New Irish Intern Recruitment Process

For Irish graduates who are keen on doing an intern year, the application deadline is May 6th for jobs starting in July.

You can access all the relevant information here: http://www.hse.ie/eng/staff/jobs/Interns_SHOs_Registrars/Intern_Doctors/

My Personal Tips for the Step 1 by CartoonDoc

This was posted by CartoonDoc (A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor: http://doccartoon.blogspot.com/) on studentdoctor.net's forum.

1. Your worst subject which will comprise 50% of the exam. The other 50% of the test will be on the female pelvis.

2. Most exam takers will bring ear plugs to protect themselves against noisy people in the room. It is also recommended to bring nose plugs to protect against smelly people in the room. You might also want to blindfold yourself to protect against ugly people in the room.

3. When in doubt, the answer is priapism (the painful prolonged male erection).

4. Regardless of chief complaint or symptoms, every African-American female on the exam has sarcoidosis or possibly lupus. Every Caucasian female has either pelvic inflammatory disease or thyroid dysfunction. The rest of the spectrum of disease is represented in men. Just like in real life.

5. If it's any comfort, nothing you're about to be tested on or have killed yourself learning for the past two years will be at all relevant to your future career. Do you feel better now?

6. The same #1 basic guideline applies as to every other exam you've ever taken: Never fall in love.

7. If you do badly the exam, you can always build a time machine, go back in time, and fix your score. If you do so, just make sure your mom doesn't fall in love with you because it'll, like, disrupt the space time continuum or something.

8. Due to increasing incidence of cheating, proctors have been instructed to perform randomized body cavity searches during the exam. So you may want to rethink some of your old hiding places from the MCATs.

9. Statistically it's been shown that students' scores on Step 1 are reflective of their performance over the past two years, so any studying you're about to do for the exam will statistically be a waste of time. But, you know, don't let that stop you.

10. If all else fails, there's always Plan B: Hide under a pile of coats and hope that everything turns out OK.

Hope that helps!!!

A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor: http://doccartoon.blogspot.com/

Mental Floss: The Men Behind Famous Diseases

The men behind famous diseases

By Ethan Trex, Mental Floss

(Mental Floss) -- Having a disease named after you is a decidedly mixed bag. On the one hand, your scientific developments are forever commemorated. On the other hand, though, you're stuck with the knowledge that no patient will ever be happy upon hearing your name. Who are the scientists and doctors behind some of our most famous diseases and conditions, though? Here are a few of the physicians and their eponymous ailments:

1. Crohn's disease

The inflammatory digestive disease could just have easily ended up with the name Ginzburg's disease or Oppenheimer's disease. In 1932, three New York physicians named Burrill Bernard Crohn, Leon Ginzburg, and Gordon Oppenheimer published a paper describing a new sort of intestinal inflammation. Since Crohn's name was listed first alphabetically, the condition ended up bearing his name.

2. Salmonellosis

Yes, the salmonella menace that haunts undercooked chicken is named after a person. Daniel Elmer Salmon was a veterinary pathologist who ran a USDA microorganism research program during the late 19th century.Although Salmon didn't actually discover the type of bacterium that now bears his name -- famed epidemiologist Theobald Smith isolated the bacteria in 1885 -- he ran the research program in which the discovery occurred. Smith and his colleagues named the bacteria salmonella in honor of their boss.

3. Parkinson's disease

James Parkinson was a busy fellow. While the English apothecary had a booming medical business, he also dabbled in geology, paleontology, and politics; Parkinson even published a three-volume scientific study of fossils. Following a late-18th-century foray into British politics where he advocated a number of social causes and found himself briefly ensnared in an alleged plot to assassinate King George III, Parkinson turned his attention to medicine. Parkinson did some research on gout and peritonitis, but it was his landmark 1817 study "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy" that affixed his name to Parkinson's disease.

4. Huntington's disease

George Huntington wasn't the most prolific researcher, but he made his papers count. In 1872, a fresh-out-of-med-school Huntington published one of two research papers he would write in his life. In the paper, Huntington described the effects of the neurodegenerative disorder that now bears his name after examining several generations of family that all suffered from the genetic condition.

5. Alzheimer's disease

In 1901, German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer began observing an odd patient at a Frankfurt asylum. The 51-year-old woman, Mrs. Auguste Deter, had no short-term memory and behaved strangely. When Mrs. Deter died in 1906, Alzheimer began to dissect the patient's brain, and he presented his findings that November in what was the first formal description of presenile dementia.

6. Tourette syndrome

Credit George Gilles de la Tourette for his modesty. When the French neurologist first described the illness that now bears his name in 1884, he didn't name it after himself. Instead, he referred to the condition as "maladie des tics." Tourette's mentor and contemporary Jean-Martin Charcot renamed the illness after Tourette. Tourette didn't have such great luck with patients, though. In 1893, a deluded former patient shot the doctor in the head. The woman claimed that she lost her sanity after Tourette hypnotized her. Tourette survived the attack.

7. Hodgkin's lymphoma

British pathologist Thomas Hodgkin first described the cancer that now bears his name while working at Guy's Hospital in London in 1832. Hodgkin published the study "On Some Morbid Appearances of the Absorbent Glands and Spleen" that year, but the condition didn't bear his name until a fellow physician, Samuel Wilks, rediscovered Hodgkin's work.

8. Bright's disease

The kidney disease bears the name of Richard Bright, an English physician and colleague of Hodgkin's at Guy's Hospital. Bright began looking into the causes of kidney trouble during the 1920s, and in 1927 he described an array of kidney ailments that eventually became known as Bright's disease. Today, doctors understand many of the symptoms historically clumped together as Bright's disease are in fact different maladies, so the term is rarely used.

9. Addison's disease

Guy's Hospital was apparently the place to work in the 19th century if you wanted to have a disease named after you. Thomas Addison, a colleague of Bright and Hodgkin at Guy's Hospital, first described the adrenal disorder we call Addison's disease in 1855. On top of this discovery, Addison also published an early study of appendicitis.

10. Tay-Sachs disease

Although both of their names are attached to this genetic disorder, Warren Tay and Bernard Sachs didn't work together. In fact, they didn't even work in the same country. Tay, a British opthalmologist, first described the disease's characteristic red spot on the retina in 1881. In 1887 Bernard Sachs, a colleague of Burrill Crohn at Mount Sinai Hospital, described the cellular effects of the disease and its prevalence among Ashkenazi Jews.

11. Turner syndrome

The chromosomal disorder got its name from Oklahoma doctor Henry Turner, who first described the condition in 1938.

12. Klinefelter's syndrome

The genetic condition in which males have an extra X chromosome bears the name of Harry Klinefelter, a young Boston endocrinologist who published a landmark study while working under the tutelage of endocrinology star Dr. Fuller Albright in 1942. Albright pushed his young protégé to be the lead author of the paper that described the condition, so the young Klinefelter's name is forever associated with the syndrome.

13. Asperger's syndrome

Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger first described the syndrome that now bears his name in 1944 after observing a group of over 400 children who suffered from what Asperger described as "autistic psychopathy". Interestingly, since Asperger's research was all written in German, his contributions to the literature went unrecognized until much later. The term "Asperger's syndrome" didn't come into widespread usage until 1981.

For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com

Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental FlossLLC. All rights reserved.

Drugs!

Drugs are a high yield topic in the USMLE Step 1 + 2. Some of their effects can be hard to remember if you're not a junkie. Do not despair, Sponge Bob is here to help (Nicked from His & Her Blog http://hishersq8.com/)

Medical Students that Changed the World

There are many former medical students that achieved positions of great power and influence after graduating. Ex medical students include Che Guevara, Bashar Al-Assad, Bill Frist (Majority Republican leader) and Luke Johnson (founder of Pizza Express). More awe inspiring are medical students that began to influence the world before finishing medical school! Here's a snapshot of some of these medical students that changed the world during their time at medical school:

1. Stephen Bantu (Steve Biko)

Considered one of the most important politicians in South Africa's history. During his time at the University of Natal Medical School, he started the South African Student's Organisation (SASO) which provided legal aid and medical clinics to poor black communities. He founded the Black Consciousness Movement, which sparked the uprise against apartheid in South Africa. Due to his involvement in anti-apartheid politics he was expelled from medical school and 'banned' by the Apartheid government. In 1977, he was killed while in police custody and consequently became a symbol for resistance against Apartheid in South Africa.

2. Joshua Lederberg

Received a Noble Prize, aged 33, for work he did as a medical student at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons. His research provided insight into the molecular mechanisms of gene action, and helped establish the field of molecular biology in the 1940s and 1950s. Instead of finishing medical school, he chose to accept an offer to become an assistant professor the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

3. Meles Zenawi

The current prime minister of Ethipoia and former president, interrupted his medical studies the University of Addis Ababa University for two years to lead the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), who overthrew the Derg, a military junta. This ended the Derg's reign of Ethiopia, which caused up to 1.5 million Ethiopians to die from famine and the Red Terror.

4. Ernest Duchesne

Who discovered penicillin? If you said Alexander Fleming, you would be wrong! 32 years earlier, a French medical student noticed that moulds kill bacteria. This observation was made, when he noticed that Arab stable boys at the army hospital kept their saddles in a dark, damp room to encourage mould to grow on them. When he inquired they replied that the mould helped the saddle sores heal on the horses. Duchesne then made a solution out of the mould and injected it into diseases guinea pigs. They all recovered. As he was 23 and just a medical student, his findings did not receive recognition and his dissertation did not even get acknowledged by the Insitut Pasteur. His pleas for further research were ignored. He was honored after his death, 5 years after Alexander Fleming got the Nobel Prize for rediscovering penicillin.

All the information was acquired from Wikipedia!

Episode 2 - Interview with Dr Newton (Paediatric Neurology)

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We have interviewed Dr Richard Newton (pictured), a consultant in paediatric neurology at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

In this episode, we explore important themes such as communicating effectively with families in paediatrics, and how to break ‘unexpected’ news to parents of a child with a newly diagnosed condition. Dr Newton also explains the ingredients for a good paediatric consultation. We also talk about paediatric neurology as a rapidly evolving specialty with a mention of common diseases encountered and challenges facing the specialty locally and internationally.

In the beginning of the interview, Dr Newton explains the contribution of his department to research and helping children with neurological disease. Later, we discuss the spectrum of disorders commonly seen in paediatric neurology. The interview ends with a final note for medical students about to embark on their paediatric placement.

Previous episodes are also available on http://kmsukir.podbean.com/ or by searching for Kuwait Medical Society on iTunes.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have feedback, or any other questions.

Case Study - Age No Barrier (from the Medical Protection Society, Case Reports)

Age no barrier

A seven-year old girl, MA, complained to her mother of stomach ache. She was usually very stoical, but was complaining and not wanting to play. Her mother, Mrs A, was concerned and rang the surgery to speak to her GP, Dr G.

Dr G told her to give her daughter some paracetamol, but did not document the conversation in her notes. The next day, MA was still suffering so Mrs A requested a home visit. The GP went to their home and quickly diagnosed a UTI without examining the girl and prescribed trimethoprim. Dr G made only very brief notes, just mentioning the abdominal pain and the antibiotics prescribed.

According to her mother, Dr G did not stay very long, did not examine her daughter and did not ask for a urine sample to test. Mrs A asked Dr G whether it could be appendicitis, as the pain was on the right side. Her friend’s daughter had recently had appendicitis, which had been right-sided. Dr G said that MA was “too young for that”.

The following day, MA had started to vomit and seemed in much more pain, despite having taken paracetamol. She was also warm to the touch so Mrs A rang the surgery again. A different GP, Dr P, informed her that “antibiotics take time to start working” and to allow another couple of days to see if she improved. Again, the GP made no record in her notes of their discussion on the phone.

Three days after the pain began, Mrs A took her daughter to the Emergency Department (ED). By this time she looked very unwell. She was pale and was lying very still. She was in a lot of abdominal pain if she tried to move. She was vomiting and could not keep any food or drink down. The surgeons diagnosed acute peritonitis and took her straight to theatre where they found a perforated appendix. MA had a miserable stay in hospital, needing intravenous antibiotics, but she did make a good recovery.

MA got married when she was 29 and decided to try for a family. After two years of trying, she still was not pregnant and so went to discuss this with her GP. She was referred for tests and found to have blocked fallopian tubes and pelvic adhesions.

The specialist thought this was likely to have been caused by the perforated appendix and resultant pelvic adhesions years before. MA was very upset and made a claim against Dr G and Dr P. The claim was settled for a moderate sum. Although Dr G had died by this time, so was no longer in membership, the fact that he was a member of MPS at the time of the incident meant that MPS was able to respond to the claim.

Learning points

• It is very important to examine a patient with abdominal pain. Doctors must adequately assess the patient’s condition, taking account of the history, the patient’s views and, where necessary, examining the patient.¹ Failure to examine the patient’s abdomen made the case indefensible.
• Always be prepared to reconsider a diagnosis made by another doctor.
• Some pathologies, such as appendicitis, are more common in certain age groups, but are still possible in others. Differential diagnosis needs to consider both the usual and the unusual.
• Simple tests like dip-sticks are there to be used and are helpful in evaluating the likelihood of a diagnosis of UTI. Diagnosing a UTI with no evidence may not be safe.
• Clear, comprehensive documentation is an invaluable way to ensure good communication with colleagues when patients are seen by different doctors.
• A good defence is almost impossible without good documentation. Doctors must keep clear, accurate and legible records, reporting the relevant clinical findings, the decisions made, the information given to patients, and any drugs prescribed or other investigation or treatment.²
• There may be long delays between the incident and a claim being made, which demonstrates the strength of occurrence-based indemnity. Claims can be brought years after a doctor has retired, or even died.

References

1. GMC Good Medical Practice 2006, good clinical care, paragraph 2a.
2. GMC Good Medical Practice 2006, good clinical care, paragraph 3f.

From: http://www.medicalprotection.org/ireland/casebook-january-2010/case-reports/age-no-barrier

Thanks to Marwan Al-Qenaie for sharing this case study!