I like knowing theres an end to my day when you get to go home. Flanary said he wants his peers to see themselves in his satire, to come away feeling like somebody understands. But he also hopes poking fun at the profession might help nudge doctors away from what can be a monastic self-regard. I made one too many jokes, got sent to the principals office, and received a conduct report to be signed by my dad. Written by: Will Flanarys days are spent conducting eye exams and cataract surgeries at a private practice outside Portland, Ore. At the hospital, doctors put him into therapeutic hypothermia. Theres the warm but disconcertingly studious pediatrician, the charmingly alarmist dermatologist, the meatheaded orthopedic surgeon, and Jonathan, the loyal medical scribe whose dedication borders on sociopathy. 199 per month after 30-day trial. Q: You wrote in your bio about doing stand-up, but never explained how you ended up becoming an ophthalmologist? After the trial period, membership is 199/month for 1 credit per month. These are things medical students have experienced, that residents have experienced its all relatable.. Once a month, just check yourself.'. After the initial laughs, the Glaucomfleckens walked the audience through their incredible story. In the last year, that platform became more important than ever. ", He began to develop a personal coda for how to conduct himself online. That likely means television, whether live-action, animation, or some combination thereof. Get app. There, they had their second child. The evenings are for family, and a standing commitment to make dinner for his wife and two daughters. We love taking breaks. [8] As of June 2022, his Twitter account had over 573,000 followers, and his TikTok account had over 1.5 million followers and over 58 million total likes. There are two things Ive always wanted to do in life: I started out as an amateur performing stand-up comedy in Houston, TX to sparsely attended comedy club open mics. He's an ophthalmologist in Portland, Oregon and, on the side, a comedian. His wife performed CPR on him for 10 minutes before paramedics arrived and resuscitated him. A: Every specialty in medicine has a kind of personality, an essence, and theyve been the same since the beginning of modern medicine. There is a lot of evidence that shows humour can be protective of burnout, says McKeen. William Sharp. Once at the hospital, he underwent hypothermia treatment, which involved cooling his body for 24 hours to reduce damage to the brain. A: Its been a little bit surprising, Ive just done it as a creative outlet. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that neurologist Anna Nordvig was among those who had reacted to Will Flanary's videos. So the ophthalmologist, who moonlights as a comedian on social media, knows well the importance of laughter as a prescription for coping with bad news. But it was the emotional and mental recovery that took some time., He turned back to comedy, something he had been doing since high school, to process what he went through. William E. Flanary, M.D. with the Glaucomfleckens. Like many things involving TikTok, the Dr. Glaucomflecken phenomenon was born out of boredom. My Dr. The Glaucomflecken repertory theater began to grow. The trauma surgeon laughed really hard at the part where the surgeon tells the medical student hes mad at the student for not being psychic. Dr. Flanary is an ophthalmologist who specializes in satirizing the medical field with hilarious social media skits. Not to be confused with, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, "The internet's funniest doctor is in on the joke", "Doctor who had testicular cancer twice in his 20s urges men to 'check yourself', "MD Class of 2022 Selects William Flanary, MD, (aka Dr. Glaucomflecken) as Its Commencement Speaker", "TikTok star Dr. Glaucomflecken uses humour as prescription in hard times", "How Dr Glaucomflecken Overcame Death to Get Internet Laughs", "How America Can Rebuild the Community Bonds It Needs to Face the Next Pandemic", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dr._Glaucomflecken&oldid=1141489996, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 09:24. He was educated at Texas Tech University,[3] where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in cell and molecular biology. [5][7], Flanary created the Dr. Glaucomflecken Twitter account in 2016 out of boredom at a research conference. Thats why I love building this Glaucomflecken General Hospital of characters, Flanary told STAT. (He has joked, "It's so easy even an ophthalmologist can do it.") In February alone, Dr Glaucomflecken released nine installments of his ongoing 60-second video series, in which a hapless medical student is thrown into the deep end by various specialists,. Diagnosis Compression gonioscopy is key to properly diagnosing an acute angle closure. Merchandise is in development, and hes plotting a way to translate what works on TikTok into a longer-form episodic format. Dr. Glaucomflecken will deliver the keynote address during EMS World Expo, Sept. 14-18, 2020. My mom kicked me out of her 6th grade language arts class. "I went the much easier route of becoming a doctor." I saw, Oh theres a big appetite for this. Paramahansa Yogananda, Written by: Hello and welcome to Knock-Knock. The characters bounce off one another, either to illustrate some irksome aspect of medicine or simply to be the butt of a joke. Audible is a membership service that provides customers with a huge selection of audiobooks as well as podcasts, exclusive originals and more. Q&A with William A. Flanary, MD, aka Dr. Glaucomflecken, provides a glimpse into his experience surviving cardiac arrest. Chris Widener, Written by: "OK, OK, send me all your consults," he told the audience. Ashish Bagrecha, Permanent Roommates: He Said, She Said, Season 2, Written by: She was alone, he said. Daniel Kahneman. "We did, like, eight cases in a day. "Comedy is a way to assert some sort of power over a situation in which you feel powerless," Flanary says. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. After all, you got an ophthalmologist to come in on a Saturday!, I've learned a lot about emergency medicine and the role you play in your communities, really acting as a safety net for society. That can be a tricky proposition. Doctors still don't know what caused his cardiac arrest in the first place. The audience was rapt as they listened to her 911 phone call. I can make a second career out of finding testicular cancer which would be really weird for an ophthalmologist to do. He paused. In May 2020, his heart suddenly stopped beating in the middle of the night. You cant tell jokes. We dont like to work for long periods of time. I may be retired. In the months since, the Flanarys have worked to make something of their experience. In the end, he went through with the surgery and underwent hormone replacement therapy. Titles added to your Library with a credit are yours to keep, even if you cancel. What I think [Flanary] does well in general and perhaps why hes never been canceled is that his humor is typically one of two things: wholesome, or relatable to everybody within the medical community, said Sarah Mojarad, who teaches a course on social media for doctors and scientists at the University of Southern California. You cant talk about the problems that you have in your job without sacrificing professionalism. How do you know the little idiosyncrasies so well? Flanary has loved medicine almost as long as he has loved making people laugh. Its wrong, but its also true, said the surgeon. She first came across Dr. Glaucomflecken four or five years ago. Ashneer Grover, Written by: And it does help you put a different perspective on things.. "I've walked out of my home office into some very strange situations," Kristin says. Since then, it has evolved to incorporate satire of the US healthcare system, academic publishing, and the interpersonal conflicts that are pervasive in the medical system. Thats effectively a personality loves to sit down.. "But he healed so quickly, it was like nothing ever happened." Q&A with William A. Flanary, MD, aka Dr. Glaucomflecken, provides a glimpse into his experience surviving cardiac arrest. "One time, I walked out and he was in full clown makeup with Pagliacci music playing." [TikTok plays] Speaker 1: Good afternoon, sir. Exclusive analysis of biotech, pharma, and the life sciences. According to reports, only one to two per cent of testicular cancer survivors develop it again in the other testicle - but he was unfortunately one of those survivors. Q: How did this whole social media gig get started? Then, the surprise bills arrived accumulating charges for out-of-network care he received in the depths of his health crisis. ". We have a real delight today. Theres no benefit to it. That's a golden rule in comedy that demands jokesters protect the vulnerable and lampoon the powerful. There are many YouTube reaction videos from doctors on Flanarys assessments of their character such as trauma surgeon David Hindin and neurosurgeon Martin Rutkowski who say the portrayals are spot-on. "And then I remember getting to know him and going, 'Oh crap.' "Nobody really likes a nag," Kristin says. A: Thats a good example of one that surprised me. A: Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, needs to learn CPR. Three days later, he woke up in an ICU bed, recovering from a cardiac arrest. He described the diagnosis as 'really hard' - especially since he was healthy and athletic at the time and didn't see it coming - and he recalled everything 'crashing down on him.'. It meant that he would have to go on hormone replacement therapy for the rest of his life." He practices in Oregon City, Oregon and lives in Portland, Oregon. The criticism that rankles Flanary most is that his humor is "unprofessional." TikTok video from Dr. Glaucomflecken (@drglaucomflecken). I've also learned that no matter what, none of you will ever learn how to use a slit lamp correctly., After the initial laughs, the Glaucomfleckens walked the audience through their incredible story. At the time, Flanary told CTV News, "If Id known that it would turn into this I would have chosen an easier name to say. During his third year of medical school, he discovered a lump in his testicle. For nonmedical personnel, Flanarys videos give insight and a few tips in dealing with a world most only see from the patient side. Dr. Glaucomflecken hasn't responded to me and probably won't. Go ahead and share this so he gets the message. Your membership will automatically continue for 199/month after the first 30 days, and you can cancel anytime. In Germany, your oral-practical exam to graduate from med school includes each a professor/examiner from internal medicine, surgery, a specialty of your choice and a wildcard specialty. Please confirm that you would like to log out of Medscape. "Now I'm at the point of no return. 2023 American College of Emergency Physicians. So he turned to the internet. Ive gotten the most backlash from family medicine/primary care doctors. Flanary suffered a form of cardiac arrest called ventricular fibrillation, in which the hearts lower chambers flutter erratically, cutting off the flow of blood to the rest of the body. A: It went well. This version has been corrected. 6 months ago Why turning off anesthesia is more complicated than flipping a switch - Reaction to. All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright 1994-2023 by WebMD LLC. Severe Weather In February alone, Dr Glaucomflecken released nine installments of his ongoing 60-second video series, in which a hapless medical student is thrown into the deep end by various specialists, from an elbow-patched psychiatrist to a mountain-biking emergency medicine doctor. It took the first responders five shocks, three rounds of epinephrine, and a dose of amiodarone to get Flanary's heartbeat back. That led to writing for the schools satirical magazine, and Flanary contributed to GomerBlog, a sort of medical analog to The Onion, through his training in ophthalmology. Dr. Glaucomflecken saved the day with just the right amount of humor and hitting the provided talking points to a T. Annie December 13th, 2022 Other This was really great, thank you so much. In closing, she asked the audience to pay attention to the families of patients, the ones who are walking through the trauma alongside them. 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That continued into the internet era, initially with posts for GomerBlog and now on his strangely named social media channels. He sipped from his diet coke while showing off his skin-tight, belly-baring cycling jersey with matching bike helmet and sunglasses. During his third year of medical school, he discovered a lump in his testicle. A: They may not get some of the terminology, some of the jokes, but they get the personalities, and that resonates with people. He was diagnosed the first time in his third year of medical school and then a second time in his third year of residency, he said. Since 2016, when Flanary launched the pseudonymous Twitter account at a research conference because he was "bored as hell" Dr G's comedy has earned him hundreds of thousands of followers who eagerly await his next punchline. Social media star and comedian Dr. Glaucomflecken, aka ophthalmologist William E. Flanary, MD, along with his wife, Kristin Flanary, MA, shared social media insights as well as his experience as an ICU patient during his presentation of the Peter Safar Honorary Lecture, "Wife and Death: Featuring Dr. and Lady Glaucomflecken," on January 22, 2023, Kristin is a superhero in her own right. As graduation approached, the couple seemed to be going in different directions literally. On the night of May 11, 2020, his heart went haywire. Q: A lot of the doctors you portray have very specific personality traits. To comment please, Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. Transcript Will: [00:00:00] Knock, knock, knock. As a bonus they are also joined by Will's wife Kristen Flannary, aka Lady Glaucomflecken. In December 2015, he made his first (anonymous) contribution to GomerBlog, in the form of a satirical news report headlined "Ophthalmologist Accidentally Agrees to See Inpatient Consult. We're going to have a conversation with Dr Will Flanary, an ophthalmologist and comedian also known, in the medical community and beyond, as Dr. Glaucomflecken.. This interview has been lightly edited for style and clarity. Things patients do while waiting for the doctor | Take a nap | Play with expensive medical instruments | . If you're new to Audible, you can take free membership trial for 30 days. Hi. Whos to say what 2024 might bring? It was my coping mechanism. He started doing stand-up, the hardest thing in the world, while in college at Texas Tech University. "It was almost like stand-up in a way," he says. If you are asking a question, don't forget to check the sub FAQs, or do a search of the sub to see if your question has been answered already.. Failure to follow rules may result in your post being removed, or a ban. Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. Thats kind of the way it works with me with humor. Flanary grew up in Houston, Texas. 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