Interview: Zubin Damania MD aka ZDoggMD

Interview with hard-rhymin rapper and hospitalist Zubin Damania MD (ZDogg MD) Slightly funnier than pacebo.

Did you ever wonder what kind of doctor you were going to be when you grew up? A hard-rapping stand up comic hospitalist with a penchant for drafting lyrics like, "I remembered she's demented with a nasty case of C.diff", and "I got one glove like Michael Jackson, but it's made of latex and it's your prostate I'm waxin'!" or calling Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz 'Sucker MDs' might not be it.

But that's exactly what Zubin Damania MD does, and it's worked.

Zubin started out as a mullet-wearing, Costco card carrying rockabilly and ended up (so far) working as a hospitalist at Stanford and making video satire with his pediatrician buddy Dr. Harry on ZDoggMD.com (winner of the MedGadget Best New Weblog of 2010) as well as writing for Freelance MD. You can read all of Zubin's posts on Freelance MD here.

In this interview, Zubin discusses where he started and puts his current practice as well as his passion for combining entertainment and patient education in clear perspective.

ZDogg MD Video: Doctors Today

Interview with ZDoggMD

Part 1: Where did you come from?

In this video: oranges, UC Berkeley, UCSF, Stanford, Costco, physician parents, residency, Gastroenterology, feculent smelling burp juice, working for someone else, hospitalist, comedy, UCSF graduation speech, slightly funnier than placebo, youtube.

Part 2: Why are you doing what you're doing?

In this video: passion, entrepreneurship, opportunity, preventing ulcer disease, safe sex, physician burnout, testicular self exam, megalomania.

Part 3: What advice would you give to medstudents?

In this video: medical school advice, who you are, niches in medicine, pressure, jerks and homeless patients, kids, purpose and passion, picking a specialty, residency, real doctors, friends and rectums, vasovagal party jokes.

Part 4: What mistakes have you made and learned from?

In this video: Mistakes, lifeinthefastlane.com, Mike Cadogan, wasting time, making money, cynicism, jerks, doctors and credibility, Osamacare, targeting your audience, standup comedy, hearing aids and dying onstage.

Techcrunch Interview (includes Hemorrhoid rap!)

In this video from Techcrunch Rhymes and Medicine: Hemorrhoid rap, Snoop Dog, Tony Hsieh, Zappos, Delivering Happiness, educating, Youtube, unprofessional behavior, a human face on medicine, internet patients and Google, medical technology, iPad, medicines culture of unhappiness.

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Finding Your Lifesytle Niche As An MD

ZDoggMD (AKA Zubin Damania MD) is a hospitalist who's kickin'it his own way.

ZDogg's interview with TechCrunch TV discussing finding your niche and being happy as a physician.

ZDogg is a genuine doctor who uses YouTube as a creativity outlet to teach people about things like safe sex, delivering bad news, stayin’ healthy on vacation and hemorrhoids. When Hsieh asked how the world of being a doctor was going for him, ZDogg answered that he loved it but was frustrated with the fact that he couldn’t be himself. He told Tony that he’d love an outlet to share the raps he composes with a wider audience, hopefully to give people a good laugh but also to teach them a medical thing or two. Tony, being the zen like guy that he is, responded, “Why don’t you do it then?”. And so he did. The results are in the links above.

It's The Hard Docs Life

Clinical medicine still has some humor left.

I ran accross ZdoggMD (Zubin Damania MD) on LinkedIn. He's a doc that has a rather specialized niche in medical comedy and produces music videos like this one. 

Thanks to ZdoggMD.com

Yo, ZDoggMD dropping some mad verse ’bout the struggles of being a hospitalist. Strictly for my homies!

Here are the lyrics.

It’s the Hard Doc’s Life for us
Hospital Doc’s Life for us
Specialists, they got it made
We do the work while they get paid
It’s the Hard Doc’s Life

From standing on the unit roundin’
To learning some of the thickest charts a doc has ever seen
and hearing some of the sickest hearts a doc has ever heard
Do the weekend, working nights and, all the shifts between
You know me well from Pull & Pray and the Ulcer Rap
Still I take crap from insurance and the housestaff
Eff that

To PCPs treatin’ sick folks
Mad props
While the consultant’s tellin’ dick jokes
That flop

I fill out paperwork all day long
No doubt
Then nurses tell me that I did it wrong
White out

See 20 patients but get paid squat, uh uh
The radiologist just bought a yacht, what the?!?
Nurses be laughin’ at the ties I bought
Shop frugally and save money at Marshalls and Ross
Payless
They call a code when I come thru
Just don’t be asking me to run it, man, I got notes to do.

It’s the Hard Doc’s Life for us
Orthopods consulting us
See their train wrecks every day
They fix the bone then walk away
It’s the Hard Doc’s Life

I flow for those gomed out; sundowning
Locked down in the Posey vest, just tryin’ to bust out
I roll with old folks, got no veins for IV pokes
Septic and found down, in stool, a Code Brown
Yellow gown itchin’, deep in debt from med school tuition
c diff, MRSA, up in my kitchen?!?

Intern’s bitchin’ bout work hours, he’s checkin’ the clock
But I’mma be on call whether I’m on call or not
We went from lukewarm to hot; fillin’ the hospitals with docs
Who practice evidence based logic like Spock
Straight talk from my homies who work in the ED
Mad luv, ‘less you’re calling ’bout another syncope
I disagree with the phony UM docs, mess with my homies
I’m like still, y’all don’t control me, s***
I like to bill, but when my patient census ain’t improving
I’m tryin’ to dispo everything moving

It’s the Hard Doc’s Life for us
Too many patients for each of us
Try to discharge, make ‘em pack
Overdo it, they bounce back
It’s the Hard Doc’s Life for us
Hospital Doc’s Life for us
Hardest job we’ll ever do
Next to cleanin’ baby poo
It’s the Hard Doc’s Life

About: Zubin Damania MD is a physician specializing in inpatient internal medicine and a member of the multi-specialty Palo Alto Medical Foundation. He practices at Stanford University Medical Center and Washington Hospital (in Fremont, CA). His current project merges his medical background with his extensive experience teaching and performing stand-up comedy for diverse audiences. As ZDoggMD, he writes, performs, produces, and distributes satirical yet educational videos and music relating to important topics in healthcare.