History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training

H&PHistory & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training is a discussion with students, clinicians and thought leaders at the forefront of medicine. At a time when the role of the physician, the landscape of the health care system, and the impact of technology on patient care are rapidly evolving, History & Physical aspires to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a medical student of the 21st century?”

In medicine, every patient contact begins with the history and physical: an evaluation of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed. With History & Physical, we bring that same diagnostic lens to medical education and the health care system itself.

If you are interested in contributing to History & Physical, please contact us at editorinchief@in-training.org.

History & Physical on iTunes

An Introduction to History & Physical


In this podcast episode, in-Training editor Amelia Mackarey has a conversation with Sarah Epstein, a marriage and family therapy intern and author of “Love in the Time of Medical School,” about managing relationships in medical school.

We recently chatted with Sanjay Sharma, MD, MSc (Epid), MBA, professor of ophthalmology at Queen’s University and founder of MEDSKL, about trends in medical education and how MEDSKL can be used to improve your educational experience.

Wearable technology is booming right now, Jawbone Up, Fuelbands, Fitbits, and even Samsung getting into the market. But what about medical wearables? Is there space for technology that creates continuous streams of clinical-grade data that health care professionals can utilize? And how can medical students get into that entrepreneurial space? We recently chatted with Raj Gokal, entrepreneur in residence at Rock Health, co-founder of Sano Intelligence, for the second in our five-part series about entrepreneurship.

This episode is the first in a series on entrepreneurship in medicine. Our guest Shiv Gaglani is a student at both the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Harvard Business School. His ventures include the medical education company Osmosis and site Quantified Care. He’s also editor at Medgadget, a blog about medical technology. We sat down with him and picked his brain about what it’s like to fill gaps in medical education, be a medical student and entrepreneur, and more.

There’s a lot going on social media regarding sharing information, discussion and, most importantly, authorship. The typical notion of publication in medicine — getting an article or paper in a prestigious journal with high impact factor — is falling to the wayside as the democratization of information renders researchers, physicians and medical students more accessible. We had a chance to talk with Ajay Major and Aleena Paul, two enterprising medical students from Albany Medical College, on how they are contributing to that movement. The duo are the founders and editors-in-chief of in-Training, our collaborators for this podcast, and are bent on creating a space online where medical student voices can be heard.

As the health care landscape evolves in the coming years, how will academic medicine adapt? And what do these tectonic shifts in health policy mean for medical students? This week on History & Physical, we’re joined by Dr. Atul Grover, the Chief Public Policy Officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Dr. Grover leads the public policy, strategy and outreach efforts that advance the work of the academic medicine community. He talks about the pact made between the government and academic medical centers to support medical graduate training, why so much innovation can come from medical colleges, and what students can do to advocate for their future.

As medicine moves into the 21st century, how will medical education adapt? Also, what is digital literacy, and what does it mean for the physician of tomorrow? Today, we have Dr. Bryan Vartabedian from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. When he’s not doing scopes as a pediatric gastroenterologist, Dr. Vartabedian blogs about the intersection of medicine and technology at 33Charts and can be found on Twitter at @Doctor_V.

What is it like being a superstar comedian in medicine, recovering from burnout, and starting a new model of health care delivery in Las Vegas? More importantly, what do Gangnam Style and Tupac Shakur have to do with medicine? I had a chance to sit down with Dr. Zubin Damania, a former hospitalist, comedian and rapper at ZDoggMD, and now co-founder of Turntable Health, a new revolution in health care delivery.

This week, History & Physical sits down with Dr. Cranquis, who has been called the “grandfather of the Tumblr ‘medblr’ community,” and is the dean of the Princeton-Medbloro Teaching Hospital, the first Tumblr-based residency program. Dr. Cranquis is an urgent care physician and blogs about his experiences on Dr. Cranquis’ Mumbled Gripes. In this podcast, we spoke with Dr. Cranquis about the medical community on Tumblr, humor in medicine, and social media as a means of communication, coping and camaraderie for medical students.

This week on History & Physical, Kevin Wang interviews Dr. Danielle Ofri. Dr. Ofri is the author of The New York Times best-seller “What Doctors Feel,” editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review, contributor to The New York Times, associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, and internist at Bellevue Hospital.

An introductory podcast to History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training, hosted by Kevin Wang, Roheet Kakaday and Amol Utrankar.

Kevin Wang (9 Posts)

Host of History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training and in-Training Staff Member

Johns Hopkins University


Kevin is an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University currently conducting quality improvement and patient safety research at Columbia University Medical Center.

History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training

History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training is a discussion with students, clinicians and thought leaders at the forefront of medicine. At a time when the role of the physician, the landscape of the health care system, and the impact of technology on patient care are rapidly evolving, History & Physical aspires to answer the question, "What does it mean to be a medical student of the 21st century?"


Roheet Kakaday Roheet Kakaday (8 Posts)

Host of History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training and in-Training Staff Member

Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine


Roheet Kakaday is an MD candidate at the OHSU School of Medicine. He blogs at The Biopsy, leads Lead on Admit, an admissions consulting company, and is a student advisor at Stanford University Medicine X. His writing on the intersection of medicine and technology has been featured around the web and he has deep interests in design, technology, and how the two will augment medical care.

In the past, he attended the University of California, San Diego where he earned a degree in bioengineering with area studies in political science and history, volunteered in terrorist-controlled regions of rural India, helped spearhead an award winning health literacy program for the underserved, dual-wielded micropipettes in the name of science, and supported health care teams in critical care settings.

History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training

History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training is a discussion with students, clinicians and thought leaders at the forefront of medicine. At a time when the role of the physician, the landscape of the health care system, and the impact of technology on patient care are rapidly evolving, History & Physical aspires to answer the question, "What does it mean to be a medical student of the 21st century?"


Amol Utrankar Amol Utrankar (9 Posts)

Host of History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training, Former Twitter Social Media Manager (2014), and Former Undergraduate Guest Writer (2014)

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine


Amol Utrankar is a member of the Class of 2018 at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He studied economics and sociology at Rice University. Beyond the classroom, he conducts health systems and volunteers as an emergency medical technician. Amol is working towards a future as a physician-social scientist at the intersection of health services research and policy advocacy.

History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training

History & Physical: The Official Medical Student Podcast of in-Training is a discussion with students, clinicians and thought leaders at the forefront of medicine. At a time when the role of the physician, the landscape of the health care system, and the impact of technology on patient care are rapidly evolving, History & Physical aspires to answer the question, "What does it mean to be a medical student of the 21st century?"