Explore the Pomegranate Health Podcast library
Browse all episodes below, starting with the most recent releases.
Latest episodes
Ep143: On the ground with MSF
MSF has projects in more than 70 countries that affected by natural disasters, armed conflict or disease outbreaks. We hear from two physicians about what it’s like to be involved with the organisation and how to fit assignments in with a career path back home.
Ep140: Space Medicine Part 1- radiation and retinopathy
By the early 2030s, NASA will be building a permanent base on the moon, and Elon Musk reckons he’ll be sending people to Mars. Among the many risks of prolonged space-travel are exposure to cosmic radiation and the many effects of microgravity on the body.
Ep130: "The motherhood penalty"
Female representation over to more senior stages of a medical career suffers from a “leaky pipeline”. A major factor in this is the time taken out to raise children but there are practical interventions that can be implemented and biases than need overturning.
Ep128: Brushing off the cobwebs
Taking long breaks from medicine for can lead to loss of skills and confidence. Simulation training is an effective way to brush off the cobwebs before returning to practice.
Ep58: Billing Part 2—Compliance and the Free Market
Almost 500 million Medicare rebates are processed every year and for the most part these are claimed appropriately. But non-compliant billing could be costing the health system over 2 billion dollars annually. The vast majority of this comes down to lack of education about the MBS. Department of Health has an elaborate, and sometimes controversial way of identifying misuse of the system. Government regulation also influences the market for private medical fees as does supply and demand of certain specialties.
Ep56: Billing in Byzantium
Australia has one of the best value health systems in the world, but also some of the most complicated health regulation that ties together public and private payers. This creates some traps for well-intentioned providers and loopholes for the less well-intentioned.
Ep55: Starting out in Private Practice
When doctors are starting out in private practice, they typically do so within the safety net of an established practice, and typically renting a room in exchange for an agreed portion of the consultation. The next levels of complexity involve setting up a business for oneself, or partnering in a group practice. In this podcast we discuss the personal and financial challenges, and also how to build awareness and trust in the community.
Ep50: Rural Medicine in NZ- Congress 2019
In this episode we hear three perspectives on rural medicine in New Zealand-Aotearoa, recorded at the RACP Congress in Auckland. New Zealand doesn’t have the same extremes of remoteness of Australia, but it does have a rugged landscape that results in small and scattered communities. The populations which are disproportionately under-serviced and in worse health, are not necessarily the most remote, and the demarcations fall much more starkly along lines of socioeconomic status.
Ep49: Training in the Bush Part 2—Remote WA
Remote settings in Australia only have 11 percent as many specialists per capita as major cities and this means that pathology is often more advanced by the time it’s diagnosed The medicine can be confronting but the training experience is great and rewarding. In this episode we visit Broome, two and a half thousand kilometres from tertiary facilities in WA, and find out what it’s like to train as a generalist up there.
Ep48: Training in the Bush Part 1—Country NSW
A third of Australia’s population is classified as regional or remote, but as it’s such a big place it’s hard to provide comprehensive heath care all over. In this episode we visit the country town of Dubbo which services a catchment of 130,000 people across Western NSW. While need in this area is high, Dubbo presents an example of strong clinical leadership and training across many specialties.