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.
When my dad went on medication for hypertension—despite his near-religious routine of daily running and a diet rich in fish and vegetables—I stopped buying cheese, reduced the amount of soy sauce in my stir-fries, and gave up my weekly jars of pickles. Studying the mechanisms of hypertension during our renal theme last year—learning how the kidney adjusts to higher levels of sodium over time—only increased my determination to follow a low-salt diet. All this until …
[ca_audio url=”http://in-training.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/03-Young-and-Beautiful-1.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player” autoplay=”false”] We’re all familiar with those epidemiology pie charts that preface most of our pathology lectures. They’re the slides that everyone tunes out and gleefully skip over when reviewing for the exam, minus the few pertinent buzzwords: risk factors, mean age, gender and common symptoms. After all, “think horses, not zebras” is one of the most famous adages in medicine and rightfully so, because biology operates on efficient systems in …
Last year, my grandmother, who was 83 and dying of everything, was my model patient for each theme. In the order of molecular biology, musculoskeletal, nervous system, cardiovascular, respiratory and renal, endocrine systems and microbiology, she had or had had a melanoma, osteoporosis, hypertension, atrial fibrillation and blood clots, emphysema, renal failure requiring dialysis, hypothyroidism and C. diff. She actually did not acquire the hyperthyroidism until the month we began the theme. It was not, …
The excitement of third year of medical school was upon us while we were in orientation. No more spending hours in the library, listening to boring lectures all day, or reading about cases in textbooks. It was time to actually see real patients, work with great doctors, and actually be hands-on while we were on the floors. However, going from the optional class attendance at 9 a.m. to reporting on the floors by 6 a.m. …
Our threshold to admit a patient into the hospital is high. They must be sick—really sick!—and therefore once they are admitted, worked-up and treated, their prognosis is inevitably better. Ultimately, that is the point of our health care system. Enter sick, leave healthy. A recent patient encounter made me question this basic premise. Here was a 56-year-old white female with a past medical history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) presenting with increased shortness of …
The woman sits anxiously in the exam room, fidgeting with her green clay necklace. She was referred because of an incidental finding on a physical exam mandated by her insurance company. Another woman in her 50s, with streaks of gray hair, calmly sits in the room next door with her head held high, preparing herself for the worse. She had felt a lump on her breast while showering. The corner room contains a young Mexican …
In my previous column, I touched on the American role in the Syrian civil war by pointing out that, at the time, we were lending financial assistance to rebel forces opposed to the Assad regime. State-sponsored violence including the targeted eradication of women and children served as strong justification for the call to oust President Bashar al-Assad from power. Indeed, the figure that was most quoted in the press was 70,000 lives claimed in less than two …
The transition from the second to third year of medical school is like moving from adolescence to adulthood. Your first two years are relatively simple and you have few responsibilities beyond studying. Then, you begin third year and not only do you have to study, but you have to take care of someone else’s health. Most of the transitions only require a minor adjustment to your daily activities. For instance, you’ll finally be able to …
Something had happened. The hospital lies on the main stretch of road before the town of Borgne, right across from the high school, so there is always a lot of activity going on: cars going in and out of the hospital, motorbikes dropping off and picking up students, vendors selling food and cell phone credit. But this was different. The cries were not those typical of school-aged children. Plus, it was already 8 p.m., way …
In the summer vegetables are plentiful, but I find that it’s not always obvious how to get the most out of them. Two summers ago, when I had a community-supported agriculture share and more vegetables than I knew what to do with, I found myself making some pretty inedible vegetable soups and longing for more substance. In previous years, I’ve been enamored with the same corn, tomatoes and salad every night. This summer, I’m in …
On March 25, the satirical news organization The Onion published an op-ed written by the president of Syria: “Hello. My name is Bashar al-Assad. I am the president of Syria, and in the last two years, you–the citizens of the world and their governments–have allowed me to kill 70,000 people … Because I’m able to continue doing this, I can only conclude that killing nearly 100,000 people must be an acceptable thing.” Seventy thousand is the …
So as I wrap up a great weekend with some old friends, I finally have a minute to reflect on my first few days in Haiti, looking at the past and possibilities for the future. Being back in Haiti is always a shock to the senses. The second you leave the airport your senses are put on overdrive: the cacophony of cars and people; the hot, wet air; the smell of dust, trash and cane; …
Columnist Emeritus
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Chris graduated from the Johns Hopkins University in 2008 and received his BA in public health studies. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa and worked with ACTED as a development program manager in Uganda and camp manager in Haiti. He is currently in the Class of 2016 at the University of Rochester School of Medicine.
Haiti Teaches
Haiti Teaches is a column that explores the opportunities, nuances and conflicts associated with time spent as a medical student in a foreign country. It follows a second-year medical student before, during and after his two months with a community development organization in Borgne, Haiti.
