Welcome to How to Start a Medical Podcast where I break down the steps necessary to start a medical podcast into a systems-based approach. My goal for this podcast is to increase the number of medical podcasts available.
My name is Pharmacy Joe. I am a board certified clinical pharmacist and the host of The Elective Rotation – A Critical Care Pharmacy Podcast.
To get a 3 page free pdf of all the resources I use to podcast, head over to howtostartamedicalpodcast.com.
In this episode I’ll cover the first 3 of 6 systems for launching your medical podcast. I will discuss the Neurologic system of podcasting (choosing the topic and intended audience for your podcast), the Alimentary system of podcasting (the guts of the equipment and software used to make a podcast), and the Hematologic system of podcasting (where to find the content for each episode that you will circulate through to your podcast audience).
Neurologic system of podcasting
First, the neurologic system of podcasting- which includes choosing your podcast topic, selecting your intended audience, and choosing your podcast name and artwork.
It is important to spend some time deciding what the topic of your podcast will be. Even if you have a professional medical degree, a podcast about general topics of nursing, pharmacy, or medicine would probably be too broad of a range of topics to keep an audience engaged. I made my podcast topic critical care pharmacy. Even with a relatively narrow niche I have plenty of listeners that include nurses, doctors, pharmacists, students, and residents. The trick to finding a topic that you’ll be able to stick with consistently is to find where your passion intersects your expertise.
It is also a good idea to think about who your perfect listener is. This is especially helpful when recording; I imagine I am speaking directly to my perfect listener.
You’ll need to pick an appropriate name for your podcast and attractive artwork for display in iTunes and other podcast directories that you’ll list your podcast in.
Alimentary system of podcasting
Second, the alimentary system of podcasting – the equipment and software that make up the guts of recording your podcast. Each piece of equipment and software that I recommend for podcasting is listed in my free 3 page pdf which you can get at howtostartamedicapodcast.com.
Investing in a great microphone is the single best thing you can do to improve the quality of your podcast. You don’t need to spend more than $60, but you shouldn’t plan on spending much less than this amount either. You just can’t use the built-in microphone in your computer – the quality is too poor and your listeners deserve better. The microphone I use is the Audio Technica ATR 2100. I also use two pieces of optional equipment – a mixer and a digital recorder. These pieces of equipment save me about 30 minutes of time in the editing step for producing my podcast.
In addition to the 3 pieces of equipment, there are 3 different software programs I use to produce my podcast. I use the free, no-frills cross-platform software Audacity to edit my podcasts and I use Auphonic to process my audio file afterwards. Auphonic provides 2 hours per month of processing free, helps to remove noise, and normalize the loudness of my audio file. Finally, I use ID3 editing software to place the ID3 tags on my file that let podcast players know the episode title, number, author, and show summary.
Hematologic system of podcasting
Third, the hematologic system of podcasting – where I find the content to circulate through my show. Finding content for a medical podcast is very easy. Chances are there is an endless supply of journal articles and medical blogs in your niche that can be used to provide inspiration for content.
In the next episode, I’ll cover the Cardiac, Respiratory, and Infectious Systems of podcasting (how to host your website & audio files, record, edit, publish & promote your podcast).
To get the 3 page free pdf of all the resources I use to podcast, head over to howtostartamedicalpodcast.com.
Thank you for listening, I’ll see you in the next episode.
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