Idiots Lying About Going to Saba on Facebook, part 1 [with picture]

There is something incredibly pathetic about someone who outright lies about where they go to medical school. Ie.



Hmmm...Maybe Dalhousie rejected you because you also lied on your application about where you went to college? Just a thought.

Teen without heart for 118 days shows anything but heartlessness

It seems like every day, the medical news gets more and more astounding. Today, for example, came news that 14 year old D'Zhana Simmons of South Carolina had lived for 118 days without a heart, in anticipation of a heart transplant.

She suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy, something that causes the heart to become floppy and dysfunctional. This required a heart transplant, but none was available at the time. Fearing that it could rupture, surgeons removed the heart, and, for the time being, placed her on an artificial pump. This poor girl had to then brave three months for a new heart.

Thank God doctors finally found her a new heart, and that she can resume her life. But as a whole, it typifies a giant problem in the healthcare system. Pediatric departments throughout the United States are suffering from a lack of adequate investment, because these investments into treating rare diseases simply don't pay off. And, ultimately, this leaves the rare child in an awkward and terrifying situation, like young Ms. Simmons had to face.

Unfortunately, there is no amicable solution for such a problem. Government intervention, through subsidization of research and procedures would be nice, but how much subsidies can go around with due fairness and efficiency? And even when they pass, the healthcare system has a tendency to distort such incentives for its own purposes. In any case, it seems like, for the forseeable future, these children are bound to be stuck in a heartless and merciless situation.

USMLE Step 1 Preparation - The Method I Used

I was really reluctant to talk about my study strategy before I got my results back. I didn't want to sound stupid or presumptuous. Now that I do have it back, I'm more than willing to share, although I don't think that there's anything new that you can't find elsewhere.

In general, I tried to keep it simple and high yield, thereby reducing mental load and stress.

Books:
1) First Aid for the USMLE Step 1: The must-read book for the USMLE. And by must-read, I mean that you must read each and every single line of the book and commit it to memory. If it is in the book, it is important. It's really a godsend, considering how much material is on the exam. However, be aware that there are a bunch of errors in First Aid, many of which can be found on the First Aid website, and others that I hope to share on this blog. Also, right before the exam, I went through the equations and keywords in the back.

2) Lippincott Biochemistry & Pharmacology: Same authors, same basic ideas. For Lippincott Biochemistry, I tried to stay as faithful as possible to the book. For Pharmacology, I avoided placing too much attention on miscellaneous drugs and arcane details.

3) Goljan Pathology: wherever I found there to be inconsistencies in First Aid, I went to Goljan Pathology as a resource. However, as a primary study aid, I don't think it would be particularly helpful because of the depth of its details.

Programs:
1) USMLEWorld: great practice questions

2) Kaplan QBank: good questions too

Exam-taking Strategies:
1) I avoided changing answers unless I felt confident that another answer was correct.
2) I tried my best to pace myself, especially during the killer third block, and maintain focus when I just wanted to get the hell out.
3) I ate small snacks and drank water at every break I could, just to keep on going.

In retrospect, I probably should have spent more time on anatomy and genetics, since a lot of it showed up on the exam. Otherwise, I don't think there is much else I could have done.

Good luck!

Chandrayaan-1 lands tricolor on the moon

To many, the Chandrayaan-1 mission to the moon may be overlooked as an overambitious attempt by a third-world nation to attain respectability in the world. To 1,000,000,000+ Indians though, this is momentous.

I'm not sure about how much science will come out of the Chandrayaan-1 and I hope that it will reveal things that will benefit all of humanity. But right now, it comes to me as quite a milestone in Indian history. By planting a tricolor on the moon, India has staked itself at the forefront of geopolitics and geoeconomics. For whatever considerable internal issues the nation has, it proves that India is determined to make its contributions to the entire world and engage it in all spheres.

It is heartening to think that when I look at the midnight sky here in New York, I can see the moon which bears the flags of the two greatest democracies. Also, it seems appropriate that the Ashoka Chakra (Ashoka's wheel of justice) now revolves around the Earth, a reminder of the primacy of duty and responsibility, which ultimately transcends all national boundaries.

When you think about it, it's a fairly important historic reversal: whereas some sixty years ago, the British flag flew across India, today the Indian flag flies over Britain itself. More deviously, Indians today can derive silent satisfaction in knowing that whenever a Pakistani hails his own crescent-mooned flag, he also salutes the tricolour of his nation's arch-rival.

Research Pulls a Homer ... and Cures AIDS

Exciting news from Germany. Apparently, a man with AIDS has been cured through an unrelated bone marrow transplant for his coexisting leukemia. The scientific explanation is that the bone marrow was from a donor who had a mutation in the CCR5 gene, which normally allows HIV to enter cells to reproduce. This rendered the donor resistant to HIV infection, and, so, after the marrow transplant, induced resistance in the host as well. The hope is that in the future, gene therapy will allow doctors to do something similar without the dangers and high costs inherent to a transplant.

Yes, this is a very fortunate case of "pulling a homer" - to succeed at something without knowingly attempting to, trying very hard, or any intelligence [definition via urbandictionary]. It may very well be that history will write that the big breakthrough in HIV treatment was not borne out of billions of dollars in research, but in a great coincidence in Germany.

Gardasil for men. won't somebody please think of the children?!

New research suggests that Gardasil, the vaccine for HPV, can protect men too. Vaccination to HPV, which is associated with many different types of cancers, including most notably cervical cancer, has been heralded as a public health breakthrough. However so, many conservatives objected to large scale attempts at vaccination, claiming that it would promote promiscuity among their daughters by removing the threat of developing cervical cancer through longstanding HPV infection.

This new research puts an interesting twist on that argument of theirs. It has been recorded that Gardasil prevents the formation of precancerous lesions and genital warts in men as well. Though not as common as cervical cancer, the hope is that vaccinating men will not only reduce their occurrence in men, but make men inhospitable to HPV and thus prevent its spread to women.

With this new information, it will be interesting to see how the religious right will now view Gardasil. A lot of the antipathy towards HPV vaccination came from a hysteria that the innocence of their daughters would be lost. HPV - and the associated cervical cancer - is regarded as something of a moral punishment to women with less self-discipline, and in their eyes, Gardasil ablated the threat of that punishment. Now that the vaccine is shown to carry benefits to guys, will they suddenly fear the loss of innocence in their sons? That their sons will suddenly do risky and irresponsible things because of the lack of a threat from HPV?

My bet is no. I feel that they'll see the health benefits outweighing these concerns and drop their objections. After all, even in the more conservative communities, it is more acceptable for a guy to engage in premarital sex than a woman to do so. Protecting them from venereal disease may come before protecting them from moral vice. With their daughters though, the opposite may very well hold true.

So, to quote Helen Lovejoy, "Won't somebody please think of the children??!"

A Government No Longer Paralyzed By Polio

The last time I went to India, I remember large banners in many of the chowks and maidans advocating polio vaccination and dispelling rumors about it being a capitalist plot to sterilize the public. As well-meaning as they were, the banners rang empty; vaccinations were still lacking, allowing the debilitating disease to remain and even spread.

Now, two years later, the government has taken more active steps in the eradication of polio from the country by making more easily available polio vaccinations to areas of India that are most affected.

It's about time!! While Indians can boast of its billionaires and its dynamo economy, we feel ashamed of talking about its collective health. Today, it is embarassing that India, with all its manpower, brainpower, and heartpower (to coin a term) has failed to eradicate this ancient scourge. Let us hope that this initiative will help stamp out polio decisively from the world's largest democracy, and with it, a reluctance in talking about the massive strides in healthcare.

To add a bit of wonkish irony to this, unlike many other common diseases, polio actually worsens with economic development and better sanitation. The explanation is complex, but it is generally regarded that the poliovirus affects older patients more severely than it affects younger ones. Thus, with marginally better sanitation and development, the exposure to polio in children is delayed, leading to a more severe infection in the now older children. Though I am not sure whether in these areas this is a factor, it adds a layer of poorly-appreciated irony.