It's been a while, hasn't it? My apologies for the delay in posting this past week. It sure has been a hectic October thus far. We had our second exam at the end of September, marking the halfway point of Anatomy and Histology. I wish I could tell you that it flew by, but honestly, it was a grueling couple of months. Hopefully that doesn't sound too negative. I can assure you that through it all I am still having quite a fantastic time!
Student Senate has finally kicked into gear with the first couple of Class of 2014 Senate meetings now under our belt. Notably, I've started a Newsletter Committee to keep the class informed on senate issues as well as other important deadlines for the SOM (that's School of Medicine) as a whole. Click HERE to download. I created this one myself to get us started, but they will get better and better as the Committee gets on its feet.
A couple of surgery lectures sparked my attention this week. One by the Residency Director of the Orthopedic Surgery Program at Henry Ford and one by a cardiothoracic surgeon from the same hospital. As a nice change of pace, these guys gave it to us straight. It was motivating, inspiring, a bit intimidating and absolutely thrilling to learn about the path one must take to make it in those professions. To say the least, 99% of the cream of the cream of the crop fall short. As the good doctor put it, bring your 'A game' or choose a different specialty. I think something along these lines might be for me.
I spoke with the cardiothoracic surgeon after the lecture and have lined up some shadowing opportunities later this month in the operating room with him. That will be a better metric of how well suited I may be for the specialty. Surgery-related research over the summer was also indicated by him as a strong possibility if I so choose.
So things are rolling in the career research department. After pushing it back a few weeks due to my exam schedule, I am finally getting into the ER later this month as well. Everything I hear from those who know tells me that the earlier I know what I want to do, the more beneficial it will be for my future. A group dinner at my mentor's house (Chief of Medicine at Detroit Receiving) on Friday evening should also yield some valuable contacts and insight.
For now, though, it's back to square one: hitting the books with another month of intense learning ahead of me. It seems that with each week I am refining my study habits and techniques further to evolve into the most efficient learner I can become. It's analogous to fine-tuning a machine (although I certainly don't claim to be as productive as one) in that you find which modes of study work best, and at what pace. For some material it's best to switch gears to a more hands-on approach than textbooks can offer; namely, the dissection lab. Other times it seems that shifting down to a more repetitive practice like notecard review is the most energy-efficient way to go about things. My guess is that each subject will warrant its own type of study, necessitating an ever-changing style of learning. I suppose it's for the best, though. That way I won't get bored! Only kidding, of course.
I think that if I listen very carefully I can hear the faint call of an anatomy book in the distance, so I ought to be getting back to my desk. Thanks for reading, as always, and see you soon!
Medical Factoid of the Day: Approximately 80,000 Americans every year are in need and eligible for heart transplants. On average, 2,000 hearts become available. While that statistic is indeed quite staggering, all hope is not lost for these patients. For some cases there are measures that can be taken to bridge the gap between heart failure and when a heart becomes available. Ventricular assist devices have made astounding leaps over the past decade and currently give approximately an 85% survival rate of one year or more for patients that are considered suitable candidates. Considering my biomedical engineering background, I find some of the specifics of these devices quite intriguing. The most intriguing statistic, unfortunately, is that despite the unrelenting awareness and education efforts by modern healthcare the heart donor rate has not risen in three decades. Simplifying the situation dramatically, we as Americans must either convince each other to donate on the order of ten times more hearts per year or ramp up research efforts to fight heart disease on other fronts, giving a reasonable percentage of these patients a fighting chance. Shockingly, with the Baby Boomers soon reaching retirement age, all of these frightful numbers will nearly double in the next twenty years.
