Medical Liability or Asset?

It has been a few months since I last wrote, which may tell you something about the mid year schedule of a medical student. With snow days, postponed exams, and the completion of the ischioanal fossa in gross lab, I am at my breaking point, but maybe that is overly dramatic.

There has been several national disasters recently. First the devastating earthquake to Haiti an already devastated country and then the worst earthquake to hit Chili in recent history. I had the good fortune of being able to visit haiti when I was in high school. I remember thinking two things, "Where did all the trees go?" and "Where can I buy a machete?" Now that I have matured slightly and seen a more small parts of the world, my eyes have begun to defog, and I am more able to learn from past experiences that were previously forgotten. These two recent events have me thinking about a new question posed to my class by a physician of wilderness medicine, "Will you be a medical asset or a Liability?"

When people are sent into disaster zones initially it is search and rescue effort and basic medical help. Doctors, nurses, EMTs, and other medical professionals are some of the first to enter into the scene. Yesterday, at a lunch talk about wilderness medicine this question was proposed, "Will you be a medical asset or a hinderance?" I pondered this for a while. What classifies a physician or even a person as an asset. The first thing I though of was humility.

My dad constantly told me, "Approach others with humility and you will go far." Hearing this as a teenager, I never believed him. To my teenage self I knew for a fact that putting yourself behind others is no way to win at anything. I think the words of Green Day's song 'Nice Guys Finish Last' echoed a little louder in my head than my dad's words. But on the field if there is a truck that needs unloading or dishes that need to be cleaned, does it matter that you are a pediatric vascular surgeon specializing in neurovascular trauma? NO!

Being a medical asset has little to do with how well I preform on my next biochemistry test or even my class rank, but to remember the task at hand, understand what the team is working towards, and by whatever means necessary achieve the common objective.

International, Poverty, Justice, and Health Student Elective: Medical Schools Still Care

Two weeks for Christmas Break and we will be back to school. I thought I would take an opportunity to explain what the International, Poverty, Justice, and Health Elective (IPJH) is all about. The elective is a way for students at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine to continue pursuing justice among the impoverished and medically underserved populations domestically and abroad. Our main focus throughout the year is to be involved with the people in and around Cincinnati. There a four sub groups within the elective for homelessness, women's health, Latino population, and childhood obesity. I currently serve on the homelessness committee.

In the homeless committee we sort of contain the category of "other" and we take care of anything that does not quite fit into the mold of the other three. Currently, we have random activities throughout the year, and because we are relatively new to the UC campus we are trying gain a presence by becoming involved in a variety of different areas. There are many opportunities to serve the homeless and there is a lot of space  for new ideas.

Block 3 Closes: No Time, No Time, No Time, I've got No TIme

Block 3 ends in a few hours. So before I do some last minute cramming and my pretest rituals of singing songs about the end of the world, I though I would post this link that was given to me by a friend of mine.

The catch line is: "We have mapped all the genes for cancer."
In reality, all the possible mutations have been mapped for the two most common forms of cancer. This is no small achievement and has taken literally thousands of hours and years of work to accomplish.

This is not a cure, and currently is only really good for diagnostic testing of patients and matching each patients condition to the best form of chemotherapy.

Scientists crack 'entire genetic code' of cancer

Thanks Kyle for the link.