Episodes
Wednesday Nov 24, 2021
How fatigued is too fatigued to effectively provide patient care?
Wednesday Nov 24, 2021
Wednesday Nov 24, 2021
How fatigued is too fatigued to effectively provide patient care?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Field, Taylor and colleagues who explored clinicians' perceptions of workplace fatigue and its impact on clinical practice. And they uncovered a problematic paradox. While participants acknowledged that fatigue had an impact on clinical performance, they were reluctant to acknowledge any negative impact on patient care. As the authors suggest, successful implementation of fatigue risk management in healthcare hinges on explicitly addressing this paradox. And there's much to learn from other high reliability industries.
Full citation:
Field, E., Lingard, L., Cherry, R., Van Koughnett, J. A., DeLuca, S., & Taylor, T. (2021). The fatigue paradox: Team perceptions of physician fatigue. Medical Education.
Wednesday Nov 17, 2021
How can technology help Parkinson‘s disease patients to manage their tremor?
Wednesday Nov 17, 2021
Wednesday Nov 17, 2021
How can technology help Parkinson's disease patients to manage their tremor?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Zhou and colleagues who optimized the design of a glove that can suppress tremor simultaneously, but independently, in the knuckle of the index finger, the thumb, and the wrist. In preliminary assessments, this glove achieved tremor suppression of 70 to 80%. Considering that the number of Parkinson's disease patients is estimated to double in the next 15 years, this type of technology will be an important contribution to society at large.
Full citation:
Zhou, Y., Ibrahim, A., Hardy, K. G., Jenkins, M. E., Naish, M. D., & Trejos, A. L. (2021). Design and Preliminary Performance Assessment of a Wearable Tremor Suppression Glove. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.
Wednesday Nov 10, 2021
What if people with paralysis could communicate at the speed of their thoughts?
Wednesday Nov 10, 2021
Wednesday Nov 10, 2021
What if people with paralysis could communicate at the speed of their thoughts?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Willett and colleagues who developed a brain computer interface that allows people with paralysis to type at around 90 characters per minute - remember that normal typing speed is about 115 characters per minute. How? By creating an algorithm that deciphers patterns of brain activity.
Full citation:
Willett, F. R., Avansino, D. T., Hochberg, L. R., Henderson, J. M., & Shenoy, K. V. (2021). High-performance brain-to-text communication via handwriting. Nature, 593(7858), 249-254.
Wednesday Nov 03, 2021
What if you could walk further while feeling less tired?
Wednesday Nov 03, 2021
Wednesday Nov 03, 2021
What if you could walk further while feeling less tired?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Shepertycky and colleagues who developed a unique exoskeleton that assists users by removing energy - energy that can be used to power itself and power portable devices.
Full citation:
Shepertycky, M., Burton, S., Dickson, A., Liu, Y. F., & Li, Q. (2021). Removing energy with an exoskeleton reduces the metabolic cost of walking. Science, 372(6545), 957-960.
Wednesday Oct 27, 2021
Why do we need multilingual science?
Wednesday Oct 27, 2021
Wednesday Oct 27, 2021
Why do we need multilingual science?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Ramirez-Castaneda who raises awareness on the unintended consequences of the English dominance in science on non-English speaking scientists. As one of the goals for modern society is to increase scientific production from Africa, Latin America, Middle East, and developing Asia, the author calls attention to the need to increase strategies for multilingualism in scientific journals.
Full citation:
Ramírez-Castañeda, Valeria. "Disadvantages in preparing and publishing scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science: The case of Colombian researchers in biological sciences." PloS one 15, no. 9 (2020): e0238372.
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
What‘s the science behind espresso making?
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
What's the science behind espresso making?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Cameron and colleagues who developed a mathematical model to help elucidate the parameters of coffee extraction in espresso making. Espresso is the most widely consumed coffee beverage, yet the most susceptible to variation in quality. However, with this model, the authors showed that using fewer coffee beans and grinding more coarsely, are the key to a drink that is cheaper to make and more consistent from shot to shot.
Full citation:
Cameron, M. I., Morisco, D., Hofstetter, D., Uman, E., Wilkinson, J., Kennedy, Z. C., ... & Foster, J. M. (2020). Systematically improving espresso: Insights from mathematical modeling and experiment. Matter, 2(3), 631-648.
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
What would an economy without growth look like?
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
What would an economy without growth look like?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Hickel, who brings attention to the negative consequences of economic growth in relation to its environmental impact. An alternative he advocates for, is "degrowth" - an economic approach to scale down less necessary forms of production and consumption. While promising, the term itself creates controversy. Hence his effort in clarifying it in this paper.
Full citation:
Wednesday Oct 06, 2021
What do objects that accompany people in death say about what people did in life?
Wednesday Oct 06, 2021
Wednesday Oct 06, 2021
What do objects that accompany people in death say about what people did in life?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Hass and colleagues, who performed an archeological discovery that challenges the man-the-hunter hypothesis. During an excavation in South America, they discovered a 9,000-year old burial that suggests that female participation in ancient societies' hunting was likely non-trivial.
Full citation:
Haas, R., Watson, J., Buonasera, T., Southon, J., Chen, J. C., Noe, S., ... & Parker, G. (2020). Female hunters of the early Americas. Science advances, 6(45), eabd0310.
Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
How can bruises help identify abused children?
Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
How can bruises help identify abused children?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Pierce and colleagues who developed and validated a bruising clinical decision tool to help identify abused kids earlier. As Dr. Pierce explains in this podcast episode: https://ucdavisem.com/2021/04/17/it-could-have-been-different/, it is the subtle bruises over an eyelid of a fussy baby that should raise red flags. With this tool, physicians are now better equipped to take action when wondering if abuse is part of the story of a child.
Full citation:
Pierce, M. C., Kaczor, K., Lorenz, D. J., Bertocci, G., Fingarson, A. K., Makoroff, K., ... & Leventhal, J. M. (2021). Validation of a clinical decision rule to predict abuse in young children based on bruising characteristics. JAMA network open, 4(4), e215832-e215832.
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
How do patients shape the stories they tell health practitioners?
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
How do patients shape the stories they tell health practitioners?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Koopman and colleagues who found out how chronic patients develop and enact a strategy for getting airtime during their conversations with health practitioners. And it is not just about writing things down, it also involves actively rehearsing their game plan.
Full citation:
Koopman WJ, LaDonna KA, Kinsella EA, Venance SL, Watling CJ. Getting airtime: Exploring how patients shape the stories they tell health practitioners. Medical Education. 2021 May 12.