Saving the Bee
Medical Learning Resources for other struggling bumblebees at the hospital
I am very sympathetic to other bumblebees at the hospital, following power-walking consultants for eight hours a day, seven days a week. But then, no one can deny that running over ten flights of stairs per day is great cardio. Anyway, I have collated a list of resources to help those who are interested in learning more about medicine. Either you are a struggling med student who has drowned yourself in caffeine, or the curious sixth-former who wants to join the ranks, or the lovely old lady who wants to know more about your own health, I hope the following can give you pointers to know more about this beautiful subject:
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BOOKS
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Don't bother - (1) you won't understand 99% of the stuff if you go for the advanced version, and (2) medicine is a very diverse and dynamic subject. Different cultures may see things differently, especially when most medical books are written from a white perspective. If you are from a different ethnic background, this might not be the most ideal. Moreover, things change all the time. Theories are demolished and reconstructed. Books can't keep up with the pace of medical research. So, my advice is, go for something that helps you with the framework of medicine, or practical manuals about how to practise medicine.
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1. Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine;
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Bible- enough said.
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2. Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties
It includes amazing stuff from psychiatry, Obs & Gyn and Paeds.
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3. Macleod's Clinical Examination -
I think I mentioned this before in one of my posts. This is JUST FOR REFERENCE- ultimately, different doctors do things differently and the findings may not be replicable in patients of a darker skin tone. For instance, while jaundice can be clearly seen in a Caucasian patient (both on the skin and sclera), jaundiced skin is harder to observe in patients of darker skin tone. This also applies to skin lesions such as melanoma and moles.
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4. Gray's Anatomy (Gift Edition)
Simply because it contains wicked illustrations - no practical reason.
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WEBSITES
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I think this is the most important of them all, considering that the internet is the world's most wondrous creation. Information can be disseminated in a click. But then, when it comes to medical learning, always going on Wikipedia isn't going to be too useful. I hope the following will be useful (since they've benefited me loads):
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1. Geeky Medics
I cannot stress how grateful I am to what they're doing:
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2. Teach Me Series (Surgery, Anatomy, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Physiology)
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https://teachmephysiology.com/
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All of them are excellent points of reference. To all the confident clinicals out there, Teach Me Physiology has personally saved my day when understanding all the renal stuff, especially when clumped up with heart failure (the sacubitril/valsartan regimen literally drove me crazy). Teach Me Anatomy is the instructor's manual to surgery, since you have to be precise when describing where a lesion is. For example, pointing at the RLQ to indicate the McBurney's Point is not enough. We must say - 'it is located at 1/3 the distance from the right ASIS to the umbilicus'.
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3. YouTube Videos (another lifesaver):
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These are for Clinical Examinations since in the ward, everybody automatically has extremely high expectations. Nobody wants a struggling bumblebee who forgets to palpate this and that...
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(a) Manchester Medical School Clinical Videos;
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(b) University of Nottingham Videos (for psychiatry; clinical interviews);
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(c) Stanford Medical School (they have excellent splenic exam videos);
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(d) Geeky Medics (my fave);
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(e) Warwick University Medical School Videos (Dr Gill).
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4. BMJ Best Practice
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This is literally the best point-of-care facility I've ever used. It works for most pathologies the average bumblebee needs to know. Very elaborate detail in diagnosis, aetiology, treatment and follow-up. This should be free for medical students - just sign in with your uni details.
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5. Radiopaedia
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This is another banger. This is free for all so you don't need your uni or NHS details. It isn't confined to the bowels of radiology (although there is a trove of cases related to any pathology you need) - you can also learn loads regarding the epidemiology, pathophysiology and natural history of different diseases. My personal favourite remains Dandy-Walker Syndrome (neurological disorder, don't know that dandies have a particular gait...).
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6. Drugbank
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For pharmacology, let's face it - we don't remember much from our preclinical years. Nor do we recall all the nitty-gritty about pharmacodynamics. I, for one, have realised that the most material facts about drugs lie in three areas: (1) mechanism(s) of action, (2) contraindications, and (3) side effects. Unless you're talking about paracetamol poisoning or preparing for sophisticated chemical pathology classes, I don't find it particularly useful to recite all the half-life times. Drugbank is a huge Canadian resource which does what you need it to do. It gives ample information regarding every single drug you can think of. This is particularly useful when you're preparing for oncology, which is notorious for the sheer number of chemotherapy (and immunotherapy) drugs that one has to remember. Mitomycin, teniposide, irinotecan, vincristine, bleomycin...etc.
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JOURNALS
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Let's be honest - nobody has taught us how to read journals. More correctly, as a bumblebee, I often get smirked at whenever I find something new from the latest paper. This attitude has to change- passing by doing past papers is not going to make anyone a good doctor! Personally, I find the following resources immensely rewarding:
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1. The Lancet
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2. BMJ (British Medical Journal)
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3. New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
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It doesn't matter if you're struggling at first. Go for the Case Reports (also called Endgames or Minerva on BMJ). On NEJM, they've got clinical picture quizzes so that's nice!
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MAGAZINES
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There is only one item in this category- Mosaic by Wellcome Collection. To those who are not from the UK, Wellcome Trust is the largest health charity in the UK and provides clinicians and scientists with funds to do medical research. Mosaic is their creative department and publishes a lot of interesting articles about mind and health.
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I hope this helps. As a fellow bumblebee, we're all in this together!
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