Last night I was at dinner with a couple of friends. A good friend of mine from class was sitting across from me, and at one point, the topic of generosity came up. The discussion helped elucidate a concept that I’ve always believed, but never really put onto paper, so I guess now is a good enough time than ever.

I have always been really big on kindness. I like kind and courteous people. A lot.

So we are currently in the middle of our Brain and Behaviour course. Last week, we had a PBL session focussing on multiple sclerosis. Our discussions of the disease naturally included a consideration of the Liberation Treatment which was developed by Dr. Paolo Zamboni in Italy. Dr. Zamboni believes that many cases of multiple sclerosis are due to a condition called ‘Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency’ that can be treated with endovascular therapy. Dr. Zamboni’s work was featured in a segment by W5 on CTV on November 21, 2009 (See http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091120/W5_liberation_091121/20091121?s_name=W5). After this news segment aired, there was a media frenzy surrounding the Liberation Treatment and patients all over the world started to demand the treatment from their doctors. The problem was that many physicians felt that the evidence supporting the treatment was anecdotal, at best, and refused to endorse the treatment. The fact remains that endovascular therapy has risks associated with it like any surgical procedure and should not be prescribed unless proper evidence has been assembled. In the era of evidence-based medicine, it is important to conduct more studies to meet the same scientific standards to which we hold other medical procedures accountable. What really surprised me was how a simple news program was able to spark what has been dubbed a “Liberation War” pitting patients against their doctors. What do you think about the role of media in the medical world? What are your thoughts on this situation? Has CTV overstepped? Let me know your thoughts on the subject.

For more information, check out the W5 website.

So I'm happy to say that I passed my Brain and Behaviour midterm - barely, with a 70.96 (a 70 is a clear pass).  It was a pretty difficult midterm, with a bell ringer for neuroanatomy in the morning and then a written exam in the afternoon.

It's funny how easily I went from not only wanting and getting 80's and 90's in undergrad to hoping I get a 70 in medical school.  For the most part, I don't think the material is any harder, and often times it's actually easier.  As I've stressed before, there's just a lot more material.

I was talking to one of my best friend's tonight (who is also in first year of medical school, but at McMaster).  I was telling him about how I couldn't remember details on the multiple choice exams here, and he said he was surprised because he remembered me knowing all these random details during undergrad and doing well on multiple choice exams.

Luck, variance, randomness - whatever you want to call it, it has an undeniable influence on the course of events.

Taking a simple case, you get lucky when your medical school interview is conducted by a physician who turns out to be life long buddies with one of your referees, or perhaps you get unlucky when you realize your interviewer and you are complete opposites.

So, I was reading the paper the other day and I was surprised to see that the next iPhone had accidentally been leaked by an Apple software engineer, especially because Apple is so secretive with these things. I feel really bad for the engineer who leaked it...

For more information, see:
http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

...to get a referral.

I got the referral, but also left with a splint on my pinky finger and a form to get an X-ray done tomorrow morning.

I have a bump on the distal interphalangeal joint and the tip of the pinky remains bent downward.

The American College of Physicians is in town this weekend for the Internal Medicine 2010. They have a few programs for medical students including "Mastering the Match" and "Interacting with Pharmaceutical Industry Representatives".
For more information, see http://www.acponline.org/meetings/internal_medicine/2010/.

.... is writing a book????

Recently, an idea occurred to me that I thought was worth sharing. Many premeds out there are very unsure of what it takes to make it into medicine.  Although resources regarding medical admission are widely available, most of such resources provide scattered pieces of information that require significant amount of time to piece together. Even when you've acquired a thorough sense of how one can gain acceptance and work accordingly, it’s still difficult to gauge your own competitiveness when so many factors come into play.

So I thought to myself - wouldn’t it be great to have a collection of detailed profiles of students who’ve either made it to medical school, made it to the interview stage, or gotten rejected? Not only would the profiles include GPA/MCAT stats, volunteering history, research experience, courses taken, schools applied to, etc…. it would also include each applicant’s personal description of self-perceived strengths and weaknesses of his/her own application.

This way, premeds can get a much better idea of what makes a competitive applicant. Then I asked myself - what would be the ideal medium to deliver such material? Of course the ideal way is to provide it for free over MedChatter.com. However, this is not feasible since no one would want to contribute to such a project. No one would want to disclose their own personal information online in such a manner, at least for no personal gains. So I thought maybe I should write a book. Basically, I would recruit medical students from all across Canada to contribute to such a project. It would be a collaborative effort. The book would then be sold over MedChatter and other distribution media at a low price. All profits would go to charity. This way, contributors get authorship, and we all get the satisfaction in knowing that all of our efforts benefit everyone.

This idea is fairly new and I’m still working on the details, but I’d be glad to hear all of your thoughts/opinions.

Hey Guys,

So during one of my many rounds of procrastination leading up to our 2nd Foundations of Medical Practice exam, I was reading the Toronto Star website and came across an article about our National Anthem.  Featured in the article was a link to a video of a couple of the worst renditions of O Canada.

The first person really should have considered going through the lyrics before singing in front a crowd of people. She even tried to fake it too for a bit. Oy big mistake. And the 2nd person, his melody was not half bad, besides the fact that it was wrong. Fortunately he remembered more or less the words and finished okay. He sang it "loud and proud" as my former band teacher would say!

Well don't just take my word for it, check it out!