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A Mayo Clinic podcast for laboratory professionals, physicians, and students, hosted by Justin Kreuter, M.D., assistant professor of laboratory medicine and pathology at Mayo Clinic, featuring educational topics and insightful takeaways to apply in your practice.
- This is Lab Medicine
Rounds, a curated podcast
for physicians, laboratory
professionals, and students.
Today we're recording
a very special episode
to celebrate our 100th episode
here at Lab Medicine Rounds.
We're rounding with the full
podcast production team,
which includes myself as
your host, Justin Kreuter,
the Bow Tie Bandit
of Blood, Transfusion Medicine pathologist
and Assistant Professor of
Laboratory Medicine and Pathology,
Rick Andresen, producer
and director, Melissa Peterson,
MBA, Senior education
specialist, and Heidi Zunker, MS,
And education program manager
all here at Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota,
to share their experience,
these behind the scenes stories
on starting this educational
podcast and reflecting on past episodes.
It's exciting that it's
our hundredth episode.
I think we should start
it off by finding out
how did the podcast start out?
So why don't you guys
tell us what was the kind
of genesis, how did this all start?
- So it really birthed
from a needs assessment
that we sent out to clients
of Mayo Clinical Laboratories.
And we found out that people
wanted on-demand content,
but, like shorter amounts of it.
And we had never done a podcast before.
So we thought, you know, this
might be a great medium for us
to try in terms of providing
education to our clients.
And we were told that in order
to make a podcast happen,
you need a good host.
And so right away, Melissa
and I were talking,
and this is back when we
were still in the office
and we're just like, Dr.
Kreuter, like it has to be.
So we reached out to him
and thankfully he agreed,
and the rest is history. So yeah,
- We're very grateful that
you jumped on board so quickly
too, by the way, because when we were kind
of doing our research
and meeting with other departments
of education throughout Mayo
who have done some podcasting,
we were trying to get benchmarks
and, you know, see what we needed to do.
So hosting from, I think we
even met with Rick a couple
of times ahead of time
being like, you know,
you've recorded some of these,
like, what do we need to know?
And from there we were
able to just kind of
piece it together.
- Wow. I'm super glad that
you guys had that kind
of needs assessment came out that way.
I think, I'm trying to think
back about what year that was
because you know, I think,
you know, we kind of knew
what podcasting was.
Rick, you were recording some,
I was certainly listening
to some podcasts at the time.
And yeah, when the ask came
together, then the opportunity
to hang out with you two was super cool.
'cause maybe what our
audience doesn't understand is
that I've, I've been have the
privilege of hanging out and,
and working with Melissa
and Heidi for several years
about education projects.
Their, their, their hearts also
beat for medical education.
So I was, I was super
thrilled how this kind
of came together, which
then kind of makes us kind
of talk about like, how does this work
around the podcast all,
all come together and,
and kind of what's most
surprising about it.
Maybe we can kinda tell that
story for our audience, kind
of put things front and center.
Heidi, you wanna start us off?
- Sure. Typically the
process for us is kind of,
we meet once a month with Dr.
Kreuter and brainstorm different topics.
Maybe there's trending things
happening at Mayo Clinic
or in the world, and we really
wanna cover those topics.
So then from there, Dr.
Kreuter takes it and
invites the consultants
or the guests to the podcast.
And I think the most
surprising thing for me is
how much time it does
take from start to finish
to complete the whole process. So
- Yeah, I would say regarding
the scheduling, it was,
I mean, I've scheduled things
on consultant's, calendars
and stuff before, but man, some
of your guys' calendars are insane.
So it, it's really difficult
to try to find a time
that works for you, for the
guest, that Rick is available
to do the recording
so he can get the editing and things done.
So I mean, I think that
for me has been really like eye-opening
and just having, you know,
our questions for the speakers
and the guest speakers laid out, kind
of giving everybody a chance to him
and haw over it ahead of
time, which is really nice.
But then sometimes I think people are just
so off the cuff sometimes
it, it just comes out
so conversational and so fluid
and I'm like, this was amazing.
I couldn't do that.
- And my, my job actually doesn't
start until the recording.
So, and then after, so basically
once the recording is done,
I take it and then I take it back in,
in the professional terms, I clean it up
and basically all that really
involves is taking out ums
and ahs and pauses.
And sometimes our guests will misspeak
or the.y'll start a sentence
and change in the middle of it.
So I'll, I'll clean it all up.
I add music, I add our mid-roll,
and then I send it back.
Usually that takes anywhere
between a week or so.
And then I'll send it
back to Heidi and Melissa
and then they can review it
and then it's up to them to post it.
- Yeah. So from there we take those files
and we get closed captioning for YouTube.
We post them both to
transistor and YouTube
and make sure everything's
published on Mayo Clinic
Lab's website as well.
So,
- And the social media.
- Yes. Yep.
We do create little promo ads so
that we can promote the
podcast on social media.
And Dr. Kreuter has a great Twitter
following, as you all know.
So
- It's been kind of cool to
see how that's been growing.
Right. In the sense
that this podcast originally
truly was a podcast.
Actually nobody saw us. Yeah.
What the audience doesn't know
is this is actually our first
time being here in the studio
where this was actually birthed.
Right. And,
and we were always just
recording audio only I was,
you know, very much looking at notes and,
and looking at the people
we're interviewing.
But then, then with Covid we
really kind of transitioned to,
to virtual, which then kind
of opened up the opportunity
since we had video
to get on YouTube.
Right. Which kind of,
you know, I guess, did
that change anybody's work process?
No. Whenever
we do a recording,
I record the audio and video together
and then basically I'll make two files.
I'll make an audio file only,
and then I'll make a video
file as well for Heidi
and Melissa to post on online. So
- You always did that?
Always.
- I Didn't realize that I always did that.
Only because some of my
other customers here at Mayo
who do podcasts take the video part of it
to use for promotion.
So they'll take a clip of the video
and they'll have a little clip
of an expert talking about something
and they'll use that to promote it.
And they'll put that on Instagram
or they'll put that on LinkedIn
or they'll put it somewhere
so they can get more eyeballs on it.
Sure. Yeah. So now from your
standpoint, what do you have
to do to prepare for
one of their podcasts?
Yeah, it is a great question.
One that's changed in the very beginning.
I remember we'd invite experts
and so since we were
inviting an expert in a lot
of times was, you know, kind of, we'd love
to have you on your podcast.
Like what are some,
some, you know, questions
that I could ask you, you know,
kind of deferring to their
expertise of course.
And I think those first couple asks,
of course we had people accept,
but there was a lot more
work it seemed like,
because, you know, number
one, you're asking them
to do some work to put
together the questions.
And then, you know, sometimes
people don't actually
post maybe the best questions
or ones that kind of lead to a story.
Or even just thinking about our audience
particularly, right?
So physicians, laboratory
professionals and students.
Sometimes we would have to
kind of tweak those questions
so there'd be back and forth.
And after doing that, in the
beginning, I sort of came
to appreciate, let me just try and,
and then I started where I
would actually invite somebody
to the podcast and I would
just propose four questions.
And I would say, Hey, here's
a draft, feel free to edit.
And I have to say that
probably 99% of people
just say, those are great, right?
Let's, let's go. And, and every now
and then you get people
that actually do wanna tweak
and something that works great.
But that seriously, I think
has cut down on, I think,
at least for me, the amount
of work I do going into
it in the beginning.
And then also I think from
the getting somebody to commit
and accept the invitation, I
feel like we get a little bit
of a higher success rate.
And so with all these kinds
of, the learning process
of us kind of starting from scratch,
really not knowing much about
podcasts than that, kind of,
let's take a step back
and think about what was the overall goal?
What was kind of the,
the mission statement
of the podcast when we, when we started?
- Yeah. So I remember brainstorming this.
Do you remember that meeting
Dr. Kreuter? We sat in a room.
- I remember the room.
I remember the table.
Yeah, I think we had a whiteboard.
- Yes. And we were just like
throwing ideas out there.
And we landed on connecting lab medicine
with the clinical practice
through insightful conversations
or educational conversations.
So, and really I would say
another huge goal is every episode Dr.
Kreuter does such an awesome
job of, of reaching each one
of those target audiences.
So laboratory professionals,
physicians and students.
And he always has like great takeaways.
And so it's, yeah, that's kind of,
yeah, the goal. And I will
- Say, I mean, coming from like Heidi
and my perspective, we don't
have the laboratory background.
You know, we have more
of like the business
professional side of things.
So being in those meetings with you
and just the way you draft those questions
and the way you ask people things,
I think it's really easy to follow
and understand even for someone like me
who doesn't have the background,
the medical background.
So, I mean, a lot of times the
information is over my head,
but a lot of times I
actually, I'm like, oh, okay,
I understand this better
now than what I did before.
- I have to say actually for
all three of you, I think
that it's the ultimate compliment.
Like when we finished doing a recording
and you guys are like, wow,
that was really great.
Right? Because then I, I know that, right?
We've, you know, with your
experience Rick, in, in listening
to so many podcasts and you know, Melissa
and Heidi, from your
experience in understanding
medical education, what seems
to resonate with people,
it's kind of like the
ultimate compliment of okay,
we've told a good story and
and packaged it up well.
Right, right. And for me it's
always, at least the ones
that have the greatest impact
are the ones for students.
Because you could tell
they're at the beginning
of their career and
you're giving them advice
or telling them, here's things
that these other people
have done in their careers.
And I always feel like
that those mean the most
because you're basically
helping the future generation
of physicians.
So we've done a hundred
episodes, that's a lot
to be together for four years or
however many years we've been together.
So what are your guys like,
takeaways, funny things,
things that Dr.
Kreuter does that annoys you
or that we always look forward to?
- Well, I know, 'cause we've
talked about this before.
So Rick, why don't you start with yours?
- So, because I have to edit these
and I basically sit
through the whole
recording the first time,
and then I sit through it again
as I go in and re-edit everything.
There are certain phrases that Dr.
Kreuter likes to use that keep coming up,
and I always get a
little chuckle with them.
The the one that always says is,
is it makes my heart go pitter patter.
He always says that one.
The other ones I like is,
I'm kind of curious that,
that one you say a lot
when you're interviewing
and then let's unpack that
or, or let's dive into that.
Those are a couple other things that I,
I hear frequently when I'm doing the
record, when I'm doing the editing.
Well, you didn't miss a beat there.
- He's been thinking about it for a while.
Yeah, well, a hundred
episodes, that's a lot.
Well, sorry Heidi,
but I mean, to that point we've kind
of had chuckles at your
expense from it and,
but we've included you
so you're in on it too.
But I think some of the other
stuff was just sometimes
someone would give a really great answer
and something that you hadn't thought of
that they were gonna respond
with and you go genius.
Or like, you have some
of these like phrases
and we kind of made it into a game.
We're like, oh, tally won for Genius. Yep.
We'll be behind the scenes
chatting each other on teams
and we're just like, oh,
there comes heart goes
pitter patter down.
- I have to say, right?
Like, that's something that,
like you say, I, you guys
have brought me in on that
and that's been one of the cool things
for me as a host, right?
Like, you know, life is busy
and a lot of times I'm coming
from various clinical things
and, and I think when
we kind of come together
and usually we kind of joke
about those things when we're
about to start recording, I
think that for me is my kind
of like, you know, taking
a beat, center, getting,
getting my game face on.
So to level the playing field now.
- Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah,
that's right. We all know,
- We know Rick gives some great
pointers to our presenters.
So that's how we kind of
get them settled in. Right.
And so as our audience maybe interested
in podcasting
or just curious of what
some of that prep goes,
which I know part of it
is probably getting them
to feel comfortable.
I'm kind of curious if you'd share
for our audience how you do that.
Absolutely. So a lot of people,
especially medical professionals
sometimes are great in
front of their peers giving presentations,
but the instant you stick
a camera in their face
or a microphone, it's, it's unnatural.
It's a little weird. So I always try
to get them to relax a little.
So the first thing I always
tell them when we do a mic check
to make sure I'm getting
good audio levels is I'll say
something like, tell me
what you had for breakfast,
or tell me about your favorite
vacation you've taken.
And that gets them talking
about something unrelated
to what's about to happen.
And so, and sometimes
if I can tell they're
really nervous, I'll add something.
Oh, really? What was
skiing like at Vaylor?
You know, something just to
get them talking off camera.
I always make sure that
their video looks good,
so I make sure that
there's nothing behind them
that they wouldn't want people to see.
We have had a few instances
where people had their
dirty laundry on their bed
behind them, or they had a bookshelf
with maybe some pictures of
them goofing off, you know,
on vacation or with their kids
or maybe a book title
that they didn't want
people to know about.
So I always make sure that
they, you know, take a look
around and make sure
there's nothing around
that you don't want people to see,
because people will, will look
and see what's behind them.
And then after that it's
really just, you know,
take a deep breath and, and try to relax
and try to have fun with it.
So I know for me that sparked
some fun memories. Yes,
- Sure.
Does
- Do you guys
have a favorite memory?
Keep in mind, right audience?
This is during Covid times.
As, as you know, we
don't have any professors
with their laundry in their offices. But
- Yes, I, okay, do you
guys, this is by far one
of my favorites, and if
he's listening to this,
he will know it's him, but that is okay
because he's awesome.
I remember when we first transitioned
to recording these at
home via Zoom, you know
how you can pick your background in Zoom?
We had one consultant come on,
and he looked like he
was driving a spaceship.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
So I kind of recommended you, you know,
you might want to change it to
like a Mayo Clinic background
or maybe Mayo Clinic Laboratories.
And he's like, oh, okay.
So he's like, I'll find the right one.
And I remember he scanned through
and he is like, yep, this is the one.
And it was Darth Vader in the background,
and I'm like, oh, nope,
nope, he's serious.
This is what we're rolling with.
So I just, oh yeah, it was great.
How about you, Melissa? Oh gosh.
- Well, didn't one of the physicians have
his mic in his hand? Oh
- Yeah.
- That, that is my personal favorite
because I feel like you
were saying, well, yeah, one
of the things you say when
we're prepping is kind of like,
oh, it's usually like, do
you have a headset mic?
Because you know, when you
got a headset mic, no matter
how you turn your face,
like the audio level is gonna be the same.
And this particular attending
didn't have one of those.
And, and so he said, oh yeah, no problem.
I'll, I'll, you know, hold
it right here, you know,
right in the center of
my chest and I'll talk.
And so we're like, okay.
And we get in and like,
you know, question one,
tell me a story, and all of
a sudden the mic is going out
and it's going in and I, you know, you,
you almost like think that this,
this person is like playing
the trombone or something.
I, and I just, I think I held it all eggs.
I was just like thinking, oh man,
Rick, Rick's gonna be sitting there.
I had to reverse engineer
every time he pulled it away.
I'd have to bring the levels
up and when he brought
it back, I'd have to bring him down.
- Well, and I mean, it's a podcast
and you're trying to make
it, I mean, it's not live,
but you're trying to make it
flow and things do happen.
I mean, there was what,
one episode two where one
of the consultants had a headset
and every time he would start
talking about the podcast
and like try to answer
one of your questions,
his mic would cut out completely
and it would just go silent.
Yeah. And so then we'd finally
like, like, okay, stop, stop.
We're not, we're not hearing you. Right.
And then all of a sudden
it would start working
and he is like, you can't hear me.
I'm like, well now we can. But
then he'd start talking about
the podcast and giving his
responses and it would cut out again.
- Yeah. So all of those are great stories
and yeah, always fun to have.
So let's talk about, now
we've done a hundred of these.
What do you think is
different from when we started
the first one that we
did here in this studio
to the 99th one that we've just finished?
- Okay. I'm just gonna call it
out because I can't help it.
Dr. Kreuters's hair. Can
we just talk about that?
- Are
- You talking about my covid project?
- I mean, no facial hair whatsoever.
It wasn't long when we
first started, you know,
then I think it was the long hair
and then the beard appeared.
It was just all the things.
So I feel like, you
know, we might just have
to show a progression of that because
- Oh, definitely.
That was also one of the things
that we would always laugh about.
Like, did you see Dr.
Kreuter's hair today?
Like, we haven't seen him in a month.
I know, like it has grown a lot. Yeah.
- Yeah. I had, I had to,
for the audience, I had
to trim the, the beard
once I started to kind
of get in the way of the bow
tie, so the bow type bandit.
And people would just see me reach for my,
- Yeah, I think, ah, something else
that changed a lot just from
the progression of COVID.
You know, when we started
here we had our teleprompters
going, so you could look into the camera,
you could read the intro and the outro.
That kind of all changed
when Covid came too.
And everybody was just kind of
on their own screens. Right?
So just kind of trying to remind
everybody, like, okay, if,
if you have your talking points,
that's great, keep those,
but put them maybe closer
to the camera for you.
Otherwise you're looking
here, but we're over here.
So just trying to line that kind
of just like those small
little details that
you don't really think of
right away that now seem,
you know, pretty intuitive to us.
- But
- Yeah. Yeah.
I think for me, that
reminds me of, again, one
of these things about
recording in a studio versus
how we transitioned to over Zoom.
It was like, in the studio, I
think we were pretty much bound
to, we could only record people
that were here in Rochester, Minnesota.
Right? I do distinctly
remember doing one pre covid
interview where somebody was remote,
but I was here in the studio.
And I have to say like,
that was super challenging
because I couldn't see them.
And so that was like the one interview
where I was constantly interrupting them
or they were interrupting me
because that sort of,
that, the visual cues
of somebody who is about
to speak not present.
And so that's another way,
like this transition has been really good.
Because as, as everybody knows,
we've been able to get a lot
of guests from, you know,
internationally, we've been able
to bring in a lot of students
and talk with them from a
lot of different places.
And that, that's been a really cool way
I think this podcast has,
has changed is it's been
a lot more welcoming, open
and got, got a lot more diversity.
Right. Yeah. All right.
So we've, it should be a milestone
that we've hit a hundred, which is great.
So now let's talk about the next hundred.
What do you see Dr. Kreuter
for the coming podcasts in the future?
Well, I think, you know, like we've said,
I think the important
thing for this podcast is
that we're putting together
these interesting stories
and sharing these perspectives.
So I think that going forward, we want to
lean into this diversity that we have.
And to say that it's also a challenge
because we've tried to
reach out to some people
and invite them onto the podcast
where I think people think,
oh, you know, you know, why me?
Like, wouldn't you rather have, you know,
like particularly when we've
even tried to reach out,
sometimes Allied Health is
kind of felt like, well,
there should be a
physician that's on there.
It's like, well, no, we really want
that perspective in the mix.
I have to say, our students
that we've interviewed, some
of them I've been able to reach out to,
but a lot of them have been
students that have been here
and rotated and, and proposed the idea.
So I think maybe
as we talk about leaning
into the diversity,
interviewing people from different places,
I encourage the audience,
you know, if, if you know,
we can please reach out
to us if you're interested
in sharing your story,
your perspective on some aspect
that again, bridges that,
that clinical practice and the,
and the laboratory practice.
And I think, you know, we'll
continue doing this process
of bringing out these perspectives
and, and these stories.
And what about for you guys?
What do you think next a hundred episodes?
- Well, I would just like to
kind of chime in on what Dr.
Kreuter just mentioned, is
that for anyone listening,
if you do get our emails
that we send out when
the episodes go live,
you'll see a little link at the bottom
for a quick little survey.
And if you have like thoughts or ideas
or suggestions on things that you,
as the audience want to see, we
encourage you to click there
and fill that stuff out.
We check it regularly
and we would just love to hear
what you guys all have to say about it.
- Yeah, good, good call out.
I would just say I'm just
excited to see what the next
a hundred episodes, you know,
like from when we started
day one, I definitely
didn't foresee the future
of where we are today.
I mean, it, it's been a fun journey
and probably one of my favorite projects
that we have in education right now.
So yeah, that's, thanks to you guys.
- Ditto. I mean this, this team is a joy.
And I just wanna say
hat tip for, you know,
getting this group that
has done so much work from
behind the scenes and bringing up front,
this has been wonderful to do this
reflection with each of you.
Yeah, I agree. So we've been rounding
with the full production
crew of lab medicine rounds.
So from all of us involved
in the show, all four of us,
we'd like to thank you for your support
and for joining us to
celebrate this fun milestone
of our 100th episode.
And if you have any suggestions
for the show, we invite you
to send your thoughts via email
to MCL education@mayo.edu.
And lastly, if you've enjoyed
this podcast, please subscribe
until our next rounds,
we encourage you to continue
to connect lab medicine
and the clinical practice
through insightful conversations.