Pomegranate Health

Welcome to Pomegranate Health, a podcast about the culture of medicine. You’ll hear clinicians, academics and advocates discuss some big questions; How to difficult clinical and ethical decisions free from cognitive bias? How can communication with patients and peers be improved? And how to deliver healthcare most equitably and efficiently?
This is also the home of [IMJ On-Air], where authors from the College's Internal Medicine Journal present their work. [Journal Club] showcases RACP academics published in other journals. Meanwhile, the [Case Report] series is developed to guide Basic Physician Trainees on presentation of long-cases at their examinations.
Why a pomegranate? The fruit has featured on the coat of arms of the Royal College of Physicians of London since 1546. Listen here for the unlikely tale of how it made its way from ancient myth onto this podcast by way of Henry VIII.
Please continue the discussion in the comments section for each episode and send any feedback or ideas to podcast@racp.edu.au
Subscribe
Search for ‘Pomegranate Health’ in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox or any podcasting app. For some apps you may need to import . It also provides a single page you can search for topics that might interest you in specific podcast episodes. You can also sign up for an email alert when a new episode is published about once a month.
CPD
At each episode page there is a MyCPD link for Fellows to log hours of participation in a Category 1 Educational activity. Consider "levelling up" this experience into a Category 2 Performance Review activity. For example, you could organise peers into a journal club to discuss the podcast. This could be done in person, or virtually. Reflect on aspects of the story that relate to your own practice and how it could be improved and visit MyCPD Handbook for further guidance or discussion templates.
Latest episodes
Ep92: Data-driven practice improvement
The field known as Practice Analytics seeks to provide clinicians with a bird’s eye view of their case load and performance. This can draw attention to cases that stood out from the trend and help reflection and practice improvement.
[IMJ On-Air] Hyperglycaemia and COVID-19
In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, international studies showed that pre-existing diabetes conferred a significant mortality risk. Researchers have retrospectively examined electronic medical records in two Melbourne health services to find no such association.
[Guest Lecture] What we know about long COVID
ADAPT is a prospective cohort study that has been following up COVID-19 patients on various different outcome measures. This has allowed researchers to identify potential physiological and immunological signals that distinguish people who experience long COVID.
[IMJ On-Air] Making sense of HACs
Hospital-acquired complications are assumed to be preventable and to provide some metric of quality of care. But HACs may be more strongly associated with patient-related factors than they are with deviation from best practice.
[IMJ On-Air] Managing cannabinoid use in palliative care
Patients in palliative care settings may be more inclined than most to complementary and alternative medicines, including cannabinoid products. But they are also more vulnerable to side effects given impairments to their drug metabolism and clearance mechanisms.
[IMJ On-Air] Recent advances in asthma management
This is the first episode of a new format featuring authors and editors of the Internal Medicine Journal. In this episode we have leading respiratory physicians from the Royal Melbourne Hospital presenting current best practice in the diagnosis and treatment of severe asthma.
Ep85: The ASD Odyssey- a reply
Despite guideline recommendations for assessment and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders there are drivers in the health system that dissuade clinicians from implementing these. These include reimbursement and training in the area of developmental disorders.
Ep84: The ASD Odyssey
Autism spectrum disorder is often diagnosed late in Australia due to gaps in developmental surveillance and long waitlists for diagnostic evaluations. This podcast discusses a national guideline intended to streamline this process.
Ep83: Loving Medicine Again
We continue the theme of responding to burnout by getting some of advice from doctors turned career coaches. We also hear from a respected occupational physician, and a listener with an simple message to raise morale between colleagues.