.... 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.

So it’s 2:20 AM right now, and I’ve just spent the last 14 hours studying. I think I’ll call it a day. But before I head to bed, I just wanted to share this interesting success story that I’ve recently come across. This is the story of Kevin Ham, a graduate of UBC medicine who took a career detour in 1999 and built a $300 million empire. Business magazine calls him “the man who owns the internet” and “the most powerful dotcom mogul you’ve never heard of”. So who is Kevin Ham really?

I'd like to start this blog with a short video:

It's no secret that the medical profession is a prestigious one. The society often looks up to physicians and equates the word "doctor"  with "intelligence, wealth, and importance". It's no lie that physicians play an important role in society. But what are the consequences of putting the medical profession on such a high pedestal? Not only can it breed a sense of elitism and entitlement within the medical profession, it can also motivate people to pursue a career in medicine for all the wrong reasons.

For those of you who don’t know, PIMPING is a legitimate term used in the medical field, and is defined as a time when a attending physician (the Pimper) poses a series of very difficult questions to the student (the Pimpee). It’s a term that had been popularized by Dr.Brancati in his classic 1989 article “The Art of Pimping”. Those who are not in medicine may not appreciate the degree of distress in which pimping may cause among medical students. Nevertheless, each medical student eventually finds his/her own unique way of dealing with it. Some embrace it, some (the all-stars) thrive on it, some have evasive tendencies and avoid being picked on at all cost, and some are simply hopeless.

Just last year, Dr.Detsky published an article also titled “The Art of Pimping” in the Journal of American Medical Association to revist this deadly art that is so pervasive and ingrained in the culture of medical education. In the article, he offers advice for both the pimper and the pimpee on how to deal with each other. In my opinion, medical literature doesn't get any better than this :)

The Art of Pimping, 2009:

When most people hear about plastic surgery, they think nose jobs, breast augmentation, botox, etc. Mental references to Dr. Christian Troy from Nip/Tuck may come to mind - the cash, the cars, the glory, and the girls.  Even among premeds and medical students, plastic surgery can often be viewed as a superficial specialty with a cushy income. Is this general perception accurate? Based on my exposures, I'd have to say no.

To quote Dr. Borschel, "The goals of plastic surgery are threefold: (1) to alter surgically the form and function of anatomy - either normal or pathologic; (2) to improve quality of life; and (3) to preserve life itself. Just to get a sense of the breadth of the field, the following sub-specialties all fall into the realm of plastics surgery:

Those who know me well probably know that I am somewhat of a cycling-addict. I think it all started when I read the book "Every Second Counts" by Lance Armstrong during the summer after my 3rd year in undergrad. I wouldn't say that it was an exceptionally inspiring book, but it really got me thinking. What intrigued me was how a simple bike race can bring so much meaning and significance to so many lives.

What did the Tour de France mean for Lance?  Was it a road to greatness? Was it a way to redeem the bits and pieces of his identity and self-worth that he may have lost in the fight against cancer? Was it a path to rally up  the cancer community and to convey the message that you can fight cancer and win the battle with glory?

What do medical students do during their summers? Well for me, I did not take the usual route of research (~50% of UT medical students), traveling, rural electives, etc. Instead, I dedicated my last summer in achieving 2 objectives:

1) Start MedChatter
2) Shadow physicians from various specialties and decide a specialization for myself.

Since my life hasn't been interesting lately, I've decided to look back to my past shadowing experiences and share it with you guys. I will try to post on all of my experiences, so this post is the first of many to come.

Hello to all you premeds!

The Blog section of MedChatter is a place where our team of medical students get to share with you their exciting experiences in medical school.

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