‘Cardiac Consult’ Breaks the Sound Barrier: Introducing a New Cleveland Clinic Podcast

Is there any media format as well suited to peer-to-peer exchange on healthcare topics as the podcast? Expert clinicians interview each other on virtually any issue, feeding off one another’s knowledge and thoughts for the benefit of countless listeners who take in the insights at their utter convenience — while walking the dog or whipping up dinner.

This is what made a clinician-targeted podcast irresistible to Cleveland Clinic’s Miller Heart & Vascular Institute, prompting the September 2018 launch of “Cardiac Consult,” a new regular podcast series for cardiovascular physicians produced by Cleveland Clinic. As detailed on the podcast’s webpage, you can subscribe to “Cardiac Consult” for free wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and more.

“This is a dream project for any cardiovascular physician who’s passionate about current topics in his or her specialty,” says Cleveland Clinic Cardiovascular Medicine Chair Steven Nissen, MD, one of a handful of regular hosts of “Cardiac Consult” podcast episodes. “I get to engage my colleagues about emerging, practice-shaping or controversial issues in their areas of subspecialty expertise. What more could a physician want to keep current and keep curious?”

And what more could a listener want than an expert like Dr. Nissen asking the questions — and follow-up questions — most likely to be on cardiovascular physicians’ minds? “The episodes we’ve recorded so far have been rich exchanges, where I bring real-world practice and research concerns to the questions I ask the expert I’m hosting,” he says. “We both end up learning a lot — and I expect listeners do too.”

Joining Dr. Nissen as regular “Cardiac Consult” episode hosts will be A. Marc Gillinov, MD, Chair of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, and vascular surgeon Lee Kirksey, MD. Additional Cleveland Clinic staff will serve as occasional guest hosts.

Episodes are generally 15 to 20 minutes long and will focus on everything from trends in health technology to impactful or controversial trials to clinical practice challenges to updates on new developments in a given subspecialty. Initial episodes include:

• “Digital Health: The Joys and Challenges of New Technology in Clinical Practice” with electrophysiologist Khaldoun Tarakji, MD, Director of the Heart & Vascular Institute’s Center for Digital Health Technologies
• “Research: Putting Ideas into Action” with interventional cardiologist Michael Lincoff, MD, Director of Cleveland Clinic’s C5Research academic research organization
• “Catheter Ablation vs Antiarrhythmic Drug Therapy in Atrial Fibrillation: CABANA – What Did We Learn?” with electrophysiologists Oussama Wazni, MD, and Bruce Lindsay, MD

Occasional special episodes will be offered, such as the currently available panel discussion on cardiovascular effects of the opioid crisis from Cleveland Clinic’s recent Multidisciplinary Master Class in Endocarditis.

New podcast episodes will generally be added on a weekly basis. Check them out here.