Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Shannon Taylor, a certified Child Life Specialist, about creating child-friendly healthcare experiences. We discuss physical space and tools, verbiage to use when preparing kids and families for procedures, and broader applications of Child Life principles for families and even our adult patients.

Send us a text In this episode, I'm speaking with Dr. Monica Federico, Professor of Pediatrics and Pulmonary Medicine and Medical Director of Population Health at the University of Colorado. We review the anticipated effects on pediatric and general health care from the recently passed federal budget reconciliation bill. She breaks down the finances and the anticipated timeline for the rollout of budget cuts, and we discuss various strategies for advocating for patients who will be affected. ...

Send us a text In this episode, I speak again with Dr. Jay Pershad, a PEM physician with a career's experience in pediatric sedation and analgesia as well as hospital sedation services. We discuss several current and seminal articles - the reference list was too long to include in this episode description, but feel free to message me for the list in order of appearance. Dr. Pershad was willing to share his contact information here for anyone who has further questions about sedation/analgesia ...

Send us a text In this episode, I meet with Dr. Mike Falk, a Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician with extensive experience providing medical care in combat zones. We discuss the scope and realities of children affected by war, readiness in conflict situations, maintaining safety as a healthcare provider in conflict and disaster situations, and how to support children affected by conflict. Below are medical literature and policy statements referenced by Dr. Falk during this episode. Note: D...

Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Dr. Steve Eppes, a Pediatric Infectious Disease specialist, about the rising rates and re-emergence of various vaccine-preventable diseases. We discuss who is at risk, how and when to test for and diagnose these illnesses, and challenges and creative solutions to infection control in our hospitals and clinics. Below is a link to the Texas Department of State Health and Human Services page, which has compiled CDC recommendations for vaccinati...

Send us a text This is the second of a two-part series on medical ethics with Dr. Kristina Brumme. In this episode, we discuss ethics in prehospital decision-making, resuscitation and termination protocols, debriefing and conversations around death and poor outcomes, the ethics of trainees in medicine, and navigating rapidly shifting laws and policies about medical care. Below are some of the studies Dr. Brumme referenced in the podcast: CARES study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39299508/ ...

Send us a text In this episode, the first of a two-part series, I speak with Dr. Kristina Brumme, who is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician with expertise in medical ethics. This episode focuses on the frameworks of ethical principles, coercion vs. persuasion in health decisions, end-of-life decisions, the ethics of pediatric readiness, and our duty as subspecialists to partner with and provide support to hospitals and health systems that do not have high levels of resources. Below is o...

Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Dr. Charlene Jones, a Pediatric Sports Medicine Physician, about updates on concussion management in the acute setting (and subacute for those kids who re-present to urgent care and emergency care settings). Below are links to the SCAT-6, and child SCAT-6, and information about the new SCOAT-6 for listeners who practice in the office setting. SCAT-6 Tool (for kids ages 13 and up): https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/11/622 Child SCAT-6 (for kids ...

Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Dr. Kevin Ching about his experience teaching and developing experiential learning through BASE Camp, a multidisciplinary simulation boot camp for PEM fellows, nurses, child life staff, and others. He shares evidence-based approaches to medical education and his insights on engaging and supporting learners to create high-yield educational experiences.

Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Chris Barbour and Mel Lebron, two of the many amazing nurses I've worked with over the years. We talk about trends in the nursing field, changes since the pandemic, and overall physician and nursing interactions, collaboration, and team dynamics.

Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Dr. Jess Schnell, DO MBA, who transitioned from Pediatric Emergency Medicine and hospital administration to utilization management. We talk about career longevity, deciding to transition away from clinical medicine, and dealing with burnout. Articles and Resources We Discuss: Gettel CJ, Courtney DM, Agrawal P, Madsen TE, Rothenberg C, Mills AM, Lall MD, Keim SM, Kraus CK, Ranney ML, Venkatesh AK. Emergency medicine physician workforce attrition d...

Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Dr. Allison Messina, an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Infectious Disease in Florida at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. We talk about vector-born illnesses - their presentation and management, and where and when to look out for them. Ranges of many of these illnesses are expanding, both northward from the tropics, and for diseases like Lyme disease, to broadening regions within North America, so many of us will be seeing these illnesses in...

Send us a text In this episode, I speak with Dr. Kathy Sumpter, who is Division Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. We talk about diagnosing diabetes in children and risk-stratifying kids coming in with new-onset diabetes, as well as fluid and insulin management strategies for kids in DKA. Dr. Sumpter specializes in helping kids who struggle to control their diabetes improve their health, and shares insights about her successes and about the future of medical c...

Send us a text In this episode I meet with Dr. Jay Pershad from Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC. Dr. Pershad is an expert in high-value care and shares strategies for improving our quality of care to benefit patients, families, and healthcare providers together. A few studies that he mentions are here below for those who are interested in a deeper dive: Bodenheimer T, Sinsky C. From Triple Aim to Quadruple Aim: Care of the Patient Requires Care of the Provider. Ann Fam Medicin...

Send us a text April is Child Abuse Awareness Month, so in this episode I am speaking with Dr. Antonia Chiesa, a Child Abuse Medicine Specialist. We discuss sentinel injuries and how to navigate evaluating and reporting these injuries, positive news about the demographics and trends in the US regarding child abuse rates, and the broader conversation about child abuse and child health outside of the acute setting. I would like to add a clarification here regarding a statement I make in this e...

Send us a text In this episode, I meet with Dr. Chinni Pokala to talk about the assessment and management of hematologic disorders in the acute setting. We discuss how to think about kids presenting with signs and symptoms of new hematologic disorders as well as thrombotic and hemorrhagic risks for kids with established heme/onc diagnoses or other chronic medical conditions.

Send us a text In this episode, I talk with Dr. Alana Arnold about our experiences with pediatric readiness projects in community and urgent care settings, both as partnering with academic pediatric centers and via private consulting. Below, in order, are the seminal paper regarding pediatric readiness in general emergency departments, its associated assessment tool, the Wall Street Journal article about pediatric readiness referenced in this episode, findings from the ImPACTS project, and co...

Send us a text In this episode I meet up with Dr. Dan Park, who is the medical director of the pediatric emergency department at University of North Carolina. We'll be talking about the components of leadership and navigating careers in medicine. We discuss metacognition and cognitive biases, developing our expertise, leadership skills, and resiliency, and how these all interplay. Here is Dan's article about cognitive biases that we discussed during this episode: https://pubmed.ncbi.nl...

Send us a text In this episode, I'm speaking with Drs. Fred Henretig (Penn) and Carl Baum (Yale) about career transitions and exiting medicine. We discuss the current literature surrounding retirement and attrition in medicine, reasons physicians cite for staying vs going, and strategies for handling major career and life transitions. Below is the information for a few of the articles mentioned in this podcast: Henretig F, et. al. PEM Physicians' Perceptions of Colleagues' Clinical Compete...

Send us a text In this episode, I'll be talking with Dr. Matt Harris from Cohen Children's Hospital about medical transport of kids, both in the prehospital and interfacility settings. We will discuss level of skills, training, and equipment available with various teams, factors to consider when choosing transport options, safety and legal concerns, and transport cost. After recording this episode, Dr. Harris and I were discussing the components of the safety checklist his institution uses f...