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Date: March 5, 2026

Today, we’re not in the studio. We’re not in Canada. We’re not even in North America. We are in Oxford. And not just Oxford, we are recording this SGEM Xtra in a pub.

This will be the second-ever SGEM PUBcast. We need to travel back in time to 2012 for the first PUBcast. That happened when I came to Oxford for a mini-fellowship at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) on how to teach evidence-based medicine (SGEM#6). I had no idea that experience would change my professional career and open so many doors for me around the world.

In that early SGEM episode, we did a structured critical appraisal of a 2011 BMJ article by Subramanian et al. called: Orthopaedic surgeons: as strong as an ox and almost twice as clever? Multicentre prospective comparative study.

That trial examined the dominant grip strength of male orthopedic surgeons compared with male anesthesiologists. No surprise, they found orthopedic surgeons had significantly greater grip strength. However, they also compared the two specialties using an intelligence score and found that orthopedists scored significantly higher than anesthetists. The SGEM bottom line was that the stereotypical image of male orthopedic surgeons as strong but stupid is unjustified in comparison with their male anesthetist counterparts.

Well, the SGEM has grown over the last 14 years, with greater than 85,000 subscribers, has been translated into four other languages, and has more than 600 episodes. Tonight, we are back in Oxford at the historic St. Aldate’s Tavern. We are surrounded by centuries of scholarship, skepticism, and possibly a few pints of beer.

Joining me to co-host this SGEM Xtra PUBcast is the wonderful Melanie Golob. She is a DPhil candidate in Evidence-Based Health Care here at Oxford. Melanie is also the HTA Program & FFS Operations Manager in the US.

Melanie Golob has been a shining star of the DPhil Program for Evidence-Based Health Care and a real ambassador of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). Some of us who are older might say you are the Julie McKoy of the DPhil program. She makes everyone feel welcome and appreciated.

Questions for Melanie Golob

Listen to the SGEM Xtra podcast on iTunes or Spotify to hear Melanie’s responses.

Question#1: Why Oxford? What drew you here for your DPhil?

  • Was it the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) specifically?
  • Is there something “statistically significant” about Oxford’s approach to EBM?
  • Does being in a place with this much academic history change how you think?
    Responds

Question#2: What is Your Research About?

  • What problem are you trying to solve with a Living Evidence Synthesis (LES)?
  • Why does “living” evidence matter?
  • Are we ready for AI-assisted living evidence?

Question#3: Advice for Future Oxford Students

  • What advice would you give someone interested in doing a DPhil in Evidence-Based Health Care?
  • What makes someone a good candidate?
  • What’s the hardest and most rewarding part?

Questions for DPhil Candidates Layal and Taylor

  • Who are you (name and where are you from), and what brought you to Oxford?
  • What is your area of research?
  • What is the most challenging thing about being at Oxford, and the best thing?

That concludes the second SGEM PUBcast. We will be back next episode, trying to cut the knowledge translation window from over 10 years to less than 1 year with the power of social media.

Remember to be skeptical of anything you learn, even if you heard it on the Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine.

Note: Other people mentioned on the PUBcast

  • Ross Drain– 4th Year Medical Student at Keble College, University of Oxford
  • Juliana Louw – 5th Year Medicine Student at University of Oxford and President of Oxford Lifestyle Medicine Society
  • Carl Heneghen – Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford
  • Liam Barrett – Emergency Medicine Trainee pursuing a DPhil in Medical Sciences at the University of Oxford
  • Nicholas De Vito – Postdoctoral researcher at the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science
  • Layal Bou Harfouch– Drug Policy Analyst at the Reason Foundation, DPhil Candidate at the University of Oxford and Founder of Omniwomyn
  • Taylor Hirschberg – CEO Scientist, AI Healthcare Researcher, Pulitzer and GLAAD nominated, Documentary Film Maker and DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford.