Pomegranate Health
Welcome to Pomegranate Health — a podcast about the culture of medicine.
Pomegranate Health is celebrating 10 Years of Conversations. Take a listen to this sampler of highlights from the 132 episode back catalogue covering all the themes of professional practice.
Pomegranate Health is a podcast about the culture of medicine. You'll hear insights from clinicians, researchers, and advocates as they tackle important questions — like how to make difficult clinical and ethical decisions without being influenced by bias, how to communicate better with patients and colleagues, and how to provide healthcare that’s both efficient and fair.
If you're a Fellow of the RACP, time spent listening can be counted toward your CPD hours. And if you're a Basic Physician Trainee, the [Case Report] series can help you prepare for your long case clinical exams.
This is also the home of [IMJ On-Air], featuring authors from the Internal Medicine Journal sharing their latest research. Plus, the [Journal Club] episodes give RACP researchers a space to talk through their work published in other academic journals.
We’d love to hear your thoughts — feel free to leave a comment on each episode or send feedback and ideas to podcast@racp.edu.au.
Latest episodes
Ep32: Diagnostic Error Part 1—Cognitive Bias
This is the first of two episodes about errors in diagnostic reasoning. Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis occurs in 10-15 per cent of acute presentations, although fortunately only a tenth of these lead to serious consequences. But of concern is the fact that this figure hasn’t changed in three decades, despite progress in clinical knowledge. Cognitive errors result from jumping to conclusions on the basis of intuition and incomplete information. There are a hundred different types of such bias. On this episode, the most common types will be discussed, as well as strategies to force a more considered process of diagnostic reasoning.
Ep31: Ngā Kaitiaki Hauora
‘Ngā Kaitiaki Hauora’ translates as ‘guardians of health’. This podcast emerged from a meeting near Auckland organised by the RACP’s Māori Health Committee in November 2017. Members of various medical colleges and institutions came together to share perspectives on the delivery of health care to New Zealand’s population of Māori and Pacific Islander people. This conversation comes in the context of the Wai 262 claim, which is forcing a re-examination of the Crown’s obligations to the Māori population under the Waitangi Treaty of 1840.
Ep30: Being Human
Figures about burnout, depression and suicide are often reported on in the health workforce. These rates are typically twofold higher than they are in the general population, according to studies from New Zealand, Australia and around the world. Causes often given for psychiatric distress in the medical profession are the gruelling hours, the pressure of perfection, the unforgiving culture and the stigma associated with mental health issues. This episode examines how the system affects the individuals within it, and what can be changed for the better.
Ep29: Drug Interactions and Deprescribing
Drug-drug interactions might be responsible for a million hospitalisations in Australia every year. They have become more frequent over the decades, as more medications reach the market. More than half of people over the age of 75 are on five or more prescriptions—a state referred to as polypharmacy. This episode examines some of the systems that have led to current rates of polypharmacy, and some strategies for deprescribing. We also discuss a review from the Internal Medicine Journal on the common drug interactions physicians should be most concerned about.
Ep28: Transitions to Fellowship
Transitioning from trainee to consultant marks an exciting and daunting and step in a clinician’s career. Suddenly you take on responsibility for everyone on the ward—both patients and other staff. While the clinical skills have been hammered in over years of training, the ‘hidden curriculum’ can be harder to pick up. This episode captures the experience of striking out as a leader, manager and mentor to others. At the same time, recognising limitations and knowing when and how to seek help is all important.
Ep27: Severe Asthma
For years the management model for asthma has been empirical. The more serious the disease, the more the dose of controller therapy is increased. But this doesn’t work for everyone and a more rational approach involves identifying one of three distinct pathological pathways. This episode describes emerging diagnostic tools therapies such as monoclonal antibodies that are targeted to specific disease phenotypes.
Ep26: Dealing with Uncertainty – Part 2
Uncertainty is a frightening but unavoidable fact in every speciality. In the second of a two-part series, we look at the stigma and disorientation experienced by patients with medically unexplained syndromes, and some behavioural interventions for functional disorders. Since treatment outcomes are never guaranteed, we also discuss how a patient’s expectations must be managed from the beginning of a consultation, and the importance of long-term coping strategies.
Ep25: Dealing with Uncertainty – Part 1
Uncertainty is a frightening but unavoidable fact in every speciality. In the first of a two-part series, we examine the culture within the profession and general public that expects nothing less that perfection in medicine. We also ask whether hospital training might shelter younger doctors from the experience of complex, chronic conditions, and how much the simplicity of protocol can be relied upon.
Ep24: Social Medicine – Themes from Congress 2017
At May’s RACP Congress, there was great interest in sessions examining the moral obligations physicians have to society. On this episode of Pomegranate, three speakers from these panels reflect on some of the themes raised at the event.
Ep23: Managing Autism in the ED
People with autism spectrum disorder can become very agitated when experiencing pain, as they often have trouble making sense of their own emotional and physical states. Many also have difficulty communicating, and are thus difficult to assess in the emergency department. This episode covers techniques to calm distressed patients with autism and make medical assessments.