Career's day 2012 presentations.

Please find the slides for the career's day in this folder.

Career's day 2012 presentations

«الصحة» توقف ابتعاث الأطباء لفرنسا وألمانيا

الخميس 5 مايو 2011 الأنباء

تدرس وزارة الصحة بالتعاون مع ديوان الخدمة المدنية وإدارة التعليم العالي وقف ابتعاث الأطباء للدراسة في المانيا وفرنسا. وعزت مصادر صحية مطلعة في تصريح خاص لـ «الأنباء» هذا السبب لضعف المخرجات الدراسية للجامعات هناك في بعض التخصصات مما يجعل الطبيب غير مؤهل للعمل في مستشفيات وزارة الصحة. على صعيد آخر، طلبت وزارة الصحة 10 أجهزة جديدة للبصمة والتي ستصل قريبا، وستوزع على عدد من مرافق ديوان الوزارة لمنع حدوث الازدحام بين الموظفين ليصبح عددها 24 جهازا موزعة على جميع مرافق ديوان عام الوزارة. وذكرت مصادر أنه سيتم إعفاء فئة المستشارين في وزارة الصحة من البصمة ممن كانوا يشغلون وظائف مديري إدارة أو مراقبين سابقا في الوزارة، وذلك تقديرا لخدمتهم طوال الأعوام السابقة للوزارة والمساهمة في تطويرها.

Signup to the American Physician Scientist Association Conference April 15th-17th 2011; An opportunity to meet world-class physician scientists

If you are a medical student interested in research, this meeting should be one of the items in your to-do list! The APSA meeting provides exceptional opportunity for medical students undertaking research or considering a science career in medicine. You get to meet up with first-class physician scientists and important policy makers in medical science.

I went to APSA meeting on April last year and tremendously enjoyed it , and here is a 'summary' of the events and highlights from last year's meeting.

The meeting started with a keynote lecture by Professor E. Albert Reece (pictured), Dean of the University of Maryland Medical School. His research team is trying to figure out the mechanism of birth defects in fetuses born to mothers with type 2 diabetes mellitus. While summarizing unpublished data, he emphasized the advantage of being a physician scientist whereby the problem is identified in the clinic and taken to the laboratory for thorough investigation.

E. Albert Reece

The Noble Laureate in Medicine and Physiology, professor Joseph Goldstein (pictured) from UT Southwestern Medical Centre inspired the audience as he explained the ingredients of being a good physician scientist. In order to get his message across, he used quotes from noble laureates and other notable scientists. For example, one of the interesting quotes were for Sir Peter Medawar (pictured); ‘the intensity of a conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing over whether it is true or not.’

Professor Goldstein also emphasized the following for those about to embark on science research;

1/ Have focused research strategy

2/ Don’t become wedded to a technical gimmick

3/ Don’t confirm a finding that no longer needs reconfirmation

Following the publication of recent figures reflecting inequalities between male and female doctors in respect to a number of features including income and professorship positions, the meeting invited a panel of speakers to address the roots of this happening and how to change it. Deans of New York and Johns Hopkins were among the audience and contributed to the discussion in different ways.

Day 1 ended with a number of science talks on areas of cancer biology, mechanism of vascular disease, neurodegeneration and cell biology. Conference delegates were invited for dinner followed by drink receptions with live Jazz music at the Jay Pritzker stage in Chicago’s lively Millennium park.

Jay Prtizker

The Highlight of Day 2 was a speech given by the director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), Francis Collins (pictured) who was nominated by President Barack Obama in July 2009. Professor Collins supervised the Human Genome Project. If you don’t know him, I recommend Google; otherwise you might be able to see few clips of him playing guitar on Youtube !! He described four opportunities for the NIH to contribute to research in the US and worldwide;

1/ Using high throughput technologies to understand basic biology and uncover causes of diseases

2/ Translating basic science discoveries into better treatments

3/ Putting science to work for the benefit of health care

4/ Encouraging a greater focus on global health

During dinner, He reflected on his experience as an MD/PhD student facing a high degree of uncertainty and feeling challenged in a lab that no one spokes English very well to offer some help !! Nonetheless, it was one of Winston Churchill’s quotes hanging on the lab wall that kept his enthusiasm going despite negative results and technical difficulty – ‘’ Success is made by moving from failure to failure to failure’’!!! Keeping this in mind, together with a motivating mentor, Collins research made it to shores with a discovery of genetic locus responsible for sickle cell anaemia. Reflection does not stop at this point for Collins as he pulls out his guitar (with a symbol of the DNA helix imprinted on it) and starts singing with talent !

Later talks focused on how a study of worm biology can yield a therapeutic potential in worms, the mechanism of degenerative disease in muscle disorders and genetic strategies to modify disease pathophysiology.

We were broken into three seminars of ‘how to write a grant’, ‘residency planning’ and ‘the transition from being a medic into a scientist’. I attended the later meeting attended by MD/PhD directors of Rochester University and Stanford University. Directors spoke of perseverance as a quality to cultivate in the beginning of one’s academic career. ‘Two important points you need to remember; select a suitable lab and have perseverance’’, one of the speakers said. Choosing a lab depends on the personality of the student and their supervisors – other important points are whether you prefer working in a lab where you prefer to be left alone to do your own experiments and present whenever you have data, or else a lab where you get monitored constantly and shown what to do. Selecting the appropriate supervisor should be an informed decision of the student following a meeting with the supervisor and exploration of what other students thought of the lab.

Exchange of research ideas and critical feedback of one’s own work take place mostly in the poster session. I have been lucky to have breakfast with Dr Germino, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He came afterwards to look at my poster and provided very helpful feedback. It got more exciting when I had another prolific discussion with Prof Marcus, a distinguished scientist from Cornell University. The beauty of the meeting is that you get a chance to meet up with successful and bright physician scientists.

The last day of the conference was highlighted by talks from important physician scientists such as John Niederhuber, Director of the National Cancer Institute, and a noble laureate Ferid Murad, the director of the institute of molecular medicine at the University of Texas. In addition, I had opportunity to listen to elegant presentation of interesting science on stem cell research.

The meeting ended with a lunch with residency directors and directors of MD/PhD programmes across the US.

Even though I travelled by myself to the meeting, I felt very welcomed and accommodated by APSA members including very respectable and approachable MD/PhD colleagues. This made my stay in Chicago even more exciting !!

In short, the meeting is highly enjoyable, very educational, mind broadening and full of opportunities for collaboration and exchange of thoughts, scientific criticism and feedback, but most importantly a great way to make friends !!

So you better watch out for the next meeting ; http://meeting.physicianscientists.org/

Ayoub Dakson

Membership Committee, Manchester University/UK rep

Please email Ayoubdakson@googlemail.com for further queries.

Support Kuwait University's Community Eye Health Initiative

Fawzia Sultan Rehabilitation Institute (FSRI) has partnered with Agility to organize a RUN / WALK that will help support Kuwait University's Community Eye Health Initiative.

The Community Eye Health Initiative, developed by Kuwait University Assistant Professor and KHI board member Manal Bouhaimed, aims, through its different projects to achieve the following:

* Offer community eye health programs to raise public awareness about risk factors leading to vision impairment
* Organize educational activities for eye health professionals
* Facilitate population based research about blindness and visual impairment in Kuwait.


On Saturday, November 6, 2010 come support this initiative. Enjoy a fun day in the sun with family and friends.

WHERE: Scientific Center
TIME: 8:00AM
DETAILS: www.runq8.org

Orthopods Vs Anaesthetists

Never be the brightest person in a room !

''Getting out of intellectual ruts more often than not requires unexpected intellectual jousts. Nothing can replace the company of others who have the background to catch errors in your reasoning or provide facts that may either prove or disprove your argument of the moment. And the sharper those around you, the sharper you will become. It's contrary to human nature, and especially to human male nature, but being the top dog in the pack can work against greater accomplishments. Much better to be least accomplished chemist in a super chemistry department than the superstar in a lustrous department. By the early 1950s, Linus Pauling's scientific interactions with fellow scientists were effectively monologues instead of dialogues. He then wanted adoration, not criticism.''

from

Avoid Boring People

James Watson

Why did you choose medicine ?

''Thank you'', Mr S. replied to the consultant in charge as he started to recover from a debilitating neurological condition. I could see satisfaction and relief in his eyes and so did the consultant who looked at me with the following words ''this is what makes this job so worthwhile''. The consultant was not the tzar in managing such a condition, but he listened carefully to his patient, and he treated him with respect, dignity and kindness. He 'helped' him by providing a good service.

As medical students, sometimes we become so focused on passing exams and reading textbooks that we lose sight of what motivated us to become physicians or surgeons in the first place. Some of us are working very hard in the lab trying to figure out a scientific problem that would embark on better understanding of disease and treatment, and others investing their weekends in the wards looking after very ill people. Why do we do that? A very kind physician once said ''remember, we are here to help people''. This is the ultimate outcome to make people feel better as they leave.

This is not a matter of controversy, but it can be hard to pay attention to the individual as a whole and stop focusing entirely on treating his/her disease only. Sometimes all it needs is a touch of kindness and listening even though if this is all you can do.