Anyone who has watched a newborn mature into a toddler — or has memorized the early developmental milestones in First Aid — can attest that immense transformation occurs in the first two years of life. Children are decidedly unaware of these formative years, oblivious to their own metamorphosis and only recognizing their transitional changes through photos, stories and their family’s fond memories.
In a surprisingly similar fashion, medical students may also transition from their time as MS1s to MS3s to residents without the opportunity to reflect on their own growth through these developmental years.
Until in-Training was born.
For the past two years, as the medical student community has navigated through the joy and adversity of medical school, in-Training has been proud to serve as the scrapbook for its memories, capturing the stories of the everyday moments that define today’s medical students and tomorrow’s physicians.
No longer are medical students isolated in the fray of medical education. With in-Training, we have created a global community of future physicians who share in the common experiences that bind us as students of the healing profession. Medical students finally have a place to call their own where, whether through reading or writing, we can take a moment in our hectic schedules to reflect on the profound transformation we are undergoing as physicians-in-training.
As we celebrate the second anniversary of the launch of in-training.org, we thank you, our colleagues, for making in-Training a part of your medical school experience.
Thank you to our writers for sharing your most uplifting — and your most heartbreaking — moments. In doing so, you help us paint a picture of our dreams for the future of the medical profession.
To our editors: our deepest gratitude for your enthusiasm and dedication to our vision for in-Training. It is truly an honor to be on this journey with you.
Thank you to our readers and supporters for spreading in-Training to the far reaches of the globe. We hope that you are inspired and encouraged by your future physicians. We welcome you to add your own voice to the medical student collective by sending us your contributions, suggestions and critiques.
With all of your efforts, we are bringing in-Training into a new era of engagement with the medical student community at large. Join us in our mission to use self-reflection, communication and collaboration to change the face of the physician profession.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
Albany Medical College
My name is Aleena Paul, and I am one of the founders of in-Training. I am currently a General Internal Medicine and Academic General Pediatrics Fellow at Hofstra/Northwell Health, where I am pursuing a Masters in Health Professions Education. My research interests include the use of the humanities for medical education, women's leadership in medicine, addressing health disparities through advocacy, and providing quality primary care medicine. I graduated from Albany Medical College in 2016 and subsequently completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
I currently serve as the editor-in-chief for in-House, the online publication for residents and fellows, and as a founding member of Pager Publications, a 501c3 non-profit literary corporation that curates and supports peer-edited publications for the medical education community.
In my free time, I enjoy skimming through The New Yorker, catching up on science fiction shows, wandering through museums and forests, and long conversations with friends.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
University of Colorado School of Medicine
My name is Ajay Major, and I am currently an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine specializing in lymphoma and myeloma, and a physician-publisher in the medical education and narrative medicine spaces.
My journey into publishing began in April 2012 when I founded in-Training, the online peer-reviewed publication for medical students, and served as editor-in-chief for four years. Since that time, we have founded several additional online publications for the medical education community, including in-House, The Palate, Mosaic in Medicine, and Intervene Upstream.
To support these publications, we founded Pager Publications, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit literary corporation that curates and supports peer-edited publications for the medical education community, in 2014. Since our inception, Pager Publications, Inc. has published six print books, with all proceeds used to support our constituent publications.
