, has studied the intricate relationship between doctors and cigarette companies and discusses in this podcast Big Tobacco’s long history with the medical community.
Mike Snyder under his own microscope: Colleagues sequenced the DNA of Mike Snyder, PhD, director of the Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, for more than a year and revealed in real time that he had developed type-2 diabetes. In this interview, Snyder explains how this study helped the advancement of personalized medicine and how this field and how genomics may benefit other patients.
From Dec. 24 to Jan. 7, Scope will be on a limited holiday publishing schedule. During that time, it may also take longer than usual for comments to be approved.
