Genre Medical Talk Show Country United States Created by Avash Kalra Recording studio Dayton | Running time 30 min Language(s) English First episode date 12 April 2009 Home stations WYSO, WWSU | |
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Hosted by Avash Kalra
Lakshman Swamy
John Corker
Sam Roberto
Teresa Lee | ||
Radio Rounds is a medical radio talk show produced and hosted entirely by medical students.
Contents
With an official tagline stating "Today's Stories / Tomorrow's Doctors" and targeting an audience that includes the general public, medical students, and physicians, Radio Rounds is the first radio program in the United States produced entirely by medical students.
Created in 2008 by medical student Avash Kalra and founded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by Kalra, Lakshman Swamy, and Shamie Das, Radio Rounds premiered on April 12, 2009. Since that time, Radio Rounds has featured over 100 guests, including Pulitzer Prize winners, decorated global health workers, and even a former U.S presidential candidate. By hosting guests such as world-renowned physician and author Rachel Naomi Remen and NBA Team Physician of the Year Brian Cole (Chicago Bulls), the show has focused on showcasing qualities of medicine such as humanism and empathy and has created a dialogue about the practice of medicine from different perspectives.
Radio Rounds airs every Sunday afternoon from 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET, via live streaming audio on the program's website, and on National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate station WYSO 91.3FM. Free podcasts of each episode are also available on iTunes, and those can be accessed via the show's website, www.radiorounds.org, or by searching the iTunes Store for "Radio Rounds."
History
Radio Rounds was founded in 2008, and after several months of preparation and marketing, the program premiered on April 12, 2009.
With medical students Avash Kalra and Lakshman Swamy as the original hosts, the premiere episode broke the all-time WWSU record for online listenership, and the show was subsequently featured in a front page story of the following week's The Guardian, Wright State University's student newspaper. A transcribed interview with Kalra and Swamy was later published in the Spring/Summer 2009 edition of Vital Signs, a magazine produced for the Boonshoft School of Medicine. In it, Kalra explained his motivation for wanting to create the show, saying,
"Part of the culture of medicine involves medical students listening to and learning from mentors. So, we thought, why not do something like that on a weekly basis, but in a fun and engaging way?"
Added Swamy,
"Doctors seem to appreciate the idea of talking about medicine, creating a dialog about what makes the practice of health care so unique. This idea is one of the core visions of the project—to create a forum for the discussion of physicianhood itself."
Season Two of Radio Rounds premiered on August 9, 2009. The second season of Radio Rounds, which featured a lineup of accomplished physician-authors, concluded on December 6, 2009 with a special interview with Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tracy Kidder. Another Season Two highlight was a unique live-audience talk show at a regional American Medical Students Association conference, in which Kalra, Swamy, and Das interviewed U.S. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky.
Season Three of Radio Rounds consisted of 13 episodes in the late winter and early spring of 2010. The third season of the show also marked the debut of host John Corker, a medical student at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine.
Season Four of the program premiered in August 2010 and included several landmark moments, including the celebration of the show's 50th episode. In addition, the cast of hosts expanded to include medical students Teresa Lee, Adam Deardorff, John Mark Mclain, and Casey McCluskey. In addition, Yojan Patel joined the Radio Rounds team as a producer of the show.
Seasons Five and Six aired in 2011, and Season Seven is scheduled to premiere in January 2012.
Format
Each episode of the show is 30 minutes and features an interview with at least one special guest, either live in the studio or via telephone. Guests include physicians, medical school admissions directors, students in different stages of their medical education, and other health care leaders.
Beginning with Episode 412 (i.e. the 12th episode of Season Four), the show began opening with a short "teaser clip" of the episode's featured guest. The structure of the program has evolved over time but traditionally features three segments: a short "intro," the featured interview, and an "outro" in which the hosts discuss topics related to the interview.
Beginning with its 11th episode, which aired on August 23, 2009, Radio Rounds began opening with a new theme song, entitled "Rounding on the Radio." The song is performed by Robert Mikan, Meera Menon, Cole Budinsky and Kevin Gulley—all medical students at the Boonshoft School of Medicine.
An additional feature that was included during Season Three episodes was a weekly "Residency Insights" segment, featuring short interview clips with residency program directors from around the country. This feature was added by the show's production team in order to give medical students additional exposure to future career possibilities.
Other interactive features of the show have included a mystery diagnosis "case of the week," medical headlines, live listener emails, website polls, and a song of the week.
Guests
Guests during the first six seasons of the show have included: