Physician Athlete Edition - Dr. David Roberts and Julian Smith

Welcome to the ER Break Room, the University of Florida Department of Emergency Medicine's podcast. In here we get to know each other, celebrate our achievements, and highlight our initiatives. I'm your host, Michael Betus. Welcome to a special Physician Athlete Edition of the ER Break Room. But before we get to that, let's take a moment to recognize the end of an academic year and the beginning of a new one. Congratulations to the graduating fellows and residents; what a bittersweet and exciting time for you. We are proud of you and we know you'll do great. Welcome also to the new faculty, staff, fellows, and interns; we look forward to meeting, working, teaching, and learning with you. On to highs of the month. On the education side, Dr. Matt Ryan is assuming a new role as Master Educator and will be working with students in a novel learning experience. Dr. Mike Maric will take Dr. Ryan's former role and be the interim Vice Chair of Education. Dr. Dave Roberts will take Dr. Maric's former role and will be the interim Assistant Program Director for the Residency. Over on the operations side, Dr. Matt Shannon will take on a new role as the interim Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs. And then I guess you call this a dual high and low of the month: Manager of Healthcare Administration Allison Gman and Fellowship Program Coordinator Zach Mayo have both been promoted within the University of Florida, but they will be leaving our department. These are very well deserved, and we are so happy for them, although of course they will be dearly missed. Finally, Dr. Carolyn Holland, Dr. Roip Patel, and Dr. Matt Shannon received ten years of service pins; what a remarkable sustained effort on their part. For this episode, I'm trying something a little bit different. I'm bringing on what I like to consider a rising star in the field, and today I have Julian Smith with me, and we're just going to talk a little bit. So Julian, welcome to the ER Break Room podcast.

Thank you for having me.

Of course. So, okay, so you are an undergraduate right now at the University of Florida, and what do you have to do with our Emergency Medicine Department? What have you been up to?

So I'm an undergraduate starting my junior year, and my major is bio, and I'm on the pre-med track. So I guess what I have to do with the ER is the summer I was interning with Dr. Fernandez and the Emergency Medicine office, and also Dr. Gutman. And it was an amazing experience, just seeing how hardworking everybody in the Emergency Medicine department is, is really inspiring and motivating, especially for someone that looks up to most of you guys in the ER. So it was a great experience, I learned a lot, a lot of shadowing, working on a research project with Dr. Gutman. Everyone in that office is first class, and everyone in the EM residents as well, first class. So I loved it.

That's so nice of you to say. And we are very lucky to have you and for you to bring your positivity. You came out and did a little shadow shift with me at one of the freestanding ERs, and I heard that you went to both the pediatric and the adult academic ERs as well. Did you have any favorite experiences or things that really impressed you, wowed you, or shocked you?

I think for me it was like every day it was something new when I went in there, and I really enjoyed that. Every one of the residents and physicians were very happy with every case that they saw, and you could just see that. And the desire to help others and make them feel better. I went to pediatrics one day, and you could see someone struggling or their kid not the best, but the impact that these physicians have on them, just that little moment is so huge, and you can see it means a lot to the parents. So I really enjoyed the pediatric ER, that was really cool. But then also in the adult ER, just seeing the magnitude of stuff that happens every day, it really showed me a lot. It showed me that one, I'm blessed and staying safe, and there are a lot of things that could be going worse for a lot of us, but seeing what people go through day in and day out, it's kind of amazing.

Absolutely. And you did kind of tell me that in the past you had an interest in dentistry. Has this experience opened your horizons to the medical field and MD?

It definitely has. I think coming into this I was hesitant because I didn't know what to expect, but I think that's also the theme of all ER doctors: they never know what to expect. And I think that's what makes it so amazing, because every time I was there, time went by so fast because it's something new. And I really enjoyed that, so it kind of makes me want to think about medicine over dentistry.

Nice. And then just briefly, tell us what the project you were working on with Dr. Colleen Gutman was.

Dr. Gutman let me assist in their systematic review of implicit bias in healthcare, and how the educational side of medicine can really try to stop that, and the different ways that could be stopped, implementing just to bring a positive atmosphere to healthcare because it is a rising concern. And that really opened my eyes to a lot of things, just seeing implicit bias in medicine admissions but also in healthcare, everything. So I really enjoyed that, and I'm hoping to keep going with that.

That's cool, that's so important work too. Please both you and Dr. Gutman for that kind of work that you're doing. Oh, so I can't brag on you a little bit here, Julian, to the crowd. Tell us about your other life at the University of Florida; where do you spend the majority of your time?

So my other life, I like to say it's my hobby, not my other life. But I'm an athlete here at Florida; I'm part of the men's swim team. I don't think I take it for granted because a lot of people don't get to this point, and I really enjoy the team. I started swimming when I was six years old, partly because of my brother. I hated the water, but my parents just threw me in. I remember those first few months I was crying every single time I got in the water, and honestly it might have gone for a few years. But I think eventually, because I started off so well with the sport, I just stuck with it, and it's paid off so far.

Talk about that. The team as a whole, tell us.

As a team, we won 11 straight SEC championships. And as well as this year, the women's team won the championship, so that was a cool experience in Texas, both teams winning and celebrating together, that was really fun. And then going on to NCAAs last year, we got third; we had gotten third for the past few years. This year we didn't do as well team-wise, but individually and relay-wise, we made history, which is really fun and always exciting. So it's a good step in the direction for a young team.

And you were on a relay that won the national championship, correct?

Yes, the 400 freestyle relay. We won the national championship, broke the NCAA record and the school record and the SEC record. That was really fun to be a part of. A fun fact about that: we only won by 0.02 seconds, so it was very close. There's another team out there as good at that level as us.

What team was that?

It was Cal Berkeley. Both of our teams had been under the previous record, so it was already really fast. But sometimes you need a little luck: one half a stroke, or a push off the wall, whatever it is.

Wow. And then tell us what's next for you and the team here coming up in the next couple weeks.

What's next for me? It's more of a year-round thing with swimming; you can't really take breaks, you have to keep going with a few breaks here and there. Right now it's club swimming, so it's more focused on Nationals, trying to make USA national teams to travel internationally and represent them. This Saturday I leave for Indianapolis for US Nationals. The qualifying for World Championships in Japan is also happening, so they're choosing a few from that meet. It will be a fun experience to see where I'm at headed into Olympic year.

That's really exciting. And then finally, I've only been here a year and I have not been to any swimming meets yet. When and where can people like myself see you and the team compete in an upcoming academic year?

I don't have our schedule yet for this year, but typically our first meet is in October. I know for sure we're going to go against Georgia the Friday before the big game; that's going to be at home. So that's a fun meet to come to because it's always some fast swimming. Swimming is a sport you don't really have to know much about to get interested; you're just watching people race, and it's a really fun environment. So definitely come see.

I will be there for sure, and hopefully I'll bring along some friends too. Well, Julian, thanks for coming on. This was really enjoyable. You have a very bright future, and we look forward to you in the medical world and also with your collegiate and international swimming career. So thanks.

Thank you.

I am very excited today to bring on our future guest, Dr. David Roberts. I don't know what to say. Dave, welcome. Very excited, thanks for coming on today.

You could probably guess some of the reasons why I'm excited, but let's start at the beginning. Where are you from and how did you get into pole vaulting?

First of all, what 11-year-old is like, 'I want to be a jumper'? How did you even get into that at that age?

So you started doing that with the pole. At some point you must have had some formal training in middle school or high school, where this developed into a more serious pursuit.

So at 14 you got your first fiberglass pole but couldn't bend it. Were you a freshman in high school then?

Was there someone in your high school, like a coach, who could provide leadership or training?

Did Rice offer you a scholarship?

You didn't waste any time in being excellent. You started college around 1969, and you won the NCAA title in 1971, so as a sophomore. You went from just starting out to NCAA champion in two years. How did you do that?

But you did. So you were at Rice, pole vaulting at Rice. Tell me about those years.

What were you studying?

Wow. What was your plan?

So interesting. It sounds like you're an academic at heart, and the pole vaulting was almost like a side thing, but you were so good at it.

But clearly you are an athlete. You graduated with your anthropology degree from Rice, and then you had a decision to make.

But in that same timeframe, you went to the Olympics. You were in medical school while training for the Olympics.

You're blowing my mind. You were a full-time medical student while training and competing in the Olympics.

Did you feel that the things you were learning in medical school about the body gave you a competitive edge?

So talk about the Olympics and world records. You set a world record before the Olympics.

Tell the story about the pole breaking and your competitor giving you his pole.

So you competed in the Montreal Olympics in 1976. How did that go?

Did you ever break bones pole vaulting?