peerspectrum Medicine, Podcast

The Business of Risk with Gen. Stanley McChrystal

Images courtesy of Penguin Random House and The McChrystal Group

Today we’re excited and honored to have with us, retired US Army General Stanley McChrystal. A retired four-star general with 34 years of service, Stanley was the commander of all US and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. Prior to this, he served as commander of JSOC or the Joint Special Operations Command, overseeing the US military’s most elite units including Delta Force and SEAL Team 6. According to journalist Sean Naylor, in his Book, Relentless Strike, McChrystal was, “the general whose vision and intensity transformed JSOC into a global man-hunting machine.” His tenure included the capture of Saddam Hussein and the killing infamous terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Today Stanley is founder and CEO of the McChrystal Group, a strategic consulting firm. He is also a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a course on Leadership. His books include, My Share of the Task, Team of Teams, Leadership- Myths and Realities and his newest book that we’ll be discussing today, Risk. A Users Guide.

I’m really proud of how this conversation came out. It was a lot of fun and we hope you enjoy. With that said, let’s get started.

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peerspectrum Medicine, Podcast

Trading Places. Do Doctors Make Better Patients? MIT Economist, Jonathan Gruber, PhD.

Name: Jonathan Gruber, PhD

Location: Cambridge, MA. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Specialty: Economist. Public Policy Advisor.

All right welcome back. If you could pick the ideal patient population, armed with the best knowledge, fluent in medical jargon, generally healthy and willing to comply with recommended treatments, who would you pick? How about doctors? Doctors may not be perfect patients but at least they should outperform similar non-clinicians, right?

Surprisingly, little to no research has actually been done comparing the care, compliance and outcomes of doctors to comparable groups of non- physicians. For reasons we’ll soon see, this is actually a difficult question to tackle, but it’s a very important question with broader implications.

Today’s guest is MIT economist, Jonathan Gruber. He recently co-authored a study using a unique data source to examine just how good doctors and their family members are when they find themselves in the patient seat. Spoiler alert, obviously if the results aren’t surprising, we probably would not be here talking about it.

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peerspectrum Medicine, Podcast

Who Does Delta Force Call When They Need a Doctor? Former Navy SEAL, Dr. Robert Adams: Part II

robert adams- navy seal- peerspectrum

“[He told me] there’s going to be a bomb placed in your conference site,”… “I am alive today because a good doctor decided to turn in his brother, the bad doctor.”

-Robert Adams, MD

Name: Robert Adams, MD, MBA

Location: Raleigh-Durham, NC. UNC Health System

Specialty: Primary Care/ Family Medicine.

All right, welcome back for round two with former Navy SEAL, Dr. Robert Adams. If you missed part one, go back and check it out. In Part II we move forward to Bob’s career as an army physician. We’re going to learn what it’s like being a physician attached to the Army’s elite counter terrorism and hostage rescue unit, known as Delta Force. A unit so secretive that even family members of Delta operators are treated by separate physicians.

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peerspectrum Medicine, Podcast

The Toughest Doctor We’ve Ever Met. Former Navy SEAL, Dr. Robert Adams: Part I

robert adams- navy seal- peerspectrum

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.  -George Orwell

Name: Robert Adams, MD, MBA

Location: Raleigh-Durham, NC. UNC Health System

Specialty: Primary Care/ Family Medicine

Today we’ve got a pretty awesome guest for you. What was once a secret, and very much unknown group of elite US military soldiers, has now become a virtual household name inspiring countless books, news stories and even movies.

While all of you have certainly heard of Navy SEAL’s, very few of you have likely met one. They’re a small, select and rare group. Even rarer are the handful of Navy Seals who have gone on become physicians. Today’s guest is one of these few.

Continue reading “The Toughest Doctor We’ve Ever Met. Former Navy SEAL, Dr. Robert Adams: Part I” →