Future Docs

Series produced by Kristin Espeland Gourlay

Caption: Second year medical student<br/> Peter Kaminski practices suturing on a pig's foot., Credit: Kristin Gourlay
Image by: Kristin Gourlay 
Second year medical student
Peter Kaminski practices suturing on a pig's foot. 

Future Docs is a regional Edward R. Murrow award-winning radio and online documentary project that follows two second year students through a year of medical school. These "future docs" are in training at a time when when our health care system is undergoing massive change. Can medical schools adapt quickly enough to train the next generation of doctors? Future Docs peeks through the window of two students' experiences to learn how medical schools and our major graduate medical education system is adapting to this seismic shift.

Why follow two future doctors? Well, health care as we know it is transforming. We’re moving from a doctor-centered, fee-for-service system to a more patient-centered, pay-for-quality way of doing things. Plus, we as a nation are transforming, too. We’re growing older and sicker, and scientific advances are emerging all the time to help prolong our lives. The bottom line: tomorrow’s doctors will need to know how to navigate a brand new world.

So how is medical education adapting? Find out, through the eyes of two future docs, Sarah and Peter. Follow them for a school year as they master the body's systems, encounter the nation's complex health care system, flirt with specialties, and try to keep sane despite the mounting stress.

There are 10 pieces in the series, plus a one hour documentary that encapsulates the series in a fresh way.

Future Docs was produced by Rhode Island Public Radio health care reporter Kristin Espeland Gourlay. Hide full description

Why follow two future doctors? Well, health care as we know it is transforming. We’re moving from a doctor-centered, fee-for-service system to a more patient-centered, pay-for-quality way of doing things. Plus, we as a nation are transforming, too. We’re growing older and sicker, and scientific advances are emerging all the time to help prolong our lives. The bottom line: tomorrow’s doctors will need to know how to navigate a brand new world.So how is medical education adapting? Find out, through the eyes of two future docs, Sarah and Peter. Follow them for a school year as they master the body's systems, encounter the nation's complex health care system, flirt with specialties, and try to keep sane despite the mounting stress.There are 10 pieces in the series, plus a one hour... Show full description


11 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
A Year of Future Docs, in One Hour
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Sarah and Peter are about to begin their third year of med school., Credit: Kristin Gourlay
Throughout the school year, we've been following two bright, young, future doctors. Now, we're wrapping up the journey with a one-hour documentary ...

Bought by 90.5 WESA, KZYX, KUNM, and Red River Radio Network (E. Texas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Mississippi)


  • Added: Jul 09, 2013
  • Length: 52:45
  • Purchases: 4
Future Docs 7: Sarah and Peter Reach a Milestone
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Second year medical student Sarah Rapoport grabs the mic and interviews fellow student Peter Kaminski., Credit: Kristin Gourlay
For the past school year, the series "Future Docs" has been following two Brown University medical students to see how their training is evolving w...

  • Added: Jul 09, 2013
  • Length: 05:00
Future Docs 5: Are We Training Enough New Doctors?
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Resident Brian Drolet examines a patient's burned arm., Credit: Kristin Gourlay
The nation spends billions of dollars every year training future doctors. But health care experts worry we’re still not training enough doctors to ...

  • Added: Jul 09, 2013
  • Length: 06:07
Future Docs 4: Flirting with Specialties, Treating Real Patients
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Second year medical student Sarah Rapoport, in Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School., Credit: Kristin Gourlay
We're checking in on our Future Docs, Sarah and Peter, who've nearly reached the mid-way point of their second year of medical school. Reporter Kri...

  • Added: Jul 09, 2013
  • Length: 07:15
Future Docs 3: The Changing Face of Residency
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Resident Anne Kuritzky begins morning rounds on the surgical intensive care unit., Credit: Kristin Gourlay
After medical school, most doctors go through a kind of on-the-job training called residency. Residency programs have been around for a while, but ...

  • Added: Jul 09, 2013
  • Length: 03:39
Future Docs 6: Treating an Older, Sicker Nation
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Second year medical student Peter Kaminski takes a history from a "standardized patient.", Credit: Kristin Gourlay
As a nation, we’re getting older, and we’re getting sicker. More of us than ever are over the age of 65. And more of us are suffering from at least...

Bought by Prairie Public


  • Added: Jul 07, 2013
  • Length: 07:50
  • Purchases: 1
Future Docs 8: Learning the Body's Systems...and the Health Care System
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Resident Anne Kuritzky examines a traume patient at Rhode Island Hospital., Credit: Kristin Gourlay
What do doctors need to learn in school to take the best care of you? Clearly, they need advanced medical and scientific knowledge. But should we e...

Bought by Prairie Public


  • Added: Jul 07, 2013
  • Length: 05:41
  • Purchases: 1
Future Docs 9: Teaching Medical Ethics, as the Ground Shifts
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Brown University medical ethics and emergency medicine professor, Jay Baruch, Credit: Kristin Gourlay
Some of the toughest decisions any of us will ever make will take place in a doctor’s office. But before those decisions ever come up, doctors must...

  • Added: Jul 07, 2013
  • Length: 06:47
Future Docs 10: Good luck, Sarah and Peter
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Second year medical student Peter Kaminski practices suturing on a pig's foot., Credit: Kristin Gourlay
In the final piece in the series "Future Docs," second year students Sarah and Peter are about to begin their third year in medical school, leaving...

  • Added: Jul 07, 2013
  • Length: 05:46
Future Docs 2: Rethinking medical school
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Phil Gruppuso, Brown University, Credit: Brown University
Medical school isn’t what it used to be. Budding doctors have to learn more and study harder than they ever have. And changes in the health care sy...

  • Added: Nov 20, 2012
  • Length: 03:37
Future Docs 1: Meet Sarah and Peter
From: Kristin Espeland Gourlay
Series: Future Docs
Caption: Future Docs Peter Kaminski and Sarah Rapoport, Credit: RIPR
Meet Sarah Rapoport and Peter Kaminski, second year medical students we're following as part of our year-long series, Future Docs.

  • Added: Oct 03, 2012
  • Length: 07:40

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