Personal Statement Advice

Wish I had read this article earlier.  It speaks about really being "personal" in a personal statement as opposed to what I was told - to just write something safe so I don't sound like I'm cuckoo.  Always a fine balance!


Excerpt:

As the director of an internal medicine residency program, I read hundreds of personal statements every year. I know many program directors who find them irrelevant at best, and I confess I can't blame them. These statements usually follow 1 of 3 scripts: The candidates relay a medical catastrophe that afflicted them or their family. Curiosity is piqued. They indulge their curiosity by poring over endless tomes of biologic sciences and end up in medical school. Or, they know that they've wanted to be a doctor since conception. They were always exceptionally skilled in the sciences but really wanted to help people. Medical school was the natural conclusion. Or, lastly, the curious case of Mr. X, who tells me a great deal about the unfortunate patient but surprisingly little about the candidate. All candidates then have some sort of revelation during their internal medicine clerkship, and that is how their applications arrived on my computer screen.

I hate them all. Not the candidates, but their personal statements. Because there's really very little that's personal about them. The major thing they've told me about themselves is that they are very much like 90% of the other candidates for my program, or that they've engaged the services of whatever essay mill produces such stultifying prose. I'm not sure which is worse.

Turi McNamee, MD. In Defense of the Personal Statement. Ann Intern Med. 6 November 2012;157(9):675

Nerdy Jokes

Since I'm a nerd and I love all things nerdy:
20 Spectacularly Nerdy Science Jokes (Thanks ML)

Typing While Sleepy

Trying to send an email for research while very sleepy:

Dear Dr. O-----,

I've entered in some data, and I have had a few questions.  I've modified the excel sheet you gave me with all her nephews looking at it.  

Nephews? Huh?? Thank goodness I read over this email before sending it.  I think I was subconsciously thinking about my roommate's nephews because she was talking about them during the day.  

Grandmother's fashion tips

Conversation at the dinner table:
Grandmother: Is that really what you wear every day?
Me: Yes...
Grandmother: You dress so old fashioned!
Me: O_o  ...YOU dressed old fashioned!

Watching TV:
Grandmother: you said you didn't like dresses, so do you like skirt pants? (pants that look like a skirt)
Me: No...
Grandmother: come try my skirt pants!
Me: No thanks.
Grandmother: Come, come, try it on and see!
Me: No, please.
Grandmother: (while pushing my head) come on! Let me see how you fit, and I can get you skirt pants!
Me: No! No! Please don't make me!
Grandmother: Well, you said you don't like dresses, so you should wear skirt pants.
Me: I never said I DON'T like dresses, just that I don't care for them!

Obamacare

Interesting article about what the changes being implemented I'm the healthcare system.

Interesting quote regarding evaluating hospitals based on surveys:
“You go to Disney for a great vacation experience,” Dr. Rhonda Scott tells The Wall Street Journal. “You go to Ruth’s Chris for a great dining experience. Do you think it is a great experience when I tell you that you have stage-four cancer and you may be dead in three months?”

Panda Baby! - Mr. Sausage

Babies are so cute, especially when it's a baby panda from the San Diego Zoo!

Here's Sausage in his earlier days:

Him as a newborn (quite a feisty one!):

Here's more panda fun from San Diego Zoo pinterest:

Source: iwastesomuchtime.com via San Diego on Pinterest

Things I've Come to Hate from Studying for Step2

Things I've come to hate because I always get the question wrong:

• Metabolic disorders - ase, ase, ase...they're all just some kind of ase deficiency
• Recreational drugs/alcohol - just say no!
• Factitious disorders - people! Stop harming yourself on purpose!
• Endometriosis - seriously, that tissue is annoying enough by itself.
• Viruses/bacteria that shouldn't appear because there's a vaccine - for heaven's sake - no, for your KID'S sake, please, please, please vaccinate your kids!  The article about vaccines causing autism was a complete sham - it was withdrawn with apologies!  So no excuses - vaccinate your kids!
• Vitamin deficiencies - stop being so picky and just eat that meat and veggies (or take vitamin supplements), which leads to another issue...
• Vitamin overload (like A) - yup, too much of a vitamin can be bad too
• Psych diagnosis timelines: difference between schizophreniform vs. schizophrenia is one is 1-6mo of symptoms while the other is >6mo of symptoms.  Really?! Really?!
• Sex- causes so many problems, diseases. Especially those pap smears - too many options, can't keep them straight.  Would make things a lot easier if people just didn't have sex, ever.  But as my friend astutely pointed out, that would make life as a pediatrician a lot harder.

Interesting Thoughts! and more cuteness.

Hm..which pill would you choose? http://www.rofldepot.com/which-pill-do-you-choose_2069.html

This is so adorable: Level one guard dog

Gangnam @MIT

Nope, my profs were never this cool: Gangnam @MIT (thanks kp)

Ever wonder what "Oppan Gangnam style" really meant or what the song is really talking about?  For the longest time I had no idea why it was so popular when that guy was dancing around so strangely.

And here's a Gangnam parody (ironic that it's a parody of a parody): MIT Gangnam Style

Election Webcast About Politics, Taxes, and Healthcare

Interesting MIT Alumni webcast about politics, taxes, and healthcare with Professor Andrea Louise Campbell.  Unfortunately, you need to sign in, so here are some interesting points from the webcast:

• Compared to other countries, US citizens' taxes are low - 3rd from the bottom.  
• Example of country that has higher tax and not fiscally in turmoil:
• Germany: Has 1/3 higher tax than US, and invests in education/training and infrastructure.  If there is too little taxation, there is a lack of investment in the people and structure.  
• So most countries have universal healthcare, why is it so difficult for US citizens to accept universal healthcare?
• During WWII, there were a lack of workers and a cap on wages, so to attract workers, employers started giving benefits, the most popular of which was health insurance from private insurers.  That continued after the war, and the government also passed a law for no tax on income spent by employer for health insurance, which further solidified the system.  Now, for the people who do have insurance, they like what they have, and don't want something new/change.  They are afraid that they're choices will be limited under a universal healthcare system.
• Benefits of single pay system of universal healthcare (like Canada): administrative cost much lower.
• 2/3 of population represented by Medicaid ("poor ppl program") are poor and children, 2/3 of spending are on disabled seniors - so the majority of spending from Medicaid is actually spent on disabled seniors.
• Effect of election on Medicare ("old ppl program")/Medicaid:
• Obama: relatively same amount of spending on Medicare/Medicaid (as needed federal spending - no maximum/cap on amount of money spent in those programs).
• Romney: capped federal spending on Medicare.  Voucher will be given to elderly to buy premium for private insurance.  Also capped federal spending given to States for Medicaid (currently Medicaid is a combo contribution of State and Federal). 
• Effect of election on taxes:
• Obama: increase 4% on top 2 brackets (wealthiest) of tax payers.  
•  Romney ("Ryan Budget"): decrease total taxes from 20% of GDP to 16% of GDP - never been so low since before WWII, before interstate highway system, Medicare/Medicaid.  To do this, most notably, there will be changes in Medicare/Medicaid as noted above.  
• We used to have 25 tax brackets, now 5.  Now with low caps on fewer brackets, it means we're not penetrating the top brackets (of wealthy people).  
• Most americans, when asked whether they want a central government with less power, if the government is wasting their tax money, etc, they say "YES!".  But when you ask the same people whether they would like to spend more money on public education, the poor, healthcare for the elderly, they also say, "YES!"  - "So US public is a little bipolar?" ..."Yes..."

Match = Economics Nobel Prize

The residency match (program that matches medical students to residency programs) got the Economics Nobel Prize!  Well...not exactly.  The person who invented got the Nobel Prize for it and other matches like organ donations: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2012/popular-economicsciences2012.pdf (Thanks JO)

12 med student stereotypes

Which kind of med student am I?
12 med student stereotypes (thanks kp)

Top 15 Free Android Medical Apps

These are quite useful! Top 15 Free Android Medical Apps (from iMedicalApps):

1. Medscape*
2. Epocrates*
3. Skyscape
4. Evernote
5. Calculate by QxMD*
6. MedPage Today*
7. Harvard School of Public Health
8. Monthly Prescribing Reference (MPR)
9. Standard Dictations
10. USPSTF ePSS (electronic preventive services selector)
11. PubMed Mobile*
12. Ob Wheel
13. Eponyms*
14. Speed Anatomy
15. Calorie Counter by FatSecret

*I downloaded

Others that I like: Prognosis (clinical cases)

Common Baking Subsitutes

This will come in handy for baking!
http://allrecipes.com/howto/common-ingredient-substitutions/

Carry Your Own Burden

Scrub's lesson on carrying your own burden (as opposed to dumping it on someone else).  And also how the grass may look greener on someone else's yard, but everyone has their own burdens.