Medical career growth from A to Z

Davidson's Principles & Practice of Medicine 21st Ed ! FOR FREE

KillerQueen — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:27:08 GMT

http://akramania.byethost11.com/Davidson/

Now you can directly access medical textbooks online with Medical Career!

KillerQueen — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:30:23 GMT

http://akramania.byethost11.com/Harrison/

What is Skin Cancer?

KillerQueen — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:17:58 GMT

Skin cancer is a malignant growth on the skin which can have many causes. The most common skin cancers are basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer, and melanoma. Skin cancer generally develops in the epidermis (the outermost layer of skin), so a tumor is usually clearly visible. This makes most skin cancers detectable in the early stages.

http://youtu.be/ZSTPBZz03Rk

There are three common and likely types of skin cancer, each of which is named after the type of skin cell from which it arises. Unlike many other cancers, including those originating in the lung, pancreas, and stomach, only a small minority of those afflicted will actually die of the disease.

Skin cancer represents the most commonly diagnosed cancer, surpassing lung, breasts, colorectal and prostate cancer. It is the most common cancer in the young population (20 – 39 age group).

It is estimated that approximately 85% of cases are caused by too much sun. Non-melanoma skin cancers are the most common skin cancers. The majority of these are called basal cell carcinomas. These are usually localized growths caused by excessive cumulative exposure to the sun and do not tend to spread.

Unhappy People Avoid Eye Contact

KillerQueen — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:50:53 GMT

People who are sad or depressed really do avoid eye contact, according to new research by a psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University.

Dr Peter Hills, Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin, carried out experiments to discover how mood affects the way individuals look at other people.

The research - co-authored by Dr Michael Lewis of Cardiff University - is published in the latest edition of the British Journal of Psychology and shows that happy people are more likely to detect changes in eyes than participants who are unhappy.

"Depressed people tend to avoid eye-contact in social situations and in experimental settings, whereas happy people actively seek eye-contact," said Dr Hills, who also discovered that, conversely, sad people more accurately noticed 'external' changes such as hairstyle.

One suggestion Dr Hills has proposed is that avoiding eye contact may actually increase depression amongst already unhappy individuals, as it can lead to isolation.

"Sad people avoiding eye contact will disrupt normal social fluency and may lead to them shunning certain social situations," said Dr Hills. "Although this may reduceanxiety caused by the situation itself, it may actually increase social isolation and deepen their already sad mood."

"An alternative perspective on our findings is that rather than sad-induced participants avoiding the eyes, they process faces based on the external features, such as hair, rather than the internal features. Internal features, which include the eyes and nose, are those most commonly used to recognize familiar faces.

"Thus, sad-induced participants may treat all faces in the same way, as if they were all unfamiliar, which again may increase the risk of social isolation."

Dr Hills and Dr Lewis constructed 12 "prototype faces" using a computer-based face-reconstruction system. The software allowed a set of features to be selected, such as head shape, hairstyle, eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and chin shape. These features were then enlarged, shrunk, or moved in relation to the other features.

To induce mood, participants performed an autobiographical memory task while listening to specific pieces of music, which were selected having been tested on psychology undergraduates in a previous study.

Mozart's Requiem was played to induce a sad condition, The A-Team music for a happy condition, and the theme from The Hunt for Red October for a neutral condition.

Anglia Ruskin University

Epstein-Barr virus myelitis and Castleman's disease in a patient with acquired immune deficiency syndrome: [report]

KillerQueen — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:51:32 GMT

Introduction

Few cases of Epstein-Barr virus myelitis have been described in the literature. Multi-centric Castleman's disease is a lymphoproliferative disorder that is well known for its associations with the human immunodeficiency virus, human herpes virus 8, and Kaposi's sarcoma. The concurrent presentation of these two diseases in a patient at the same time is extremely unusual.

Case presentation

We describe the case of a 43-year-old Caucasian man with acquired immune deficiency syndrome who presented with fever, weight loss and diffuse lymphadenopathy, and was diagnosed with multi-centric Castleman's disease. He presented three weeks later with lower extremity weakness and urinary retention, at which time cerebrospinal fluid contained lymphocytic pleocytosis and elevated protein. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated abnormal spinal cord signal intensity over several cervical and thoracic segments, suggesting the diagnosis of myelitis. Our patient was ultimately diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus myelitis, as Epstein-Barr virus DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction in the cerebrospinal fluid.

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of multi-centric Castleman's disease followed by acute Epstein-Barr virus myelitis in a human immunodeficiency virus-infected patient. Clinicians caring for human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients should be vigilant about monitoring patients with increasing lymphadenopathy, prompting thorough diagnostic investigations when necessary.

View the report:
http://jmedicalcasereports.com/content/pdf/1752-1947-5-209.pdf

Hemangioma related with Maffucci syndrome: [report]

KillerQueen — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:45:28 GMT

Introduction:
Maffucci syndrome is a rare clinical entity (approximately 200 cases have been reported in the medical literature) with combined occurrence of multiple enchondromas and vascular tumors. Case presentation The case of a 43-year-old Japanese man with multiple chondromas and hemangiomas (Maffucci syndrome) is reported. One of the hemangiomas was removed and examined pathologically. The morphological picture was an admixture of cavernous hemangioma and spindle cell hemangioma without cytological atypia or mitosis. Sheets of vacuolated endothelial cells were also observed. Conclusion A rare case of hemangioma associated with Maffucci syndrome, focusing on the pathologic nature of the submitted tissue is reported.

http://jmedicalcasereports.com/content/pdf/1752-1947-5-224.pdf

Interactive Medical Career Map

KillerQueen — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 18:08:46 GMT

Wales Deanery and the National Leadership and Innovation Agency for Health (NLIAH) have produced an extremely useful interactive tool which explains the links between different stages in the medical careers pathway. Click on the link below to view the map:

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/pgmde/careersandrecruitment/careerplanning/options/index.html

Foundation Programme - How to succeed

KillerQueen — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:52:11 GMT

You should be aware that during your Foundation Programme you will be responsible for taking control of your learning. This may feel slightly strange after spending 5 years at medical school but it is to enable you to start to operate at a greater level of independent learning than you perhaps have been used to.

You will need to ensure that all your assessments are completed and that you attend your teaching sessions. It is vitally important that you keep your Portfolio / E-portfolio up to date and that you seek out opportunities to learn as much as possible during your Foundation Years.

You should get involved with all members of the health team, not just doctors. Nurses, Physiotherapists and other Allied Health Professionals (AHP) will give you a full overview of the activities that are carried out within the hospital.

Competition into Specialty Training can be fierce and you will need to stand out from the crowd to succeed. During your Foundation Years you should be proactive and look for opportunities to enhance your application. You could do this by:

1. Audit

Reviewing how something is done and comparing this to what should actually be happening according to guidelines.

2.Presentations

Gain confidence presenting to colleagues and peers. You could seek out opportunities to present at:

o Departmental Meetings

o Regional Events

o National Seminars

Perhaps you could present your findings from an audit you have carried out?

3. Teaching

You should discuss with your Educational Supervisor if there are any opportunities for you help out with teaching. Participants could be medical students, foundation doctors, or a multi-disciplinary team. The teaching could be ward based, as part of a journal club (see below), a lecture or a tutorial.

4. Courses

You maybe able to attend courses as part of your study days. You should investigate courses that will add value to your personal development and you can discuss this with your Educational Supervisor.

5. Publications

If you could write an interesting paper and get this published this would make you a very interesting candidate for specialty training indeed.

6. Journal Clubs

A journal club is a group of individuals who meet regularly to critically evaluate recent articles in scientific literature.

7. Tasters

Organising 1 or 2 taster sessions during your foundation years can help you to further explore a specialty.

8. Networking

Speaking to a range of consultants, specialty trainees in a specialty that you are interested in can help in your career exploration. It will help with your career decision and also at interview where you can demonstrate commitment to that specialty. Look out for careers fairs or Royal College events etc, where you may have the opportunity to speak to people. You will find that on the whole people are happy to be approached and to talk about their roles.

9. Case-studies