Synopsis
A curated podcast for physicians, laboratory professionals, and students; hosted by Dr. Justin Kreuter (the Bow Tie Bandit of Blood) and featuring trending topics from Mayo Clinic Laboratories subject-matter experts.
Episodes
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The mentoring relationship: It’s a two-way street
04/12/2020 Duration: 11minTimestamps:00:00 Intro01:00 As Pathologists, we have a lot of competing priorities. Why is mentoring residents and fellows consistently a high priority for you?03:27 Often what we are trying to do as educators is not transparent to our learners, for a variety of reasons. What do you wish that all residents, fellows, and learners understood about the process of their training?05:00 How do you address someone who started out on the right food and then started a slip a little and stopped taking ownership of their cases? How do you readdress that with the learner?06:25 Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about deliberate practice as the pathway to developing expertise. How are you deliberately becoming a better pathologist?08:10 If you had one magic medical education wish, what would it be and why?08:50 Have there been some things that you have done that have helped you be more successful at having that dedicated time for education? 10:00 Last question, what has surprised you most about your professional j
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Advances in the diagnosis of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia
13/11/2020 Duration: 16minTimestamps:00:00 Intro01:00 What is HIT and why is it important for clinicians to correctly diagnose HIT? 03:30 What do we know about how laboratory testing may help clinicians get the diagnosis right? 07:25 How could the process of diagnosing HIT be updated or made better?10:45 What does the future hold for HIT testing? In five years’ time what do you think HIT testing is going to look like in this country?12:45 How has your relationship with your clinical colleagues helped advance your practice of medicine? 15:30 OutroRelated Resources:Conference: A Case-Based Workshop: Clinical and Laboratory Aspects of Hemophilia and ThrombosisArticle: National Symposium Focuses on Bleeding and Thrombotic Disorders
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Preparing for your pathology residency interview
06/11/2020 Duration: 25minTimestamps: 00:00 Intro01:00 Why is it important for medical students to prepare for their residency interviews?3:00 What do recommend that students do to prepare for those interviews? Is it looking at websites online or going to PubMed?05:35 Assuming many interviews will be virtual, is it fair game for an applicant to reach out to the program interviewers ahead of time to ask them if they can test out the system if they are unfamiliar with it?08:45 Do you have any thoughts on how students can manage stress inducing questions if they cannot come up with a response immediately? 11:35 What are your thoughts an applicant’s background during online interviews, should they use virtual backgrounds or not? 15:20 It can be difficult to ask relevant questions of the program and program director. Knowing what you know, what are a few questions or areas that pathology residents may want to consider asking that would be helpful for getting a pulse or feel for that individual program?
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Update: Convalescent Plasma
02/10/2020 Duration: 24minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro00:35 Now that the EAP is closed, how are doctors getting convalescent plasma for their patients? 08:50 What new information have we learned about convalescent plasma in recent months? 13:28 If we are in a period of shortage and there is only low titer available, is it ideal to transfer two units of convalescent plasma in that context?15:30 What remaining questions about convalescent plasma are you most curious about?18:52 How can study design enable or inhibit certain questions to be asked and answered?21:00 Are there any additional transfusion therapies on the horizon?23:50 Outro
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Laboratory Detection of Opioids
11/09/2020 Duration: 13minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro00:40 Why is it important for a laboratory to detect or quantify opioids?02:00 What are the challenges you have had to navigate in the laboratory specific to opioids?04:47 Is it like a pregnancy test or is it important to quantify as well?05:19 Can you help us understand how you collaborate with other health care professionals? 07:07 In terms of new or illicit street drugs, are you having to constantly design new tests to detect these things?07:53 Can you elaborate a little about that collaboration with law enforcement?09:07 Are you also periodically going to testify in court on cases?09:35 What do you think the future of opioid testing looks like?12:25 Outro
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Addressing Diversity & Inclusion in Pathology
21/08/2020 Duration: 17minTimestamps00:00 Podcast Intro00:45 Why is it important for laboratory medicine and pathology to be deliberate about diversity and inclusion? 03:11 How do you recommend we transform the question “will they fit?” or “do I fit?” so that it invites diversity?05:33 So, it’s not so much of transforming the question but putting it ahead of the interview and thinking about what you are trying to recruit for? 06:22 What information have we recently learned about diversity and inclusion in the newer findings? 10:35 How is it easier and/or harder to move the needle on diversity and inclusion in the laboratory?13:35 In 5 years, where will Laboratory Medicine and Pathology be with respect to diversity and inclusion?16:05 Outro
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COVID-19 Testing Update
07/08/2020 Duration: 19minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro00:50 Why does this landscape of COVID testing seem so dynamic? 03:47 So it sounds like we have two sort of rapid tests that are on the market now. Can we dive into that so that we can appreciate a little bit of the compare and contrast between those two rapid assays?07:17 What are these unique challenges with regards to sensitivity and specificity when it comes to these rapidly evolving tests?11:08 Highlighting the connection between laboratory medicine and the clinical practice as it applies to COVID-19 testing.12:49 What new struggles have emerged when it comes to testing for COVID?15:15 What’s a thought process that you recommend for folks to think about when people are trying to think about what should I offer in my lab, or how should I offer COVID testing? 17:25 Dr. Binnicker, if you were king for a day, what would you make happen for COVID testing?19:09 Outro Resources:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
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Being Deliberate when Starting Your Career in Pathology
24/07/2020 Duration: 28minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro00:51 This is a nice time of year for the academic calendar with new trainees starting residency, and new faculty starting their jobs, and people still in their first couple of years of being an academic pathologist. Why is it important for these individuals to be deliberate about how they begin their career?04:18 When somebody is in training, there is a lot that is decided for them and things are predetermined. In residency that opens up quite a bit. Can you give us some insight into these goals you are talking about? On a smaller scale, how do you set yourself up so you can be consistent in making progress?07:55 Are you pretty deliberate about revisiting where you are with your goals? How do you check yourself?10:30 Your success as a resident and as an attending, what advice works in both roles and what advice is good for a resident versus the attending?13:53 When evaluating trainees there is a component regarding delegating work. The skill is critical to have when coming on st
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Our opportunity: Helping patients understand laboratory testing
01/07/2020 Duration: 34minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro01:05 Why is it important to explain the laboratory to patients? How important it is to have open/honest communication with patients?07:05 With your experience in talking with children and their families is your focus on the child and the parents picks up on your efforts? Or are you addressing the child separately from their parents? 11:10 What tips would you have for pathologists as they approach certain situations (approaching the bedside, engaging with patients, answering questions regarding lab tests or biopsies, etc.)16:26 What are your tips for clinicians on explaining the laboratory to patients? 20:22 For our student listeners, what has been your most impactful lesson learned?23:17 You started to create a video to show kids and their families what is happening in the lab behind the scenes, where does their samples go, etc. How are you approaching this? 27:00 Do you envision that material will be geared towards grades K-5 and then different content for teenagers? How diffe
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Stop—Collaborate and Listen
05/06/2020 Duration: 23min00:00 Podcast Intro00:53 There seems to be a lot of buzz around the need for interprofessional education and interprofessional collaboration. Can you kind of take us through these concepts? How are they the same, or how are they different?02:37 What’s the why here? Why should health care institutions, us as individuals, why should we prioritize this interprofessional education or collaboration in practice?05:34 I imagine there are a lot of people listening who have meetings…for example we have medical technologists that are involved in a meeting and pathology residents, pathologists, and so you have people together. Does that mean that intercollaboration is happening, or happening well? Is there some way to understand that? 11:03 What do you think that the challenges are that get in the way of developing this skill of interprofessional collaboration?16:17 Critical reflection19:20 What has surprised you most about interprofessional collaboration?20:42 Underscoring the importance of laboratorians and clinicians
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The Littlest Things in Life - From Dust to Dust: Microbiology and the Medical Autopsy
27/05/2020 Duration: 26minTime Stamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 03:19 How did you choose forensic pathology as a career? 04:30 Where did you train and where were you prior to Mayo? 05:08 Can you discuss in general the practice of forensic pathology, and the difference between hospital and medicolegal autopsies? 06:37 How often do forensic pathology and microbiology intersect? 07:57 What are the challenges of performing microbiology studies in your practice? 08:54 What types of interesting microbiology cases have you seen so far? 13:13 You practiced in Dallas for almost 15 years. Can you tell us about the Ebola scare in 2014? Were you involved in the one fatality? 21:26 Given the information you now have learned regarding the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and the COVID outbreak now, to what level are we prepared for what comes next?Resources:https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/symptoms-causes/syc-20479963?_ga=2.125131913.207068228.1583341931-1731071377.1580216385https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html
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Understanding COVID-Associated Coagulopathy
06/05/2020 Duration: 18minTime Stamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 00:40 What is COVID-associated coagulopathy and why is it important to recognize this? 02:45 How is this coagulopathy similar to or different from other coagulopathies that we commonly see in clinical practice? 04:30 Is there recommended testing for COVID-associated coagulopathy? 06:30 Can you explain what the soluble fibrin monomer test is? 08:09 How is COVID-associated coagulopathy managed in terms on prophylactic anticoagulation, therapeutic anticoagulation, and prophylactic transfusion? 14:23 What are a few lessons that you have learned during this pandemic so far? Resources:1. F.A. Klok, M.J.H.A. Kruip, N.J.M. van der Meer, et al., Incidence of thrombotic complications in critically ill ICU patients with COVID-19,Thrombosis Research (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.thromres.2020.04.013 2. doi:10.1111/JTH.14810
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Convalescent Plasma: Why, How, and Lessons Learned
01/05/2020 Duration: 23minTime Stamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 00:39 What is they ‘why’ behind starting up a convalescent plasma program? 04:00 If physicians are taking care of a patient and wanting to get this product how do they go about it? 11:23 With the Expanded Access Protocol and Emergency IND, how many products does that get for the given patient? 13:00 Where should we direct people who are interested in being a donor? 14:51 Can you give us an idea on who would be eligible to donate convalescent plasma? 17:16 What are some lessons learned from your perspective as you have navigated through COVID-19 and the dynamic situation? Resources: https://ccpp19.org https://covidplasma.org https://uscovidplasma.org
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The People Behind the Lab Bench
20/04/2020 Duration: 25min00:00 Podcast Intro 00:56 On a lot of T.V. shows that I’ve watched over the years, I see the surgeons and emergency medicine docs after they see the patient pop back in the lab and perform those critical tests. In reality, is that really what’s going on? 01:42 Myself as a pathologist, I understand for a lot of physicians I’m probably one degree removed from the bedside, so one degree outside of their mind, and maybe the medical technologist is another degree. So for our physicians and clinicians listening to this podcast, can you maybe share some of the biggest misconceptions about laboratory technologists and the value that they are actually contributing behind the scenes to that patient care?03:05 I know in our day to day we kind of think about those patients or situations where we’ve really been challenged and made a difference for the patient. Can you share one of those stories about where you specifically really played a role behind the scenes that made a difference for patient care?04:39 It sounds lik
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COVID-19: What's Serology Got to Do with It?
16/04/2020 Duration: 15minTime Stamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 00:50 Why is it important to have a serologic test for COVID-19 when there are already molecular PCR assays for diagnosis? 01:38 How are we going to b using the serologic test in clinical practice? 03:02 When should and when shouldn’t we be ordering the serologic assay? 04:34 Can you elaborate on some of the limitations of this test? 06:05 Should we be listening to their local area is recommending related to COVID-19? 06:49 What are the challenges that you have to navigate with serologic testing for COVID-19? 09:32 This has really been a collaborative effort across the country to implement this test. Would you mind sharing what implementation of this serologic assay looked like? 12:58 What are some lessons learned at this point that you think would be worth sharing to the lab professionals and students that listen to this podcast?
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Pandemic Update: Testing for COVID-19
13/04/2020 Duration: 23minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro 00:52 Can you start off and give us kind of the status update on where we are on this COVID-19 pandemic?02:13 When you talk about it has gone from an epidemic to a pandemic, can you highlight for our listeners what the difference between those two are?03:22 Now to dive into laboratory testing. There have been a couple of tests talked about in the media and I know that you have led a team here at Mayo that has developed a test for COVID-19. Can you help us summarize these different tests that are potentially orderable?04:00 Molecular Tests05:10 Serologic Tests07:14 I’ve been seeing in the news a lot of speculation based on past experiences about low sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing. Can you speak to that and help us understand this from the lab medicine professional’s point of view?11:00 We’ve been hearing a lot about rapid tests, point-of-care tests for SARS-CoV-2. I was wondering if you could help us understand those, and how do they fit with what we’ve discussed so
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Lab Staffing During the COVID-19 Pandemic
06/04/2020 Duration: 19minTime Stamps 00:00 Podcast Intro 01:26 Why is it important to consider how we're staffing our laboratory during this pandemic? 02:58 What are the different models or what are some different ways people have been talking about running a lab to mitigate this risk of the lab going down? 07:07 I like how you know, you're also talking about these challenges of space and some of the conversations that you're having with infection control at the institution level. 09:05 When you were talking and looking at those different schedules and going to the different shifts, you mentioned that there was a lot of time that was invested in doing that. Do you have any tips for our listeners about lessons learned from that experience about how they can do that and learn from your experience? 12:17 If we could follow that thread a little further, I'm curious about how your communication has been with the clinical practice. I know that you mentioned you actually have three labs that you oversee. I know especially the cellular th
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Virtual Facilitator Presence: Ready Player 2?
03/04/2020 Duration: 28minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro 02:20 For those of us that aren’t in the education technology movement can you give us a little bit of that 50,000 foot view and orientate us, and where we should think about starting?03:15 Quick tips to consider as a starting place for Virtual Learning: 1.) Presence 2.) Communication 3.) Authenticity05:25 Synchronous vs. asynchronous environments07:21 What are some ways we can make this virtual environment work for effectiveness?09:48 Do you have some tips as far as, are there two or three things that come to the forefront of your mind? I think many people haven’t thought about wait time or down time in a virtual domain. Can you give an example or two of where someone might get off the ground trying this?12:16 What are your thoughts about how we can facilitate, encourage, and coach that engagement in our learners in a virtual environment?12:52 What is netiquette? 13:47 How does the netiquette feed into this engagement of learners?16:30 Free collaborative tools available: Google
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Diversity in Blood Supply
06/03/2020 Duration: 26minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro 01:00 What exactly do you mean when you say, diversity in blood supply, and why does that matter?02:15 Are you saying that there might be differences in blood among different ethnic groups? 02:50 If we only issued O- blood to everyone, would we still need diversity in blood supply?04:25 You mentioned a hemolytic reaction, so if I have a friend or family member going in for a surgery, do I need to call up the blood bank and talking to them and demanding something? Or what should I be looking for to make sure they won’t have one of those reactions?07:51 Some of the patients that are going to be receiving multiple blood products throughout their lifetime, might be the people that matching is more important for? What types of characteristics do these patients have? 11:11 What happens if one of the patients that needs a special unit of blood comes in from a bad car accidents and we don’t have that blood on the shelf? 14:00 Is there some sort of barrier that needs to be overcome to he
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The Littlest Things in Life - The Burning Sensations of Love: Let's Talk STDs (Part 1)
14/02/2020 Duration: 28minTime Stamps00:00 Podcast Intro 01:08 Introduction of Stacey Rizza, M.D.01:50 What is the natural course of HIV if left untreated, and what effects would it have on the body? 03:41 So given those numbers then, who should be tested for HIV?04:32 How should HIV be treated?05:29 Do people living with HIV then when they are on therapy need any additional, special kind of care?06:44 So if someone who’s living with HIV is actually receiving the treatment and doing everything they should be doing, will the disease naturally shorten their life?07:28 Now given that we’re talking about sexually transmitted diseases, is it safe for a person with HIV to have unprotected sex?09:57 Given those conversations, is that usually how it goes when people ask how HIV can be prevented, or is there more to it?11:59 Another thing that’s coming out every month or so we hear about the new technological advances towards a cure for HIV, so how are we doing on that? Is HIV curable? 13:35 So one of the things that comes up fairly frequentl