Session 64

In today’s episode, Ryan talks with Dr. Ginger Campbell, host of the Brain Science Podcast. Presently, Ginger is also an ER doctor in Alabama. Aside from talking about her awesome podcast, Ginger also shares her experiences relating to her path into medicine, some challenges, and her golden nuggets of wisdom for new and upcoming doctors.

Here are the highlights of the conversation with Ginger:

The early beginnings in Ginger’s path to medicine:

• Analog computing as one of her favorite classes
• Engineering as a great background for going into medicine
• Meeting her husband and moving to Birmingham
• Getting exposed to a physiology class that made her want to do research
• Taking her master’s in biomedical engineering
• Going to the University of Alabama – School of Medicine
• Got an early decision

Medical school application back then:

• GPA
• Not as competitive in terms of scores

Old students and women in medical school:

BAKKE Case – lawsuit related to age discrimination which was settled in favor of a middle-aged guy who wanted to go to medical school. Medical schools were then opening slots to older people.

Title XI as another great factor for more women in medical school; 1/3 of Ginger’s class was composed of women

The hardest part of medical school:

Memorization – Ginger almost flunked in anatomy

One bad advice her premed advisor gave her:

Not to take classes that were like what they would have in medical school

Ginger’s road to medicine:

• Taking her internship
• Leaving medicine after internship and and getting her license and taught biomedical engineering for 3 1/2 years to make way for her love of softball
• Getting burnt out in medical school
• Loving patient care but hating the medical center atmosphere
• Going back to residency in family medicine
• Doing a pediatric rotation with a family practitioner
• Ending up in the ER as originally planned

On the Brain Science Podcast:

• Running for 7 years now
• Been on the top of the medicine page of iTunes since 2007
• Its goal is for people to get accurate information about neural science
• Diverse audience with 10-20% of listeners are physicians or PhD’s

The importance of not talking down to patients:

Translate our jargon into normal English terms

Get a feel of her show and listen to Episode 102 of the Brain Science Podcast for free. Ginger suggests listening to Episode 32 ($1.00) and Episode 8 ($1.00). They do cost a dollar to listen to now (anything older than 25 episode ago), but they are definitely worth it.

She also recommends many of her episodes from her Books and Ideas Podcast.

Some pieces of advice for premed students:

1. Don’t do it for the money.
2. Make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into.
3. Spend time with doctors and know what’s really like and shadow physicians.
4. Once you know this is what you really want to do then do whatever it takes.
5. If you’re attracted to medicine but unsure if you want to be a physician, check out the other areas like physical therapy.

Links and Other Resources:

The Premed Years Podcast Session 063: PA to DO – What Route Should YOU Take and Questions to Ask

Brain Science Podcast episode mentions:

Episode 102: Dangers of Diagnostic Inflation with Dr. Allen Frances

Episode 8: How Neurons Communicate

Episode 32: A Brief Introduction to Brain Anatomy

Books and Ideas Podcast

Interviews with:

Paul Offit from the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia on Vaccine Safety

Robert Martensen

Follow Ginger on Twitter @docartemis

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