Podcast · Health

Pomegranate Health

by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians · English · Health

Pomegranate Health is a podcast about the culture of medicine. You'll hear clinicians, researchers and advocates discuss all aspects of professionalism and quality improvement in healthcare. This includes clinical ethics, diagnostic bias, better communication and more equitable systems. For a samp

New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 42 min
Latest: 11 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

11 Oct 2026 · 26 minNew

[IMJ On-Air] Race-neutral equations for classification of lung function

Spirometry reference equations are central to differentiating obstructive ventilatory defects, like asthma and bronchiectasis from restrictive ventilatory defects, like sarcoidosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Across the population, the metrics of lung function testing fall out on a bell-curve, and a person’s predicted score if health can be determined by putting their sex, age and height into a reference equation. The shape of this bell curve does change from one population group to t...

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E158 · 1 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Ep158: Iron infusions and fracture risk. A safety signal for ferric carboxymaltose
One in twenty Australian women of reproductive age are treated with intravenous iron supplementation, almost exclusively with ferric carboxymaltose. Usually sold under the name Ferinject or also Ferricarbo and Ferivo, this formulation is well-known to reduce serum phosphate in 50 to 70% of patients taking it, recently published findings reveal that it is associated with a significant increase in fracture risk and osteomalacia. Cohort studies presented in July in the journal Blood show...
E157 · 22 Sep 2026 · 36 min
Ep157: AI models for discharge letters and clinical coding
In part 1 of this series we talked about the efficiency gains from use of ambient scribes observed in some hospital settings. In this episode we discuss other opportunities that arise from granting large language models access to all the notes and test results in the patient record. The potential comes most clearly into perspective in regards to discharge summaries. Discharge from hospital is a notorious example of discontinuity in care, with up to half of discharged patients experienci...
E156 · 14 Sep 2026 · 37 min
Ep156: AI scribes in hospital
The burden of clinical documentation is one of the top reasons given for job dissatisfaction in medicine. Physicians typically give up an hour of personal time per shift to complete paperwork and the frustration is experienced by patients too, who sometimes feel that their doctors are more focused on the computer. The promise of ambient AI scribes is that they could slash the time you spend hovering over the keyboard and in general practice some 40 percent of Australian GPs are using scribes ...
E155 · 31 Aug 2026 · 34 min
[Contagious Conversations] H5N1 avian flu hits our shores
The avian flu H5N1 known as 2.3.4.4b has been tearing around the globe since 2021 causing significant mortality in sea birds and mammals. The Australian and New Zealand mainland were the last holdouts, but this virus was first detected near Esperance, WA on June 20th 2026 and then near Wellington, NZ on Jul 14th. Both cases involved a bird known as the brown skua, which travels across the Southern Ocean, and by August 24th the H5N1 had also been confirmed in fur seals in South Australia and a...
E154 · 17 Aug 2026 · 47 min
Ep154: Delabelling penicillin allergy FAST
Allergies to first-line antibiotics complicate care, and use of broad-spectrum alternatives is associated with prolonged hospital stays and increased rates of admissions to ICU. It also makes emergence of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens more likely. Ten to 16% of adult patients are marked in the record as being allergic to penicillins but the majority of these labels are applied inaccurately or have become outdated over time. While skin-prick testing is a safe and reliable way to del...
E153 · 3 Aug 2026 · 46 min
REWIND<< Medical fitness to drive
This popular episode was first published in 2019. Australia and NZ are made up of sprawling cities and far-flung towns and driving is often viewed as a fundamental freedom. It can be hard for clinicians to challenge that freedom with patients who they consider unfit to drive safely. And harder still to deal with the consequences if a patient does have a crash. There are diagnoses that should raise red flags for driving fitness in various specialty areas, and a clinician can be drawn in...
E152 · 12 Jul 2026 · 46 min
[Contagious Conversations] Approaching HIV elimination
This is the second episode of in the series, [Contagious Conversations] from the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases. Expert guests in this series will come from right across the interface of research, clinical care and public health. In today’s episode we look at the immense progress that has been made over three decades in the management of HIV. Once a fatal diagnosis, the disease can now be completely controlled by anti-retroviral therapy. Access to prophylactic treatment has als...
E151 · 30 Jun 2026 · 22 min
[RACP LIFT] What you need to know about metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease
This episode is a teaser for RACP LIFT 2026, a series of in-person events to promote Learning, Innovation and Forward Thinking. Coming up on the 1st of August in Melbourne there will be a Rapid Fire Clinical Update on Respiratory medicine, infectious diseases and critical illness. And on the 20th In Brisbane another one themed around Palliative medicine and also population health. In March, the Sydney RACP offices hosed a meeting on cardiometabolic and vascular health, and the talk shared her...
E150 · 14 Jun 2026 · 42 min
REWIND<< Drug Interactions and deprescribing
Adverse drug events cause 5-15% of admissions to hospital and drug-drug interactions make up about a fifth of these. Most common are pharmacodynamic situations where two drugs have a similar outcome thereby overdoing the intended outcome. Pharmacokinetic interactions are more complicated to understand as they’re more indirect. For example, while medications are cleared by oxidative metabolism in the liver and gut, there are many drugs that interfere with the function of the cytochrome enzymes...
E149 · 1 Jun 2026 · 42 min
Ep149: Could it be syphilis?
Syphilis is often thought of as a disease from the historic literature, but in August last year, it was declared a Communicable Disease Incident of National Significance by Australia’s Chief Medical Officer. Case numbers have grown year on year since it became a notifiable disease in 2004, peaking at around six and a half thousand in 2023. Syphilis is sometimes described as ‘the great imitator’ because it can have so many different presentations. And it can hide away for years before re...
E148 · 4 May 2026 · 50 min
[Contagious Conversations] Responding to vaccine hesitancy
Contagious Conversations is a new series brought to you by ASID, the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases. Once a month, these podcasts will explore evolving evidence and real-world challenges for the practice of ID medicine. The hope is that you’ll come away with practical knowledge to support your clinical confidence and continuous learning. Expert guests in this series will come from right across the interface of research, clinical care, and public health. Today we st...
E147 · 21 Apr 2026 · 48 min
REWIND<< Genomics for the generalist
In Pomegranate > we go back to some classic episodes from the last ten years that have stood the test of time. The first throwback takes us back to 2017 with episodes 20 and 21 titled “Genomics for the Generalist.” While there’s been a flood of genomic discoveries since this story was first published, it’s still a good primer on fundamental concepts and everyday challenges for the physician advising a patient. The expert guests include a genetic pathologist, a clinical ge...
E146 · 5 Apr 2026 · 56 min
Ep146: Dealing with the next pandemic 2- lockdowns and human rights
While waiting for COVID-19 vaccines to be rolled out, Australian jurisdictions adopted strong social restrictions to minimise community transmission of the virus. It’s estimated that together, these public health measures spared around 50,000 lives up to December 2022 and that vaccines saved three times as many again. While this public health response the pandemic is described as one of the most effective in the world it did cause unintended social harms and lingering resentment. Our leaders ...
E145 · 30 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
Ep145: Dealing with the next pandemic 1- border closures and vaccine mandates
While waiting for COVID-19 vaccines to be rolled out, Australian jurisdictions adopted strong social restrictions to minimise community transmission of the virus. It’s estimated that together, these public health measures spared around 50,000 lives up to December 2022 and that vaccines saved three times as many again. While this public health response the pandemic is described as one of the most effective in the world it did cause unintended social harms and lingering resentment. Our leaders ...
E144 · 15 Mar 2026 · 24 min
[Case Report] 62yo undergoing procedure for a lung nodule
A 62‐year-old man is undergoing a CT‐guided core biopsy of a lung nodule when he develops an iatrogenic pneumothorax. After admission to the Royal Adelaide hospital he has ongoing dyspnoea, oxygen desaturation, and chest pain not helped by a preexisting Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The treatment for the patient’s symptoms doesn’t immediately go to plan but his care team apply a combination of recent technologies to bring the condition under control. Pomegranate [Case Reports] have b...
E143 · 1 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
Ep143: On the ground with MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières has projects in more than 70 countries that might be affected by natural disasters, armed conflict or disease outbreaks. Its clinics see over two million emergency room admissions a year and another 16 million outpatient consults. Emergency Paediatrics consultant Josephine Goodyer and ID consultant Tasnim Hasan are two of more than a hundred Australians and New Zealanders who contributed to MSF’s missions last year. Between them they have covered practice settings as ...
E142 · 16 Feb 2026 · 30 min
[Case Report] 75 yo with a porcelain aorta
A 75 year-old man with severe aortic stenosis is deemed unsuitable for surgery on the basis of a porcelain aorta detected with cross-sectional imaging. The patient had, a decade earlier, been diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy after presenting with cardiac arrhythmia. A dual chamber ICD was implanted at the time for secondary prevention and other comorbidities were managed. The patient is now being considered for staged alcohol septal ablation (for the HCM) and transcatheter aor...
E141 · 2 Feb 2026 · 41 min
Ep141: Space Medicine Part 2- really remote practice
The record for the longest space-flight is held by physician-cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov. Back in 1994-95, he spent 437 days on the Mir space station and grew 4 centimetres in height through elongation of his spine in micro-gravity. Polyakov had an uncomfortable ride back to Earth in the very precisely customised descent module. Microgravity also causes demineralization of weight-bearing bones that is faster than age-related decline. But the cosmonaut had worked out religiously for the en...
E140 · 2 Feb 2026 · 38 min
Ep140: Space Medicine Part 1- radiation and retinopathy
In 2027, NASA’s is planning to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in 53 years with the expectation that there will be a permanent base there by the early 2030s. And the ever-humble Elon Musk reckons he’ll be sending people to Mars by then too. This has prompted a renewed interest in the prolonged effects of space travel on the human body, and a lot of fascinating research has been conducted aboard the International Space Station over the last two decades. The main obje...
E139 · 4 Dec 2025 · 29 min
[Case Report] 72yo with anterior uveitis
A 72-year-old female presents to an Adelaide emergency department with bilateral eye pain and redness lasting several days. She has a history of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and age-related macular degeneration for which she has received a range of medications. Anterior uveitis is identified as the proximal cause of the ocular pain but there are many possible aetiologies that require careful consideration. Pomegranate [Case Reports] have been developed to help Trainees rehearse diagnost...
E138 · 8 Oct 2025 · 56 min
Ep138: Amyloid busters- the benefit and the burden
Australia has just approved a second amyloid-targeting therapy for patients with incipient Alzheimer’s dementia. Lecanemab (Leqembi) now joins donanemab (Kisunla) on the Australian Registry of Therapeutic Goods but the impact of both has been modest in Phase III trials to date. After 18 months of therapy they delay progression of disease, as quantified on neurocognitive tests, by around 5 months on average. For some, the prolonged independence and dignity will justify the $60,000...
E137 · 24 Sep 2025 · 23 min
[Case Report] 27yo with left limb weakness and a mediastinal mass
A 27-year-old male wakes up with weakness in the left arm and leg and gets himself admitted at Royal Adelaide Hospital. Shockingly, for an otherwise well young man with no significant medical history, a right middle cerebral artery acute ischaemic stroke is identified by CT angiogram. His condition deteriorates in hospital, and a mediastinal mass is discovered on review which gives a lead as to the distal cause. This conversation describes the expedient workup and methodical consideration of ...
E136 · 4 Sep 2025 · 45 min
[IMJ On-Air] DKA and insulin infusion protocols
Diabetic ketoacidosis can be life-threatening but there’s some variability in the way it’s managed between health settings. Intervention involves intravenous insulin administration, hydration, electrolyte replacement and treatment of the underlying precipitant. In a survey of practitioners from 31 different hospitals in Australia there was an even split between those organisations which followed a fixed rate insulin infusion protocol, usually based on bodyweight, or a variable rate infusion p...
E135 · 22 Aug 2025 · 32 min
Ep135: “Wherefore a Pomegranate?” and other classics from the last ten years
Pomegranate Health has been streaming since June 2015, so we’re going to share a few more classic eps from the last ten years. First up, presenter Mic Cavazzini digs deep to find the origins of the pomegranate, featured not just on this podcast but on the crest of the RACP. The journey starts 500 years ago at an unlikely place, the marriage of Henry VIII and the first of his six wives. You’ll find much of the pageantry reproduced at the web page. We then hear from the wonderful staff at...
E134 · 4 Aug 2025 · 47 min
[IMJ On-Air] Microbleeds and Memory
Cerebral microbleeds are a finding on MRI that are usually asymptomatic. There are two main aetiological pathways, one occurring as a result of uncontrolled hypertension and the other from the accumulation of amyloid-beta peptide. The link between cerebral amyloid angiopathy and Alzheimer’s Disease is not understood and even the impact that cerebral microbleeds more generally have on cognition. For the study discussed today, clients of an Australian memory clinic were retrospectively as...
E133 · 24 Jul 2025 · 23 min
[Case Report] 46yo with psychosis and cold intolerance
A 46-year old man is admitted to hospital following a first time presentation of psychosis that involved barricading himself inside a neighbour’s home. At admission he appears disorganised with slow movements and speech. His rambling reveals bizarre delusional beliefs of a paranoid and persecutory nature. At moments he shows aggression towards staff but when examines reports occasional dizziness and an intolerance of cold. Physical examination reveals cool peripheries, sparse axillary and pub...
E132 · 8 Jul 2025 · 35 min
Ep132: Ten Years of Pomegranate Health
Pomegranate Health marks ten years of podcasting since its launch in June 2015. This episode will be one of two samplers that dip into the back catalogue of 131 episodes to showcase some of the most compelling stories. You’ll hear how podcast themes are identified from all the domains of medicine and professionalism. And a little bit about the motivations of long-time producer and presenter, Mic Cavazzini. Pomegranate Health has several thousand listeners in over 150 countries. Three quarters...
E131 · 19 Jun 2025 · 55 min
Ep131: The semantics of CPR
In this podcast we discuss low-value care that has emerged from a decay in the specificity of the terms “cardiac arrest” and “cardiopulmonary resuscitation.” Patients who experience cardiac arrest in hospital are rarely more than a minute or two away from defibrillation. But the proportion of shockable rhythms in these patients is low as the heart has typically stopped after the decline of other systems. In such conditions, chest compressions are more likely to cause unnecessary trauma than i...
E130 · 29 May 2025 · 55 min
Ep130: "The motherhood penalty"
Despite filling more than half of places in Australian medical schools, women represent 45 per cent of all medical practitioners and just 36 per cent of specialists. Female representation dwindles further in many areas of clinical leadership, prompting what has been termed a “leaky pipeline”. It has been reported that women would progress at similar rates to men, and achieve similar remuneration, were it not for the time taken out from the profession to raise children. In this podcast we disc...

About Pomegranate Health

Pomegranate Health is a English health podcast from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: the Royal Australasian College of Physicians
Language: English
Category: Health
New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 42 min
Latest episode: 11 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1022747864

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