Archived Columns

Madeline Haas Madeline Haas (16 Posts)

Columnist and in-Training Staff Member

Albany Medical College

Madeline Haas is a graduate of Harvard College and a Class of 2016 student at Albany Medical College in Albany, New York. Cooking keeps her sane and healthy within the limitations of the med school lifestyle and budget. Read her daily blog at The Med School Cookbook.

The Med School Cookbook

The Med School Cookbook offers a weekly account of the challenges and wonders of med school as seen through the eyes of a student. Each post includes a healthy and easy recipe designed for busy people on a budget.




Nutrition Nuances and The Best Soup

Published by Madeline Haas

I read an interesting article this weekend entitled “Why Nutrition Is So Confusing” that described what all med students know: nutrition data is largely inconclusive, often contradictory, and falls short of strong claims that would make for truly useful recommendations. Trials are often done for a few years and then extrapolate to decades or, conversely, populations are followed for decades and then analysts try to pull out a few recommendations. Although many of us philosophically favor diet …

How Do You Study?

Published by Tania Tabassum

We have all asked that question to someone at some point. If you are currently in medical school, chances are you aced your way through high school. But that was high school, where you could have solved a bunch of exam papers from the previous years and skimmed through chapter summaries weeks before GCE Advanced level exams and still pulled out an A. Sadly, those days are over and you have been thrown into a rather massive pool of …

Do You Remember?

Published by Jimmy Yan

There exist, in truth, three simple words that strike dread into the hearts of every physician: Do. You. Remember. This phrase was introduced to me in the middle of first year. I was spending time in my medical student lounge when a link popped up on my newsfeed to a TED talk by Dr. Brian Goldman, an emergency physician from Toronto who hosts the radio show White Coat Black Art and who has also authored the book “The Night Shift.” In …

When the Brain Says, “I Need More…”

Published by Mariam Bonyadi

While walking around campus at the beginning of the new semester, it is hard not to notice the sudden appearance of signs instructing us to “Breathe Freely” because the campus is now “Smoke-Free.” The new law has challenged some students and faculty to forego smoking altogether, and has enticed discussion about the regulation of harmful addictive substances, often revealing the social baggage associated with addictive behavior. The duality of alcohol, for example, as both the …

“The Roots are Bitter, but the Fruit is Sweet”

Published by Jency Daniel

Little did I know this adage was, in fact, Aristotelian in origin and not dreamed up by my mother. Nevertheless, it is one I remember first hearing recently: somewhere along the line as I progressed from high school to college and now to medical school. As I felt more intense academic pressure, as I complained more about the volume or difficulty of what I had to study, or if I was just plain exhausted—these were …

And She’s Back: An Honest Reflection about Frequent Fliers in our Emergency Departments

Published by Manik Aggarwal

The only thing different was the room number and the day of the week. “Hey, our favorite flyer is back,” said my attending as I went to see the patient in room 10 for the first time in my life. The patient was already doomed as I became jaded, cynical and wondered what the health care system or we as physicians could do with patients like this. Let’s be clear, I still had never met …

Apps for Medical Students on the Go

Published by Valentina Bonev

Advances in technology have not only dramatically changed health care, but have also changed the way we learn medicine. Gone are the days of carrying clunky textbooks. You can also put away your six different highlighters. Why? Because technology has become your new best friend. Having a smartphone—or better, a tablet—on hand has become an especially useful tool for navigating your studies. Here is a guide to some of the apps that I have found …

The First Piece of My Puzzle

Published by T. N. Diem Vu, MD

“If you start feeling lightheaded or faint,” the surgeon told me in the operating room, “just don’t fall into the patient. You can fall anywhere else. Just not into the patient.” This was the first time I had ever shadowed a surgeon, and a dark cloud of fear started to cloak my feelings of excitement. I had never thought myself to be a queasy person, but suddenly I kept imagining myself plunging face-forward off of …

Light and Healthy Quinoa Salad

Published by Madeline Haas

I went to a couple of talks this week that emphasized the importance of protein. While osteoporosis is a well-known public health problem, sarcopenia, or the loss of muscle mass, is less well-understood by both doctors and the general public. Prevention of sarcopenia is perhaps one reason why people who stand or move around at work may be healthier as they age than people who sit all day (like med students). In terms of the …

Medicine and Muffaletta

Published by Haritha Sishtla

Third-year rotations come with a mix of emotions. It’s exciting to get out of the classroom and onto the floors where all the action is, but at the same time reality can set in with every patient that you see. The patient that you see with the acute lymphoblastic leukemia which you had read about extensively in Pathoma is now in your hematology-oncology clinic getting chemotherapy, surrounded by family members who are giving her support …

Seeking a Support System

Published by Tania Tabassum

So you got into med school, congratulations! You have had your inauguration week and your white coat ceremony where you took an oath to do no harm and abide by the rules and save human lives and make gold out of poop! You watched a video of previous graduation ceremonies, proof that all the struggle is going to pay off and you are going to be a real doctor and change the world. You have …

Tania Tabassum Tania Tabassum (4 Posts)

Columnist Emeritus

Dubai Medical College

Tania Tabassum is student in the Class of 2015 at Dubai Medical College, UAE. She started medical school right after graduating high school. She loves finding lost books, music, cooking, Tumblr and watches an unhealthy amount of TV shows. She believes that life is all about balance and excess of anything really isn’t good.

The Making of a Medic

"The Making of a Medic" explores that which transforms the head of a high school graduate to that of a medic, shedding some light on what the life of a medic is really like, away from the myths and speculations. This column focuses on the reflections of personal experiences rather than the scholastics of medical school.