Columnist
Lincoln Memorial University DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine
Joey Johnson is a Class of 2017 student at LMU-DCOM. He is CEO of JOSS Cares, owner of joeyjohnsondo.com, and now an eager columnist for in-Training. He plans to be a rural family practice physician in Georgia. His interests include: osteopathic and rural medicine, cultural competency, martial arts, religion and philosophy, and anything NFL! His favorite players are Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, and JJ (s)Watt. Contact him on Facebook, Twitter, or via his website!
On the Fringes
On the Fringes is devoted to filling the missing pieces of medical school and the art of medicine, topics of discussion in medical education that are often overlooked, under-discussed, or brand new.
“Which one of you idiots gave my patient a homosexual dose of diuretic?” Unbelievably, this is what the senior surgeon “growled” at Dr. Pauline Chen and her cohort during surgery training, according to her article in The New York Times entitled “Does Medicine Discourage Gay Doctors?”
This episode is the first in a series on entrepreneurship in medicine. Our guest Shiv Gaglani is a student at both the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Harvard Business School. His ventures include the medical education company Osmosis and site Quantified Care. He’s also editor at Medgadget, a blog about medical technology. We sat down with him and picked his brain about what it’s like to fill gaps in medical education, be a medical student and entrepreneur, and more.
Once upon a time, in a rural hospital far, far away, a med student began her clerkship. At the University of British Columbia, the Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) provides an opportunity to spend the first clinical year of medical school in a hospital in rural British Columbia rather than a large academic center. The intent is to provide hands-on education and to encourage physicians to one day return to serve a rural community. Applying to the ICC was …
As the health care landscape evolves in the coming years, how will academic medicine adapt? And what do these tectonic shifts in health policy mean for medical students? This week on History & Physical, we’re joined by Dr. Atul Grover, the Chief Public Policy Officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Dr. Grover leads the public policy, strategy and outreach efforts that advance the work of the academic medicine community. He talks about the pact made between the government and academic medical centers to support medical graduate training, why so much innovation can come from medical colleges, and what students can do to advocate for their future.
In his rousing and intermittently aggressive plenary address to the thousands congregated last week at the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) Excellence in Education conference in Milan, Richard Horton bemoaned the stagnation of modern medical education, implicating everything from the ivory-tower universities of old to the world health care economy for the plummeting decline of medical education. “Two percent of total expenditures in medicine are invested on education,” the editor-in-chief of The Lancet …
As medicine moves into the 21st century, how will medical education adapt? Also, what is digital literacy, and what does it mean for the physician of tomorrow? Today, we have Dr. Bryan Vartabedian from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. When he’s not doing scopes as a pediatric gastroenterologist, Dr. Vartabedian blogs about the intersection of medicine and technology at 33Charts and can be found on Twitter at @Doctor_V.
MAD: mnemonics are dangerous. Like many of the concepts taught today in medical school, this opening phrase is an oversimplification of a complicated idea.
Belize for the summer, Africa for spring break, the Philippines during winter break, and the list of medical mission opportunities goes on and on at most medical schools. Now, don’t get me wrong; I absolutely love mission trips and all of the great work that certain groups like the Christian Medical and Dental Associations and other mission-oriented organizations do for the cause. However, I feel that one vital area that definitely qualifies as a “medical mission” …
“You know, the globus pallidus.” My coaxing words ripened in the air between us. Josh admitted it sounded familiar, but couldn’t quite remember the time or the place. This concerned me, because my friend was a highly accomplished emergency physician, yet he wrinkled his nose at “globus pallidus” like it was a piece of decomposing fruit. “It’s in the brain,” I said helpfully. He smiled, “That’s probably why it sounds familiar.” A few hours before, …
I was recently granted one of those rare, quiet Sunday afternoons we experience in medical school, and decided to spend it reading short stories. The story I picked up was “I Want to Live!” by Thom Jones. The story focuses on a cancer-ridden woman, Mrs. Wilson, reaching a meaningful place in her life amidst the throes of death. As I read the journey of Mrs. Wilson, my eyes flooded as my emotions finally caught up with me. The story …
Recently, the university I attend switched from the traditional didactic format to a “flipped classroom.” A flipped classroom shifts class time away from a lecture format to a more discussion based, allowing exchange between students and professor, as well among students. Ideally, the flipped classroom format allows students to come to lecture with a broad knowledge of the subject at hand, and during the lecture hour, the professor helps to hone this knowledge and contextualize …
Keep in mind first and foremost that I graduated from medical school in 1976. Therefore, all recollections of those positive instances have been greatly embellished over the decades and the obvious corollary is that all memories of negative incidents have been far more exaggerated. Nonetheless, I do well remember absolutely hating the first year of medical school.
Editor Emeritus: Former Medical Student Editor (2013-2015)
Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida
Sasha is thrilled for the opportunity to combine her interests in writing and medicine. She has been writing since she got her first journal in second grade, and editing since she ran her high school newspaper. Her interest in medicine evolved through travel, studying the brain through the lens of social science as undergraduate at Boston University, and together with her interest in yoga and dance. Sasha gets inspired on long runs and looks forward to few things more than hiking with her mom.
