Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey Will. Hey, what’s up? I’ve been thinking the US healthcare system, it needs some improvement. Yeah, it’s, it’s, there’s room for improvement for sure. Yeah. It’s a confusing, scary place for everybody involved. Absolutely. Physicians, families, patients, everybody. Everybody. And I’ve experienced it from both sides, right?

I’m a physician, I’ve also been a patient, so I wanted to use my platform to give people practical education. Really the only way that I know how. By making jokes. So Dr. Glaucomflecken really fun and super uplifting. Guide to American Healthcare is Out and it’s a free resource that includes all my videos from the 30 Days of Healthcare Series, alongside deeper explanations, also reliable facts.

Emphasis on reliable. Yes. All right. Uh, uh, figures, uh, numbers, insights into how each of us can fight for a more humane, better healthcare system. Also it has jokes. Did you mention the jokes? I did. I [00:01:00] jokes. Okay. Yes, definitely jokes. Well, this guide is great for anyone looking to learn more about US healthcare, but especially if you are experiencing it from the clinician side for the first time.

That’s right. We really hope you’ll check it out. Get the free guide sent straight to your inbox by signing up for our mailing list. Glaucomflecken.com/healthcare. Enjoy.

Knock, knock,

knock, knock. Hi.

Hey everybody. Welcome to Knock, knock. Hi, with the Glaucomflecken, I’m Dr. Glaucomflecken.. I’m Lady Glaucomflecken Will and Kristin Flanary. Nice to see you. We’re doing an episode of Glock Talk. We are, um. I just, you woke me up from a nap. I did. I was like, you know what, I, we have to do a podcast.

I, well, I missed the people we had. Yeah. That’s why. No, we had it scheduled. We were gonna [00:02:00] record today. Yeah. I went over with, had previous interview. Yeah. And so while I was waiting for you, I fell asleep. Yeah. And you know how well you’re welcome. You got a little nap, I think. No, I think the people know how it is when you’re almost 40.

Yeah. And you take a nap. It’s bad news bears. It, it just, I, I don’t know. The brain doesn’t wanna wake back up. Yeah. You may as well just go to sleep for the night. And my brain, when I go to sleep, it tends to not wanna wake up. Yeah. Well I have that problem from time to time. You do. Yeah. But anyway, I, I’m here and let’s do it.

I’m excited. No, I do have some things to talk about. Yeah. I’ve been seeing a, a lot of stuff that I’ve been sending you that’s things are happening. Oh, tho that too. Oh yeah, I went viral. Oh, ugh. Yeah. Anytime you’re like, Hey, I mean, I a tweet that’s gone viral. I’m like, oh no, you hold your breath now. What?

Ugh. You’re like, what? It’s, it’s fine. It’s fine. Well, first of all, I don’t, I don’t post as much on, um. Twitter X anymore. Yeah. That’s [00:03:00] the thing. Like it’s specifically over there that I get nervous that you have gone viral, uh, because those are like, posts over there are just like fleeting thoughts often.

Mm-hmm. And so I, I, I’m more likely probably to get myself into trouble just like, oh, this, this thought entered my brain. Let me share it with the world versus a video, which takes a lot more planning. Yeah. Um, but I, I, I posted. Uh, thing, so, so I’m a sucker for people wearing glasses. Yep. You have a party trick.

I, I guess you could call it a party trick where I, I guess, people’s glasses, prescriptions, yes. And, um, and it’s fun. And I can get, usually get, sometimes I get fooled, but usually I can get pretty close. Yeah, you’re pretty accurate. I’m pretty close. And so, uh, there was an account on, on Twitter that posted a, a video of Paige Becker’s.

Mm-hmm. Who one of is a, the WNBA. She’s a great player and she was wearing glasses. Mm-hmm. And, um, uh. I [00:04:00] like kind of tangentially follow, I see stuff about the WNBA because it’s becoming more popular. Yeah. And I, I like the NBA and so it kind of like, you know, goes over there. Right. And um, and so this video was posted, it was very popular and they were talking about the glasses in this video.

Yeah. A picture of her because she said, Hey ref, do you need to borrow my glasses? Right. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And so and so I replied to this. This post mm-hmm. That had like 20,000 likes on it at the time. I was like, uh, nobody asked me. But she’s a minus one, maybe a minus 1.5. Yep. That’s the way you said that.

That, see, I, I did not think, how could this be misinterpreted? And, uh, I checked back because I just, I posted and I just left and did something else. I, I don’t even like think about stuff that gets posted over there very, very much. Yeah, I came back a few hours later and that I, it got like a ton of likes on that reply and, um.

And [00:05:00] then I looked at some of the replies and one, somebody, uh, was like, and just so you know, you’re gonna die alone. I’m like, no, he’s not, because he tried that once and I was there. Yeah, yeah. And, but, and at first I was like, well, this seems harsh. Did uh, you know, maybe this person just really doesn’t like ophthalmologists.

That’s what I thought. Even when you saw that you. Still didn’t put two and two together. Yeah. Oh boy. I, I, my brain, I, I was thinking diopters all the way. Yeah. The whole time. That’s what I think when I see someone in glasses, but I guess this person, and there’s like, apparently a lot of misogyny going on, like the world of the WNBA.

Uh, and so I, uh, I guess they automatically assumed that when I said minus one to minus 1.5, I was rating this player. On a scale from one to 10 of attractiveness, right? Yes. Which never even crossed my mind, which is why I would rate you’re a good person. I would rate like glasses frames on a scale from one to 10.

Sure, [00:06:00] but not like a person. That’s not me. But see women. And, and the, the WNBA right now is experiencing this a lot, but just a women in general, that’s immediately where our mind goes because we have been judged like that our whole lives. In hindsight, do you remember that? Get way, way back when hot or not?

I know. Dot com. Well, that’s all Facebook started too. It was like a rating. Yeah. So I get, so anyway. Um, so, but that’s not what went viral. What went viral was, um, and when I say viral, like. For my posts. It’s, it’s like the thing I posted next, which was a screenshot of that interaction. Yeah. And me, and me saying my caption was okay.

I guess I could have, I could have used better phrasing here. Yeah. It’s cra like that’s already uh uh, the amount of likes on that post, like 600,000. Geez. Crazy. I think it’s my most popular of all these all these years later. Mm-hmm. I started Twitter in like [00:07:00] 2016. Do you think that some people like that post because they thought that you were apologizing?

No. No. Like for no pe-people liked the, that post it went because it’s, it’s really funny ’cause they, because it’s clear. I like the comments showed that they were Yeah. It’s clear that I’m, and I like Mo honestly. The vast majority of people understood. I was talking about the prescription. Yeah. But the mis, the misunderstanding ones that did was hilarious.

Yeah. And so, and, and of all these years later, like that is, that’s gonna be my most popular post Yeah. I’ve ever posted. Well, and I have a Google alert set app regularly as the one who, who runs the business side. Right. I was like, I part of my job, I gotta be aware of what’s out there. So I’ve got a Google alert for your name.

Yeah. And. I get an email with a Google alert. Not uncommon, there’s one that comes in just about every day, but I always look, and this time I see, oh, I forget what the headline was, but it let me know that this was not gonna be good news. I was like, [00:08:00] oh. No, it was like some kind of stupid aggregator thing.

Like throw Bible or something. Yeah. They just, they just take things that go viral and they write an article about it. Yeah. It’s, it’s, and this is the dumbest thing to go viral about, but that’s how it works, right? Yeah. It’s like, it’s, it, it’s just a funny thing. Um, so anyway, uh, it, so I was enjoying though, reading some of the comments and, and then I, I, people started sending me.

Selfies of themselves wearing glasses? Yeah, I guess mine because as, as one of the replies to that, ’cause like, like 5,000 replies to that post, one of the replies early on was a, a woman wearing glasses. It was like, can you, you know, guess my prescription? Yeah. And I, I nailed it. It was like a nine minus nine, actually it was a negative 8.75, but whatever.

Yeah. I rounded up, uh. And that like blew people away. Yeah. And that was the worst thing I could have done. Oh, no. Because then I, because since then I have like a thousand [00:09:00] selfies in my, in my notifications. Everybody’s wanting me to, I’m like, this is this. See, it’s a good party trick, I guess. It is. I, I never really thought of it as a party trick.

I always, I’ve always thought of it that way. Really? Yeah. Look what he can do. I’ll show you, drag you around like a little pony. How dare you show you off. This is my livelihood you’re talking about. This is, I have dedicated a significant amount of my youth to being able to guess. Glasses, prescriptions.

You know what? I have de dedicated a significant amount of my youth to you being able to guess. Glasses, prescriptions. Okay. So, so, so respect the hustle, please. That’s all I’m saying. I’m just tell I’m, I just said to you that I have also been hustling. I never said you weren’t. Okay, good. Glad we’re clear about that.

So anyway, that was, um, my latest. That viral, yeah. Moment XI don’t know. It’s getting a little [00:10:00] weird over there. It’s been weird over there. That’s why I get nervous when you go viral over there because it’s like, I don’t know how much of the people, how many of the people that are seeing your stuff are actually your followers and are like familiar with you and know who you are.

You’re an ophthalmologist, all that stuff, that you’re a comedian. Like people just think you’re some guy. People don’t, people don’t like the vast of course, of, of all those people, like the vast majority had no idea who I was. Yeah. See, so it’s like, eh. Um, it’s, we need, we need more doctors back over there.

I miss those days. Yeah. I think the ship has sailed on that platform. Yeah, it’s true. At least until it changes ownership. Well, we need to, we need to congregate somewhere. Oh, well, we’ll work on that. Yeah. But, uh, the, I’ve been over on, over on TikTok. I’ve, I don’t know, the algorithms are out to get me lately just because I’ve been fed like all the, the, the wellness influencers lately.

I don’t, I don’t know what I, what I do, what did I do to deserve this? It’s like. I see. I keep seeing, it’s all the chiropractors that keep popping up. [00:11:00] Mm-hmm. Talking about how, you know, everybody needs to get their spine adjusted to decrease inflammation. It’s like that kind of stuff. And the other day it was like, it was the people it talk, and I talked about this on knock, knock eye.

Mm-hmm. Um, people who are, who say, don’t get, don’t let erythromycin get into your newborn’s eyes when they’re born. Mm-hmm. Which is a. Preventative measure against Yes. The thing put on gonorrhea. Yeah. Uh, because it’ll do it potentially kill your baby, basically. Interesting. So, so the point is, and I don’t, I’m not gonna rehash like what all the numerous reasons why this is, this is bs, but mm-hmm.

Uh, you can go look at a, a few episodes ago or I talk about it. Um, this is everywhere. Yeah. And it’s, it’s like. It never ends, and people make money off of doing this. Yep. And I, it’s just maybe the internet was just a mistake. [00:12:00] It’s not where I was expecting you to go with that. I mean, I think like, like all great innovations, there’s, how about this good and evil?

How about this? We need a way of, if you’re going to put like. Certain credentials after your name. Mm-hmm. I think you should pass a short test. Okay. Doesn’t have to be like a board certification exam or something. Mm-hmm. Just to, to be able to do that on a social media platform. I don’t know. I am just coming up with this, this, I don’t think it’s that they don’t have the knowledge.

No, I think sometimes they don’t have the knowledge. You think MDs don’t have the knowledge? I’m not talking about MDs. Oh. Who are you talking most of the time? These are either, again, either chiropractors. I see it from, I mean, I do see it from some MDs, but, um, you see it from nurse practitioners, from PAs, from med, like it’s kind across the board.

Across the board. It’s, it’s people with all kinds of credentials. [00:13:00] And so, I don’t know. I don’t know. This is a totally half, what do you call it? Half baked idea. Half baked idea, um, of like somehow.

We, we should be able to crowdsource. I don’t, I, I’m literally just coming up with this Crowdsource a, um, social media death penalty. Okay. Jason, please save him from himself. What are you talking about? I’m not saying actual, like, like physically I’m, you know what I’m talking about? Like a way that you would have your, uh, social media, uh, platform deleted.

That’s all I’m saying. They have that, I mean, it’s not a test, but they can delete your social media platform. The community guidelines and stuff? Yeah. Okay. But they’re not, maybe they’re just not stringent enough. I want them, I want the guidelines perfectly suited to what I want. Dr. Gu fl. Of course you do.

Okay. And what would those be? Let me, okay. Let me run my own social media platform. [00:14:00] That’s what I’m saying, I guess. All right. Is this too much to ask? Sounds like a lot of work. I want it to, to reflect my personal values and no one else’s. Is that too much? Okay. And what would those be? Let’s, let’s do it.

Let’s build it. Um, it’s gotta be, uh, uh, once a week you have to post something about eyeballs. Okay. Uh, something positive. Oh, okay. All right. Uh, how amazing they are. What about like, weird stuff? Um, is that all right? Like, it’s not derogatory to eyeballs, it’s just like weird stuff that. Other types of balls are fine testicles.

No, I meant weird stuff in the eyeballs, like worms and, and stuff. Oh, that’s encouraged. Okay. Absolutely. I don’t want other balls on there. Sports balls. Test of balls. Eyeballs. What are the balls? Anyway, the point is, um, I dunno where I’m going with this. I’m just, I’m spitball a weird nap. Spit is another ball.

Spitball uhhuh. Um, I, uh. Yeah, maybe I dreamed some of this, but [00:15:00] I, I’m just, I’m trying to think outside the box on how to get rid of some of the, the horrible misinformation that’s hurting people. Yeah. Do you have any ideas? Um, there has to be repercussions. I dunno about getting rid of it, but I feel like we could try to drown it out a little.

Like, I, I feel like more healthcare professionals should be on social media. Sharing accurate information as a way to, you can’t eliminate the misinformation, but you can counteract it. That’s the key though. The accurate. So, ’cause like, yes, there’s a lot of healthcare professionals out there, but then like something happens to these people where, ’cause they, they had to, I think it’s called money, but they can’t.

I guess, how much could they possibly be making though? Because like some of them don’t have a following, it’s probably not even that much, right? That’s just following, but then they’ll have like a occasional video go viral [00:16:00] because it’s some outlandish claim. Maybe it’s detention, then maybe they just, they like, I guess so I guess that amount of attention, it’s just, it’s the clout.

I don’t know. The clout chasing, who knows? But it’s maybe they genuinely believe some of this stuff. You’re and that hard to believe, but maybe it’s true. You’re right. We do need like people. Giving accurate information. Yeah. Um, and like ways that people want to listen to, not ways that sound like a textbook.

So, so that’s the key. Yeah. ’cause like misinformation sounds so crazy sometimes. Yeah. It’s got the viral factor because it’s like what? Like if you wear glasses, you’re gonna go blind. Yeah. That’s crazy. It’s sensational Glasses make your, make you blind. Yeah. Like, oh, that’s the opposite of what glasses do.

Yeah. I can tell you that as a board gynecologist. But here’s, but then that’s the, that that’s the kind of claim. Yeah. They’re like, whoa, who is this person? Oh, they have, so they have letters after their name, they, oh, right. Oh, they kind of have a professional [00:17:00] profile. Um, oh, and then all of a sudden you have people that believe that this person is what they’re saying.

Yeah. And I think that part of it is that they see the letters, but I think a lot of people these days are distrustful when they see the letters. I think another piece of it is scientific literacy. Like, like we need people to, we need the general population to have higher scientific literacy than they do around the human body.

Probably around everything in general, but like for, let’s just start with the human body, right? Like, I think that’s how the anti-vax movement, you know, appeals to people. It’s like, it sounds plausible. And you just, you have just enough science from like school mm-hmm. To, to see how that sounds plausible, but not enough to understand where that argument fails or why it’s wrong.

So like. Sure it sounds awful. If you say vaccines have [00:18:00] mercury in them and we’re injecting mercury into our bloodstreams and don’t do that to your newborn baby, and you’re a scared new mom, right? Like of course that sounds awful, but like where are the people that are saying, you know, actually this is why.

That’s not exactly correct or whatever, right? Like, you gotta do it in a way that’s not like, actually I know, like I just said, know that’s, that’s, that’s the key. And, and like, because I, I made a TikTok about this erythromycin thing, and, and I, I didn’t. I, I, I try not to like, tie it to this because I don’t want to give attention to the people.

Right. Right. So I don’t wanna, I I, I never like leave their name in it. I never, ’cause I don’t want people going there and like Yeah. Giving it more traffic. Giving it, yeah, exactly. ’cause that’s how algorithms work, right? These, these people feed on the negativity. Um, and so I think the key is like dispelling this stuff in an engaging way.

Yeah. Without, [00:19:00] um. Too negative. I mean, you, you, you, you are kind of have to be negative because you’re, you’re dispelling this myth, right? You’re combating the misinformation and so you have to like be negative about that. Well, but then you can turn it into something. I think it’s understanding what makes something engaging.

One thing that makes something engaging good lighting is. Negativity, good lighting helps, uh, because we have this negativity bias, right? That we are, we are evolutionarily de like equipped to pay a lot of attention to negative things because those things are the things that can kill us. And so we better pay attention to those.

Is that true? Yeah, that’s true. That’s the negativity bias. Oh my gosh. Did you listen to nothing? When I was in grad school, that was my entire life. I activity bias, positivity, offset. No, I read your thesis once. Oh boy. A month. I’m sure you do. Anyway, yes. That is a thing. That is a real thing. [00:20:00] Um, and as part of why everything is the way that it is on social media.

So it’s capitalizing on that. And not even like intentionally, like the algorithms were designed to, um, take whatever is engaging people right? And, and like spread that. But there’s no control for like kind of engagement. Like is this engaging because it is, um, polarizing? Is this engaging? Mm-hmm Because it is outlandish.

Is it enga? You know, there’s no like regulation around that stuff. And so it ends up being all this negative and polarizing and outlandish things that, that go viral, but. Also other things are powerful that are on the other side of the spectrum, right? Storytelling is extremely powerful. That is another thing that we are evolutionarily wired to pay a lot of attention to and to be engaged with because that is how we used to [00:21:00] learn what will kill us and what won’t.

Right? Like that is a very strong human thing. Mm-hmm. Um. There’s other, you know, examples like that. You just gotta find the, the positive end examples of what is engaging. And not that you can never use the stuff on the negative end, but Sure. But there’s just, there’s a lot of ways to do it is all I’m saying.

It doesn’t have to just be mud slinging from both sides. Right. Right. Like you’re, you’re a perfect example, right? Like it’s comedy, it’s stories. Yeah, it’s stuff like that. And, and your stuff goes just as viral as some of this other like misinformation. Let’s take a break.

Hey, Kristin. Hmm. I know I like to talk to you about the little dex mites. Mm-hmm. And little tiny guys. Mm-hmm. Thought we could give that a break and just talk about the, the eyelid disease that they cause when there’s an overgrowth of Dex. [00:22:00] I like that idea. No mite talk. So Dex blepharitis it, it gets missed, it gets misdiagnosed, uh, because a lot of the symptoms overlap with other eye conditions.

Mm. Okay. So what are the top symptoms that people should be looking out for? Itching, swelling, irritation of the eyelid margin, redness. Yeah. That kind of sounds like it could be allergies or something else. Exactly. It could be a several different things. But the key is if your doctor spots little crusties, that’s, they’re called collarettes, but you know, they like little crusty technical term.

Exactly. Uh, then, um, uh, that’s dex Blepharitis. You just know it. Mm. I like that there is a clear sign to know. Yep. And once you’re diagnosed as a prescription eye drop treatment. Available for Dedex Blepharitis. Whew. That is good to know. To learn about the common symptoms of Dedex blepharitis and more, visit mites love lids.com.

Again, that’s M-I-T-E-S-L-O-V-E-L-I-D s.com To learn more, this ad is [00:23:00] brought to you by Tarsus Pharmaceuticals.

I wanna see like a, like deep investigative. Reporting on, ’cause I’m very interested in this on the people who start off their career as a, like, ethical, medical professional. Not even just a, not even a physician, like could be nursing. Any, any and, and what happens, how the steps that mm-hmm. That, that they go through.

To get to where they’re pedaling nonsense. Yeah. Like what is the path to Grifter Hood? Yeah. What, what is, let’s, let’s get some, A path to Grif. That’s a podcast name path path to Grifter Hood. Yeah. You know, because I think that’s fascinating. ’cause because we all, yeah. Everybody goes to med school. [00:24:00] You get.

There’s variations in the education, but you learn the same stuff. Yeah. Bodies work the same way no matter where you go to med school. So at one point they were, they think, oh, maybe a body works the way I tell people the body works. Mm-hmm. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be the way I was taught how the body works.

Mm-hmm. And oh, I can make some money off of that. Mm-hmm. Like something happens, you know, there’s like a flip that’s switched. Maybe it’s like, so do you think they’re genuinely believing that the body works in these incorrect ways? Or are you, I don’t know. I, there’s, I think there’s, it’s like an earworm that it, like Yeah.

Something gets into their head. Yeah. They hear something they maybe they’re more susceptible to, to, yeah. Like a cult brainwash. Yeah. I was brain gonna, that’s what exactly I was brain thinking. The cult of misinformation. Right? Like there’s something, and then they do get, maybe, probably that money’s gotta be involved, right?

Of course. Yeah. So that there’s, there’s no way. So [00:25:00] that’s, that’s, that’s the kind of core of what I am curious about is like, where is the, where is the education, the evidence-based education that they received, where’d it go and is it, and how did it, I think it’s still in there and they’re just choosing.

You think so? It’s the money instead. They like, they know, they know. This is, they must, like Dr. Oz knows like what he is all this, all the gut health and you can’t just like delete all your memories from med school, right? Like either they have just become so, so like diluted. Because they want to be making the money that now they’re trying to justify it to themselves.

Like yeah, even if that’s kind of subconsciously, but you can’t just not know that that’s how the body works once you’ve learned it. Well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time on social media, it’s that if you speak confidently enough about something like people, you’ll find people to believe you.[00:26:00] 

Yeah. And that’s sad. It’s sad. Sad to prove. It’s too, and it’s sad. We get people in positions of, of, of. How we’re an influence like physicians. Yeah. Go that route. But see that’s again, we’re just back to, that’s why we need more. Of the ethical kind. Yeah. On social media. ’cause if they, let me tell you what I drown out, have learned to drown out, to drown out all the this to drown them out.

And also what I have learned about doctors is you love to self-police. So the more police we get out there, got some physician cops out there. You know what I mean? Like physicians are the first ones to jump on other physicians, like to hold each other to accountable. Yes. To hold each other accountable.

That’s really what it is. Um, which is admirable. Um, yeah, yeah. No, I get you. So we need, we need more people putting out accurate information in ethical ways, and then we also need more people out there so that they can hold these other people accountable. And if there’s more people. Telling the [00:27:00] truth, then lying and then the people telling the truth are calling out the liars.

Like eventually that has got to move the needle at least. Yeah. Well, in order to get more people on social media, more physicians in particular, then we need to have more physicians. Period. That is true. So let’s get to some healthcare news. Let’s do it. Uh, the A A MC endorses Senate bill to expand federal investment in physician training, it is happening everybody.

We have been asking for this. Here’s my for years, more residency spots. Yes, that is good news. Oh my God. There’s a huge bottleneck. There are so many. Look at how many med students don’t match. Yeah. And it’s usually not because of their lack of credentials. Right. Their lack of test scores. They’re perfectly qualified.

They’re qualified. It’s just ’cause they’re, there’s no more spots. Yeah. There’s no more spots around. There’s, there’s not enough spots. [00:28:00] One concern, but I think some, uh, two major caveats to this in my mind. I know, I know. And we’re, and we’re getting there. Okay. Uh, uh, some concerns I have about just blanket Oh, more residency spots.

Like where are the residency spots? Mm-hmm. And, and that might not be enough for certain areas of medicine. Like we need like, like if it’s not evenly distributed. Yeah. Like, do we need geographically like Yeah. And do we need more like ophthalmologists? I don’t know. Do we need more family physicians? Yeah.

Yeah. Right. So like there’s, it’s, they gotta figure out a way. And we’re talking, what we’re talking about is, is federal funding though. Hmm. Because hospitals, they love that government money. Yep, sure. They love it. And so you throw enough. Federal money, you know, funding at, at hospitals, they’re gonna eat it up because that’s, that’s cheap.

Labor residents are Oh yeah. Cheap labor. You pay them, they do the work. And there, there’s a study of a, um, uh, this was great. The, a while back there was a [00:29:00] neurosurgery program that went under mm-hmm. And they calculated that because they replaced the residents with PAs. Mm-hmm. I think it was PAs. And they found that.

A single resident did the same amount of work, and I, I don’t remember the number, but it was like, at least, maybe it was like 10 to 15. Oh my goodness. It was a huge amount, yeah. Of, of, of other types of medical professionals. Right. So, so the, and, and you’re paying a resident. Yeah. Um, you know, 60, 70,000 maybe.

Uh, and then you’re paying a, a pa probably, you know, six figures for sure. Yeah. And so the, the cost savings Oh yeah. Of having a resident. Huge. That you can pay, you know, minimum wage essentially for the hours they work. Right. It is huge. It is amazing. So is it even minimum wage? It’s probably like two bucks an hour when you calculate it out.

Yeah, I, well, I don’t know. It’s, it’s gotta, I mean, they, they have to [00:30:00] survive, but most of the time they’re just eating like, uh, saltines and peanut butter cut hospital food from the hospital. Some of those. Um, although I will say the Turkey sandwich is not bad. Okay. Anyway. Uh, Turkey’s one you don’t wanna take a risk on though.

Oh, that’s fine. It’s hospital food. It’s just, it’s, it’s been irradiated. I’m sure it’s fine. Okay. Uh, so anyway, but yeah, so I have some concerns like, okay, you know, we, we know we need more physicians mm-hmm. But we probably need more of some certain types of physicians more than others. Yeah, sure. And so how are we gonna make sure that.

These we incentivize, those new residency spots are going to get distributed correctly. Yeah, I don’t think that’s in there. Probably not. Yeah. I don’t think they’re to that yet, but at least we’re getting spots. Yeah. Step one, we’re getting spots. Here’s my two concerns. Yes. I believe in that headline it said Medicare funding.

No federal investment and physician training. Okay. But just scroll down. Is it Medicare funding? Uh, it’s [00:31:00] Medicare supported. Okay. So I think that just that, that probably means, it just comes from the HHS. It’s always, aren’t we gutting Medicare? Or gutting Medicaid. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. So it’s, you know, Medicare’s, that one’s still fine.

I mean, depends on your definition of fine. Well, okay, that one’s still the same. Oh, trust me, these, uh, these lawmakers are not gonna get rid of Medicare. They’re not, they’re not, they’re not scaling back Medicare. There’s problems with Medicare, but no, Medicare is doing Okay. So why do they not wanna scale back Medicare?

But they do wanna scale back Medicaid. ’cause Medicaid is, uh, poor people. Medicare is their, their cousins and aunts and uncles and just old people, not necessarily poor people. Okay, so everyone, it’s, it’s kinda like cataracts. You live long enough, everyone’s on Medicare. Well, yeah, everybody, yeah. You qualify for Medicare once you hit 65.

Okay. And, [00:32:00] but I mean, there’s, there’s. Certainly issues with Medicare. Yeah. Particularly Medicare Advantage. Right? Right. Yeah. You’re, that’s a whole other, you’re selling all podcast episode. You’re giving, anytime you give government money to, uh, to healthcare corporation or health insurance corporations, you’re doing something wrong.

Right. You shouldn’t be doing, but anyway. No, it’s Medicaid. Okay. Well, so I don’t, okay, so I feel better about that one. ’cause I thought it was the one that’s getting cut. Mm-hmm. Uh, but my other one is Okay. That’s great. Re there’s gonna be more residency spots. Yeah. But, um, also they just kept med student student loan debt.

Oh, the loan debt. Yeah. That’s a thing as though maybe there’s gonna be fewer med students. Well, yeah, I guess that, that remains to be seen. Um, I, you know, either we’re, we’re certainly, we might just have fewer, uh. Fewer med students from low income backgrounds from Yeah. Just be a bunch of Yeah. Trust fund kids or something.

I, I mean, you, you would think so, right? [00:33:00] Because, uh, med, if you do the math, med schools are not un or unless there’s something that really does co force them to lower tuition rates. Yeah. Which, come on. When has, when has anything gotten cheaper? Healthcare, especially tuition, ever tuition across board is ever gone down.

That’s not, not gonna happen. Healthcare otherwise has just Right. Skyrocketed. So honestly, I, I feel like, uh, it’s, it’s just gonna change the demographic Yeah. Of med, med students. Mm-hmm. That’s, that’s what I think, you know, you know, but, um, which is also not at all what we need. Like that is really unfortunate.

And we have new med schools that are. Opening up like every year. So, so it’s, uh, uh, the bottleneck really was the residency programs was residencies, residency spots. Yeah. Okay. Um, and so, I don’t know. We’ll, we’ll, well, it’s a bit of good news. We’ll see what happens. But it, I think it’s, it was a necessary step Yeah.

To trying to solve the physician shortage. I just, um, it’s skeptical necessary, but not sufficient. [00:34:00] Yeah. Yeah. Because we need to, we need to get the new doctors. In the places that need new doctors. Yeah. We don’t need, uh, more ophthalmologists in Portland metro area. No. Are you just saying that because you don’t want competition?

No, we, we, we’ll need them if we need them, but, uh, my point is like in like a big city, like we need people in like rural areas. We need like, you know, primary care docs, we need pediatricians, family, physicians, uh, general surgeons, like people that do like a, a, a. A large amount of work. Yeah. Like, uh, we don’t need left knee orthopedic surgeons.

Right. Maybe we do. I don’t know. But, but how many could be, but you get my point. We need like, uh, a, a workforce that’s representative of the problems, the aging population, and the problems that, that, that brings up. So anyway, yeah. Well, you know, I just am, uh, it’s good that there’s something good. I’m just gonna Yeah, yeah.

We’ll take, [00:35:00] we’ll take it focused on that. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll take the good healthcare news Yeah. As it comes. Um, and that’s all I got for you. Alright. Did we do it? Did we talk? Should we wrap it up? Should we wrap up? Knock, knock, knock, knock. High for Glock this episode. Glock talk. Alright. Um, what else, uh, animated series is, is doing, doing great.

Yeah. Let’s just do a little wrap up of Glaucomflecken projects. So go watch our an the, the first three episodes of our animated series. Yes. Glaucomflecken general. We got some great feedback. Some, some, uh, lots of people really like it. Yep. Uh, I got some constructive criticism as well. Yes. And, uh, which is fine.

Yeah. I mean, I look, it’s a new venture. There’s always gonna be things. Yeah. We’ve never done, we’ve never done an animated show we here, so I wanna know how, how, how to make it better. But the idea is that we, um, we collect all the data on it. Mm-hmm. And we go to Netflix or Amazon Prime and be like, Hey.

Look, a lot of people wanna watch this, would watch this and uh, look how many people [00:36:00] enjoy watching this. These characters. Yeah. And see if they’ll give us money. I want to qualify this though, just ’cause we’re doing this animated project does not mean that your regular skits are going away. I think a lot of people are like.

Well, I don’t like this as much as your skits. It’s like, that’s fine. You don’t have to like, yeah. Animation, it’s a completely separate thing. Yeah. Animation. The first thing’s not going anywhere. Animation is not for everyone. No. Sure. Some people just don’t like it. Yeah. And, and so it’s, that’s fine. Yeah.

That’s, it’s not gonna be for you, but, but you don’t have to worry is what I’m saying. Like it’s not taking the place of anything. Yeah. It’s just another thing that we’re doing. You’re still gonna get my face in your phone every so often. Don’t worry people. Okay. I know you love that. You know what else?

This how you sounded just then reminded me. There’s a lot of comments that say that you sound like crunk and I can see it now. I sound like crunk. Yeah, like Patrick War Warburton. I can see it. Yeah. He’s a putty. You like him? I do. I do love putty. Um, but well, we’re, I mean, this is, it’s an expensive [00:37:00] project, which is, which is it’s animation is, which is why we have to try to get after some, um.

Some funding. Some funding because, uh, we just, we can’t do it all ourselves. And so we could always crowdsource it, you know, start a little thing with, uh, with all of you, our listeners and fans. Yeah. We would rather not make you pay for it. Yeah, let’s just, if we can help it, let’s see if we can get somebody else.

We have, we have this wonderful audience that, that comes out for the content. So let’s see if, uh, if any streaming service wants to jump on it. So anyway, stay tuned for that. We’re gonna keep you working hard on seeing if we can get more of those episodes, uh, made. All right. Thanks for listening. Full video episodes are up every week on our YouTube channel.

You can watch us there at Glaucomfleckens. Leave a comment. I love seeing those comments. We read those, uh, lots of cool perks, bonus episodes, react to medical shows and movies. You know, I was speaking of comments on social media. I was just, I was given a talk. And I just, it, it struck me how like it’s one of the benefits of being like a smaller creator.

Mm-hmm. I was thinking back [00:38:00] to my platform like four years ago. Yeah. It’s like I could actually like, read a lot of the comments. All the comments. Yeah. You know, and like that’s, that’s something like a, a. Brand new burgeoning creator can really focus on Yeah. It’s like actually interact with the people in your, in your comment section.

Right. And, and it feels that way a little bit with our new podcast channel. Yeah. Because it’s a smaller channel. Right. But I can actually read the comments. Yeah. And, and I should do a better job of responding to people, but usually. They’re good comments. We just talk about it on the, on the podcast. It is true itself anyway.

Uh, just, it made me think of that. I was like, oh, this is kind of nice. It’s like a good sweet spot over there right now. Nice little tight knit community. Mm-hmm. Alright, so check us out on Patreon patreon.com/ Glaucomflecken. on or go to Glaucomflecken.com. Speaking of Patreon, community Perks, new members, shout out Janice F and Susan D Thank you so much for joining.

Welcome, happy to have you. We’ll find jobs for you shortly. Shout out to the Jonathans as usual, Patrick, Lucia, C, Edward, K, Mr. Girl, and De Caitlin, c Brianna, L. Mary, H [00:39:00] Keith, g Parker, Muhammad L, Kaylee, A, David, H, Gary, M Eric, B, Marlene, S, Scott, M, Kelsey, M Brian, S Patrick, S, Sean, M, Jessica, M, just M. Just an M, not a Jessica.

M just Jessica, then M comma, N, M, M, M, Hawkey, md, bubbly, salt, and shiny d. A virtual head nod to you all. Patreon roulette time. Random shout, someone on the emergency medicine tier, Ashley Kay. Thank you for being a patron, Ashley, and thank you all for listening. We’re your hosts, will and Kristin Flanary also knows the Glaucomfleckens.

Executive producers Are Will Ferry. Kristin Flanary. Aaron Corny, Rob Goldman and Shahnti Brooke, editor our our editor and engineers, Jason Portizo. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi. To learn about Knickknack High’s program, disclaim Methods policy, Mr. Ation license in terms of hip release terms plug.com, reach out to us knickknack high@humancontent.com with questions, concerns, or fun medical puns.

N KK knock high is a human content production[00:40:00] 

knock, knock.

Thanks for watching the episode. You can find more on that playlist over there If you prefer to listen or you just had your eyes dilated, you can binge full episodes wherever you get your podcast or join the party over on Patreon where you get early access episodes. Hang out with us, get lots of exclusive bonus content, help you subscribe, leave a comment below, let us know what you think.