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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Special 'Patient Perspective' Feature: This Sunday (Jan. 17)

In November, 'Rounds' co-host Lakshman Swamy and a group of second year medical students from the Boonshoft School of Medicine visited the Haslinger Family Pediatric Palliative Care Center at Akron Children's Hospital (above), in Akron, Ohio. While at the Center, they met and spoke with numerous patients, families, and physicians... and this Sunday (January 17, 12 p.m. ET), we will air a moving bedside interview with a patient named Brandon, his mother, and his physician.

Brandon is 14 years old and has neuroblastoma, a form of brain cancer. He describes with inspiring perspective his diagnosis and his life, and we hope you're able to tune in to hear what is an incredibly moving story. This will be the first in a unique upcoming documentary series featuring the patients from the Haslinger Center.

The stories are stunning and emotional, and we want to thank Dr. Sarah Friebert and the staff at the Haslinger Center for their support and for their willingness to take us -- and all of you -- inside their walls so that we can share these powerful stories. Again, we'll air our interview with Brandon this Sunday, January 17 at 12 p.m. ET, and the episode will also feature the continuation of our Residency series -- as we will hear from another residency director from around the nation.

Also planned for this episode -- we will unveil our new website! Want a sneak peak? Check out www.radiorounds.org

Meet the Hosts

Avash Kalra is a medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He is a 2005 graduate of Cornell University, where he majored in Psychology. Before starting medical school, Avash worked for one year at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland, where he conducted research on lifespan extension. He then worked for one year as a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Avash was born in England and lived there for 11 years. He spends his free time working as a staff writer for an NCAA hockey website. Over time, he has developed unhealthy obsessions with college hockey, poker, and the Dave Matthews Band. His favorite television shows include Lost, 24, Dexter, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He is now an avid reader... of medical textbooks. He frequently points out that he has "the perfect face for radio." And -- as you'll discover -- he likes puns.

Lakshman Swamy is a medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He is a 2005 graduate of the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH, where he self-designed the Neuroscience major. Before joining medical school, Lakshman worked for two years in the Trapp lab at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation as a lab technician working with multiple sclerosis.

Lakshman is a young gentleman in the MD/MBA program at Wright State, and accordingly, his favorite character on Scrubs is Dr. Kelso. He has an eclectic taste in music, loves audiobooks -- especially mysteries -- and watches 24, M*A*S*H, and Battlestar Galactica. Yes, two of those shows have run their final season -- he is also constantly behind the times. He has NO idea what he wants to do with his life, but he is sure it will involve turning down the position of Surgeon General for bigger and better things.

Shamie Das is an MD/MBA dual degree student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He graduated from Emory University in 2004 as a dual major in Biology and Sociology. He went on to earn his Masters Degree in Public Health in 2007 from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. As a graduate student, he also performed bench research in Molecular and Cell Biology at the Emory University School of Medicine. In his free time during college, Shamie volunteered as an EMT-Intermediate and went on to become certified as a Paramedic.

Shamie was born in England and soon after moved to the US. In his free time he enjoys photography, traveling and fine cuisine. A few of his life goals are to visit every continent and climb Everest. An avid extremist, Shamie enjoys leaping out of perfectly good airplanes, white water rafting and jumping headfirst into gorges. Recently engaged, he also spends countless hours on the phone with his fiancée. His favorite authors include Hemingway, Frost, and Crichton (and of course Robbins). Television is a thing of the past in his current life, but occasionally he still watches PBS and listens to NPR and (of course) Radio Rounds.