Podcasts are an extremely popular form of entertainment, particularly among younger audiences, with Statista survey results showing that over half of 12-34 year-olds listen to podcasts on at least a monthly basis. Podcasts can be a great way to pass the time during a commute, on a road trip, while going for a walk, and more. They are certainly meant to be engaging and entertaining, but many are also meant to be informative. In fact, AccessMedicine (an educational database available through HSLS) contains several podcasts that are of interest to a health sciences audience!
Harrison’s Podclass is hosted by Charles Wiener, MD, and Cathy Handy, MD, both from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. They provide discussions on key principles of internal medicine using board-style case vignettes from Harrison’s Self Assessment and Board Review. The podcast’s episodes are typically only around five minutes long, making them ideal for slotting into a lecture or for a quick listen between classes.
Run the List is a podcast designed particularly for medical students and new residents and is hosted by a team from medical schools and hospitals nationwide. Similar to Harrison’s Podclass, the focus is on internal medicine. However, Run the List episodes are a bit longer at around 20 to 30 minutes. They cover diagnosis, management, and clinical pearls for common internal medicine scenarios.
The Symptom to Diagnosis Podcast (S2D) is, similarly, a case-based discussion of signs, symptoms, and diagnostic tests aimed at improving clinical reasoning and evidence-based practice. It is hosted by Scott Stern, MD, and Adam Cifu, MD, from the University of Chicago School of Medicine. S2D episodes average about 25 to 35 minutes in length and are focused on particular symptoms like chest pain or dizziness.
You may wish to listen to these podcasts just to learn more about a particular topic, but you can also use them as study tools or, if you are an instructor, assign them to students for discussion. The AccessMedicine platform makes sharing episodes easy! You can share a durable URL to a particular episode or even create a custom clip with its own durable URL. Transcripts are also available for all materials, and you can set up an alert to be notified when new episodes are added.
To view the podcasts, start at hsls.pitt.edu and click on Databases A-Z under “Resources.” Under “A,” find and select “AccessMedicine.” Once AccessMedicine is open, select “Multimedia” from the top navigation menu. The above podcasts are all listed under this tab.
Whether you haven’t yet delved into the world of podcasts or you’re a practiced listener with dozens of subscriptions in your personal library; whether you’re a first-year student or a seasoned faculty member — consider checking out one of the podcasts available through AccessMedicine. You may learn something new!
For questions or assistance about the AccessMedicine podcasts, please contact Ask a Librarian.
~Kelsey Cowles