The External Medicine Podcast

Latest Episodes:

John Ayers, PhD: ChatGPT and the Future of Medicine May 11, 2023

Show notes

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview John Ayers, PhD about ChatGPT and its potential to revolutionize the practice of medicine. We delve into his recent JAMA internal medicine study, which evaluated ChatGPT answers to questions posed on the subreddit r/AskDocs. We also touch on responses to his article discussed on a recent Sensible Medicine Podcast. Finally, we discuss Dr. Ayer's previous work on e-cigarettes, cannabis, and the sociology of suicide.

Who is John Ayers?

John Ayers, PhD is a computational epidemiologist who uses big data to study public health. He is the Vice Chief of Innovation in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at UCSD.

References:

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Andrew Foy, MD: Critical Appraisal, Austrian Economics, and Medical Conservatism vs Medical Liberalism Apr 23, 2023

Show notes

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Andrew Foy, MD, about evidence-based medicine, applying Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy (GDMT) to hospitalized patients, and evaluating aggressive versus conservative blood pressure goals in patients with comorbitidies. They discuss Dr. Foy's article on Hayek, critical appraisal of the medical literature, medical conservatism, and his skepticism around Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography as compared to Functional Stress Testing in patients with coronary artery disease. Finally, they touch on alternative visions of medical practice, content expertise in COVID, as well as statins as a potential cause of diabetes.

Who is Parker Rogers?

Andrew Foy, MD is a cardiologist and Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. His research interests include management of emergency department patients with low-risk chest pain, management of patients with benign and renovascular hypertension, as well as unnecessary and overly-aggressive medical care.

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Parker Rogers: How FDA Deregulation Promotes Medical Device Innovation & Safety Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Parker Rogers about his recent job-market paper "Regulating the Innovators: Approval Costs and Innovation in Medical Technologies" which examines the impact of FDA regulation on innovation, market structure, and product safety. They discuss the FDA's medical device risk classification and his analysis of down-classification events (from higher to lower risk categories), which shows deregulation has a positive impact on innovation, firms producing devices, as well as product safety. They also touch on the value of regulation versus litigation, legal liability exposure of small versus large firms, and the European Medicine Agency.

Who is Parker Rogers?

Parker Rogers is a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. In the fall of 2023, he will be a Postdoctoral Fellow in Aging and Health Research at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In the fall of 2024, he will be joining the School of Business at Indiana University as an Assistant Professor.

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Ross Levine, MD, PhD: Deep Dive on Acute Myeloid Leukemia Mar 13, 2023

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In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Ross Levine, MD, PhD about Acute Myeloid Leukemia and its treatment. They discuss the different types of leukemias, the history of AML treatment, including chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation. They touch on Graft vs Host Disease, treatment after relapse, and open questions in leukemia, including future trials, and further investigation of ven/aza (Azacitidine/venetoclax).

Who is Ross Levine?

Dr. Ross Levine of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Levine studies hematologic malignancies and is a world-renowned expert on myeloproliferative neoplasms and acute myeloid leukemia.

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Adam J Brown, MD: History of Rheumatology, The Black Death, and Why You Shouldn't Inject Uric Acid Crystals into Your Knee Feb 26, 2023

Show notes

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Adam J Brown, MD about the field of Rheumatology, autoimmune diseases, and his podcast Rheuminations. They discuss the history of gout, plaquenil, the relationship between infectious diseases and rheumatologic conditions, the inflammasome, autoinflammatory disorders, vasculitis, fibromyalgia, Covid, and much more.

Who is Adam J Brown?

Dr. Adam J. Brown is a Rheumatologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Brown is the author of the book Rheumatology Made Ridiculously Simple. He is also the host of the Healio podcast Rheuminations, which focuses on autoimmunity, rare diseases, and the history of medicine.

References:

Twitter - @AdamJBrownMD
Adam J Brown's Quiz Platform Rheum and Boards
Healio Rheuminations Podcast

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Saloni Dattani: Peer Review, Division of Labor in Science, and the Genetics of Psychiatric Disorders Jan 29, 2023

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In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Saloni Dattani about the genetics of psychiatric disorders and how to improve science. They discuss the lack of division of labor in academia, the history of peer review, ways to improve peer review, human challenge trials, and much more.

Who is Saloni Dattani?

Saloni Dattani is a PhD student at King’s College London. She is the founding editor of the online magazine Works in Progress. She is also an editor at Stripe Press and a researcher at Our World in Data.

References:

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Polly Matzinger, PhD: Dangerous Ideas in Immunology Jan 03, 2023

Show notes

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Polly Matzinger, PhD, about her model of immunology, which she calls 'The Danger Model'. They discuss how The Danger Model helps explain aspects of immunology ignored by the self/non-self model, including why mothers don't reject their fetuses, autoimmune diseases, organ transplant rejection, cancer surveillance, allergy and more.
Who is Polly Matzinger?

Polly Matzinger received her PhD in Biology from UCSD before completing a postdoc at Cambridge. She then worked at the Basel Institute for Immunology before moving to the NIH, where she was a section head at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the so-called “Ghost Lab”. She is the creator of the Danger Model (1994), which argues the immune system discriminates between dangerous and safe by recognition of pathogens or alarm signals from injured or stressed cells and tissues.

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Derek Lowe, PhD: A Medicinal Chemist's Thoughts on Drug Discovery and the Future of Pharma Dec 04, 2022

Show notes

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Derek Lowe, PhD, about drug discovery, clinical trials, drug patents, Alzheimer’s disease, the FDA, and his blog “In The Pipeline”. They discuss the potential role for machine learning in pharmaceutical development, whether Big Pharma spends excessively on marketing, and much much more.

Who is Derek Lowe?

Derek Lowe, PhD, is a medicinal chemist who works in preclinical drug discovery. He received a PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University and completed a Humboldt Fellowship in Germany for his post-doc. His blog about the pharmaceutical industry “In The Pipeline” has been continuously operating since 2002.

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Jean Hébert, PhD: Aging, Brain Plasticity, and Replacing the Neocortex Nov 19, 2022

Show notes

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Jean Hébert, PhD about aging, brain plasticity, and progressive neocortical replacement. They discuss one hallmark of aging—extracellular matrix damage—as well as how tissue replacement is a possible solution to aging. In addition, they explore the practicalities of progressive neocortex replacement, dopaminergic neuron transplants in Parkinson's patients, and Professor Hébert's work on stroke.

Who is Jean Hébert?

Jean Hebert, PhD, is a Professor of Neuroscience and Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he focuses on age-related brain degeneration in the adult neocortex. He is one of the world’s leading researchers on brain cell and tissue replacement. He is the author of the book Replacing Aging.

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Paul Offit, MD: The Cost of Medical Innovation, DDT and Malaria, and Bivalent Covid-19 Boosters Oct 29, 2022

Show notes

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Paul Offit, MD about his book You Bet Your Life, how banning DDT caused increased deaths from malaria, and the data regarding the bivalent booster as of October 2022. They discuss the human price paid for medical advances, sins of commission versus sins of omission, which populations should get bivalent boosters, short versus long incubation period viruses, and vaccine-related myocarditis.

Who is Paul Offit?

Dr. Offit is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is on the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. In addition, he was the co-inventor of the RotaTeq vaccine for rotavirus, has published over 130 papers in medical and scientific journals, and is the author of many books on vaccines, antibiotics, medical overuse, and medical history. including You Bet Your Life.

If you didn’t see our initial episode with Dr. Paul Offit, check it out.

What is the External Medicine Podcast?
The External Medicine Podcast explores some of the most exciting ideas in medicine. Co-hosted by Daniel Belkin, MD, and Mitch Belkin, MD.

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