Humans of Medicine

From bench to bedside /w Max Kirkby

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research. This conversation is with Max, an Adelaide-born ANU graduate, cricket fanatic and passionate researcher who’s also headed to Oxford later this year as a Rhodes Scholar. I currently work with Max in a research lab at USyd - as well as being a great human and research buddy, he’s also extremely passionate and goes deep into areas he cares about - which is why I’m particularly keen to share this conversation. We talked about his journey, and how different mentors have guided him, what he’ll be working on in his computational neuroscience PhD, and his perspective on all the exciting developments around “AI”. Hope you enjoy! If you have any questions for Max, send him a message on Linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-kirkby15/]. Timestamps: 0:44 Why medicine and research? 3:50 Paradigm-shifts: From bench to bedside, explore vs exploit 7:58 The value of hard work and being kind 10:26 Max’s PhD: Information representation in the brain 15:35 Research experiences and great supervisors 17:58 Challenges in Immunology and Psychiatric Disorders 23:20 Generative AI and its potential understanding the brain 26:39 Overhyped and Underhyped AI applications 29:18 Attention spans and content mediums in the age of AI 36:07 Advice for undergraduates

Intersecting public health and neurology /w Andrew Hwang

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research. Today we’ve got an international episode with Andrew [https://www.linkedin.com/in/soonmyunghwang/], an American-Korean living in New York! After graduating from Johns Hopkins majoring in neuroscience and public health, he’s currently a first year studying a dual MD and Masters of public health at Mt Sinai. Having explored clinical research, and public health neurology, he’s currently interested in the pathway of the clinician-public health researcher. We talked about how he came into his niche of neurology and public health, the journey of moving from Chicago to NY, and his experiences at John Hopkins, World Neurology Foundation, and World Relief. Hope you enjoy! If you've got any questions for Andrew, feel free to email him at soonmyunghwang@gmail.com. Timestamps: 0:48 The domino effect into medicine 5:33 1st year and exploring identity in NYC 8:10 Moving into the big city 11:14 Schizophrenia interests to multiple sclerosis research 17:08 Neurology in third world countries 22:05 World Relief and supporting migrants 26:23 Exploring your unique intersection

A kiwi doctor's journey into startups /w Izzy Bigio

Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research. Today we’ve got Izzy, a kiwi doctor turned startup enthusiast, and all-round legend. After 2 years as a house officer, Izzy pivoted to learn about startups and work as a platform manager at Blackbird, an Aussie-to-NZ venture capital firm. Among other experiences, which we’ll go into more detail in the pod, she’s also building a newsletter called Bootstrapped [https://bootstrappednz.substack.com/] - giving a fortnightly lowdown on NZ startups. We chatted about her journey in figuring out what she’s passionate about, learning to take a risk on yourself, her experiences as a house officer, and the NZ startup ecosystem. Hope you enjoy! If you have any questions, feel free to contact her at ibigio@blackbird.vc [ibigio@blackbird.vc]. Timestamps: 0:44 Positive impact: From medicine to startups 7:18 The Dark Ages (House Officer Years) 9:02 Obstetrics, and the importance of patient education 13:19 Rockstar hobbies 15:20 Universal healthcare 16:16 Retaining future kiwi doctors 21:02 The growing NZ startup ecosystem 22:29 Cleantech 23:47 What’s missing in the NZ startup ecosystem? 25:11 Building Bootstrapped 27:04 Inspiration and passion 29:29 Understanding yourself and your assumptions

Understanding specialty pathways and getting through identity crises /w Tina & Charlotte

If you’re a medical student who’s starting to have a medical identity crisis, or want some advice on figuring out how the heck specialties and research work, this is a good episode. Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research. Today we’ve got two very lovely, and very laughy, medical interns, Tina and Charlotte. They both graduated from USyd with Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine degrees - Tina having done computer science, and Charlotte having done biochemistry. They’ve also got a bunch of diverse experiences… From consulting at McKinsey, performing benchtop lab research, and engineering things at Canva - and they’ve now happily come to pursue medicine and more. This was a really fun chat - and I think, tackles a lot of topics that are difficult to figure out sometimes, especially as an outsider to medicine. Stay tuned for lots of laughs, stories, and practical advice. Hope you enjoy! If you'd like to contact them or follow up with more questions, flick me an email at: k.hou@sydney.edu.au. Timestamps: 0:57 What brought you to medicine? 4:47 Sticking through medicine 10:30 Balancing medical interning with dance and travel 12:44 Hybrid Careers: Clinician-scientists and teachers 16:38 How does research fit into medical careers? 19:41 How do specialties work? (OBGYN, Anaesthetics) 25:15 Should I be researching in med school? 29:13 Medicine Quick Fires! (Questions from my USyd cohort) 29:41 Which year was the hardest? 30:20 How did you keep things going with times were tough? 31:07 How are you treated as interns? 32:15 How do you make the most of your hospital time? 35:05 How do you ask for advice from doctors? 37:00 Tips for your first clinical exam? 38:29 Advice for first years - Travel to NZ and be open-minded 40:24 Bonus story!

Research 101 and connecting with patients /w Dhananjay Soundappan

If you’re a medical student who’s thinking about research, and curious about how to choose the right lab and supervisor - this episode’s a good one for you. Welcome back to Humans of Medicine - A podcast where we interview and learn about different types of people in medicine and research. Today we’ve got DJ, a final year med student at UNSW. He’s a research intern at the Kolling Institute, having worked on cardiology projects for the past few years (leading to some fun conference trips overseas). He’s also previously helped out with startup called Vantari VR, (which seeks to use VR in medical education) as well as tutoring at UNSW. We chatted about the importance of research in medicine, three key tips for new researchers, and his diverse interests in public health, technology, and importantly, human connection. Hope you enjoy. If you'd like to get in touch, feel free to message him on Linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhnanjay-soundappan-455464188/?originalSubdomain=au]! Timestamps: 0:48 Connecting with patients 2:30 Final year of med school 3:14 Changing curriculums and adapting to AI 7:03 The value of research as a clinician 9:30 Research highlights: People, culture, and learning about possibility 12:07 Frontier research vs Improvement research 14:52 Improving the outcomes of the many 16:23 Early Career Research 101: Key advice for newbies 21:15 Reflecting in Medicine: The story of “Timothy” 23:12 Doctor-writers 25:20 Vantari VR and Startups 28:12 The many paths of medicine