Coronavirus through a storytelling lens [PODCAST]

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“Come with me on this journey, this very ancient journey.

To experience the age-old story of a very modern foe. This foe is invisible; it is neither living nor dead. You cannot smell it, and you cannot taste it. While it is not alive, it can become alive, with a flick of the right kind of switch. While it is not dead, it can masquerade as the dead, until the perfect moment. This is the journey of the 2019 novel coronavirus.”

Frank Han is a cardiology fellow.

He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, “A journey through time with a very modern foe.”

Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.

Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, welcome to the show, where we share the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. My name is Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD. Today on the show, we have Frank Han. He’s a cardiology fellow about to graduate from a hospital program in Mississippi, and he wrote the KevinMD article “A journey through time with a very modern foe.” Frank, welcome to the show.

Frank Han: Thank you for having me.

Kevin Pho: So we’ll get into your article in a little bit, but I was wondering if you could share your story and tell me your journey to where you are today.

Frank Han: So I moved all around the world and started out as a pediatric resident at the University of Connecticut. I got interested in cardiology because that was the subject that I enjoyed the most in residency, and then became first a pediatric cardiology fellow and then an adult congenital fellow.

Kevin Pho: Wonderful. And how are things with the pandemic? How is it affecting you and your practice?

Frank Han: Our hospital initially closed down most elective procedures and has been filling up at a pretty rapid clip with coronavirus patients. However, now the volume of coronavirus inside the hospital has slowed down a little bit, and we’re trying to get back to normal operations.

Kevin Pho: All right, so let’s get into your KevinMD article, and I love the narrative medicine approach that you took to COVID-19. So I’m going to start by reading an excerpt. You write, “Come with me on this journey, this very ancient journey. To experience the age-old story of a very modern foe. This foe is invisible; it is neither living nor dead. You cannot smell it, and you cannot taste it. While it is not alive, it can become alive, with a flick of the right kind of switch. While it is not dead, it can masquerade as the dead, until the perfect moment. This is the journey of the 2019 novel coronavirus.” I thought that was very poetic. I was wondering if you could tell me the story behind your article and why you decided to write it.

Frank Han: So I noticed, while looking at articles, that there’s a pretty strong anti-science sentiment on the web, and I’ve seen a little bit of it in our patients. So my motivation was to kind of gently guide the viewing public and patients towards more science literacy, using something that’s palatable and not just a boring journal article.

Kevin Pho: And do you have a history of writing stories, and do you use storytelling as part of your approach when you try to educate patients?

Frank Han: I try to do that with my patients, but I’ve never written any story published anywhere, so this would be my first published.

Kevin Pho: All right, fantastic. And I think that this is one of the issues that we’re dealing with, especially as states are reopening. I think there’s a lot of anti-science sentiment. Masks themselves have become politicized. So when you meet patients, whether it’s in a hospital or a clinic, who have doubts about the pandemic, what are some ways that you could convince them of the severity of the situation that we’re in right now?

Frank Han: I go over a couple of points: that we don’t have tools to tell which patients are going to be the ones that are most severely affected versus the ones who are just going to get a bit of a runny nose and a fever. So I advocate the mask as essentially the cheapest and most effective way that people can protect themselves until medications and a vaccine come along. And then I also try to get their perspective and address their specific concerns about the science one by one.

Kevin Pho: Knowing what you know now, is there anything that you wish you knew back then, before the pandemic started?

Frank Han: I think that I would have prepared more for how much doubt among the public there would be in regards to the public health response, and tried to be a little bit more aware of that perspective.

Kevin Pho: I think that’s absolutely true. I think that, especially now with social media, right, people get a lot of their information on Facebook and Twitter, and there’s a lot of bad advice that’s out there, and that advice is being disseminated. And one of the responsibilities, I think, that we have as physicians, especially on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, is really to try to disseminate accurate information and to call out information that’s clearly wrong.

Frank Han: One of the things that I’ve noticed as well is that the science is evolving so rapidly, because what was right a few months ago may not be right today. And I think that not only scientists and doctors but the public is having a hard time grasping that as well.

Kevin Pho: All right, so let’s take a step back. Tell me something that you’ve been curious about, or tell me something that you’ve been passionate about over the last few months.

Frank Han: In our field, I discovered that artificial intelligence is taking more and more of a place in the world of general cardiology and adult congenital cardiology. So I’m going to begin to try and develop a research interest in that area.

Kevin Pho: Fantastic. Can you go into more details, like how is artificial intelligence going to affect your field going forward?

Frank Han: The most direct effect is going to be there in the area of cardiac MRI. So right now, the post-processing of cardiac MRIs is rather labor-intensive with the computer, but there is software in development that is eventually supposed to make that process relatively automated.

Kevin Pho: All right, so you mentioned that you’ll be finishing fellowship soon. So what are your next steps?

Frank Han: I have an attending job in Illinois, so I will be working as a cardiologist in August in pediatrics and adult congenital.

Kevin Pho: All right, best wishes to you. And one of my final questions is, what’s your take-home message for the KevinMD audience?

Frank Han: I think the most important message is to stay safe during the pandemic: Protect yourself, protect your families. And then, physicians are willing to have a detailed conversation with anyone about the science of coronavirus. Just feel free to ask. You can ask me if you want; my contact information is available.

Kevin Pho: Fantastic. Frank, thank you so much for your time, and best wishes on your future endeavors. On the show, we have Frank Han. He’s a cardiology fellow. He wrote the KevinMD article “A journey through time with a very modern foe.” Frank, thank you for joining me on the show.

Frank Han: Thank you for having me, sir.

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