Run the List · Walker Redd, Emily Gutowski, Navin Kumar, Joyce Zhou, Blake Smith

Careers in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine - with Dr. Daniela Lamas

April 4, 2022·31 min·3 clips

Dr. Daniela Lamas, a Harvard physician and writer, reveals the diverse paths in pulmonary and critical care medicine.

Dr. Daniela Lamas, a Harvard Medical School instructor and pulmonary/critical care physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, joins the hosts of the medical education podcast Run the List. She is also a writer for publications like The New York Times, author of the book "You Can Stop Humming Now," and a staff writer for the TV drama *The Resident*. The episode explores career paths within the combined specialty of pulmonary and critical care medicine. Lamas outlines the broad range of practice options, from outpatient management of conditions like COPD and asthma to full-time work as a critical care attending in the ICU. She notes the field includes niches such as caring for patients with cystic fibrosis or working on the medical side of lung transplant programs. The discussion covers how pulmonary and critical care fellowship training integrates these two distinct but complementary disciplines. Lamas describes the intellectual appeal of diagnosing complex pulmonary cases and the acute, team-based environment of the intensive care unit. She shares her personal journey into the specialty, highlighting how it allows physicians to follow patients across both outpatient and inpatient settings. The conversation touches on the procedural aspects of the field, including bronchoscopy. Lamas explains the flexibility to tailor a career toward more pulmonary or more critical care focus based on individual interest. She connects her clinical work to her role at Ariadne Labs' Serious Illness Care Program, which focuses on health systems innovation. The episode has an informal, conversational, and advice-oriented tone, driven by host questions and guest anecdotes. It is primarily educational, aimed at medical trainees or early-career physicians. Listeners curious about medical specialties, especially those interested in a procedurally oriented field with longitudinal patient relationships, would find it valuable. Those seeking highly technical clinical management discussions or listeners outside the medical field might find the episode too niche.

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