Medical Residency Timeline for International Medical Graduates

Medicine 2.0 : Applying what has been learned

It has been a long time since my last post. I have been busy working in different personal things. But a post by Bertalan Meskó make think about something that I realized long time ago. The key for a development of a culture of Medicine 2.0 is education : Health Digital Literacy.
Each one of us can help to make this possible. I am participating in a observership with a group of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) at UCLA. We have developed a web to share our experiences in the process of getting involve in the American Health Care System.
In the process I am also teaching my fellows all what I know about Medicine 2.0 .
Please Visit us:
UCLA International Medical Graduate (IMG) Program.

UCLA International Medical Graduate (IMG) Program Participants' BLOG.
Your feedback is always welcome.

Medicine 2.0 : Copyright or Creative Commons ?

A

AWiki is an useful tool in the Web 2.0 environment. We can use it to collaborate with our colleagues to create knowledge online. Some days ago I read a post about Wiserwiki, a new project launched by Elsevier. This is not the only medical wiki that exists. Actually exists a long list of medical wikis. What is different with this wiki is the fact that the information created here for the medical community belongs to the publisher that owns the wiki. It means that if you want to use the information that exist in this wiki, you have to ask permission to the owner in order to do that. This fact is not new, it is how the industry of information has been working since the invention of copyright. When we write a medical article, we sent our work to a medical journal. They review it, and if they think that the article is good, they publish it. They copyright our work, they become the owners of our work. But do we have to copyright everything that we create? is this the only option that we have? The answer is no. We can make our work under a creative commons license. For long time we have depended on publishers to diffuse, distribute, collect, circulate and propagate the information we create. But nowadays do we need publishers to do these? The answer is no. What we need it is to learn how to use the web 2.0 in medicine.
We have to work really hard to spread this concepts, it is still not widely known for the health care community and sometimes you feel lonely in a digital world. Finally what you are going to do with your work will depend on each one of us. We can do what ever we want with our work. Some people will prefer to reserve the rights of their work, while others will share their work without restrictions. What could be the consequences of this changes in the mentality of the people? Can you understand the possibilities it has? Karina Descartin says : " I understand the possibilities better than ever: broader knowledge, wider accessibility for medical students and professionals, and more exchange of vital information among peers than ever before". What do you think?

Web Conference in Medicine 2.0 : Tool to Connect Doctors

T

Two days ago I received an invitation to try the Beta version of DimDim. This is a free web meeting conference tool. It is not the only one that exist, but this is free, open source, with a general public license. After I tried it, I can say that I am really pleased with it. It still has some bugs, but you can work with it pretty well. Previously I wrote bout Yugma, but DimDim I think it is better. What is interesting about this service is the fact that anyone can use it from anywhere. You only need a computer and good internet access. There is no necesity to upgrade your computer system. I have used it with my two years old laptop, an Acer Aspire 5000, AMD Turion 64 (1 MB L2 cache), 1.6 GHZ, and 1 GB DDR of RAM with Windows XP. I was looking for medical schools that offer this service for their students, an it was really interesting to read all the rules you have to follow to access this service, for example you can read the Stanford School of medicine video conference services page, to have an idea of that. This is a tool with a lot of potential to connect doctors that work in rural communities with those who work in urban communities, but not only that, the potential use we as doctors can give to this service is just amazing. Check out the video from the DimDim creators.

Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival

I

I want to start this post by saying that all the articles I have received to make this blog carnival are excellent. All of them have made me think deeply about the fact that knowledge begins with conversation. Being informed is so important and we have to be aware of that. Thirteen years ago when I read The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler, I did not get the real magnitude of the changes that will occur in our time. Now here we are seeing how things are happening in front of our eyes.

User generated content is something we read all the time, Bertalan Meskó recommends us to take a look to Radiopaedia 2.0 Update, GooMedic gives as a link to Family Practice Notebook with lot of information available to anyone of us. But not only independent persons can generate content, hospitals can do it too. Health Care Law Blog points an important question: Should Hospitals Blog?.

With lot of information that is created second by second, it is important to create a way to determine what is good and reliable and what is not. Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting (BPR3 ) are working hard to do that. In a post How BPR3 could work with other sites they explain us what they are doing. Credibility is important, check this presentation about web credibility.

Because lot of information is available, we have to learn how to recognize what is being read by others and for that there are many tools we can use, David Rothman gives us a tip with PubMed Citations (Greasemonkey Script).

We want the information no in our computers but in our hands, Clinical Cases and Images posts about Kindle e-book reader by Amazon: you can have 200 (medical) books on one device. I have not tried it. But if I were asked I would prefer a ultra mobile PC. We all involved in the Web 2.0 and Medicine environment realize that anywhere and free access to the information are the key. Huge companies are interested to control the market( and the information), the better way to do that is by controlling the market with their devices that only allow you to use their products, good examples of that are the ipod and the iphone

Information is out there and not only doctors can access it, our potential patients too. eHealth writes about Patient as Googler. A good example of how well informed a patient can be is Jmday, she describes really well her bad experience she had with a flu shot in The flu ep(idem)ic.

Medgadget writes about new services like iMedicor Portal for Medical Professionals to improve interaction between doctor and patients. Information is power, of course it is, that is why Constructive Medicine 2.0 writes about the efforts big companies such as Microsoft are doing to develop projects like Personal Health Vault

Medical 2.0 points something important about The influence of the Health 2.0 trend, but are we doing something to avoid the cannibalization of the medical sector. The future is now as Patient's Doctor tells us about Virtual Office Visits: A Reachable and Reimbursable Innovation.

The next edition of blog carnival will be at Medical education. Please submit your blog article to the next edition of Medicine 2.0; use our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Web 2.0 and Medicine: It is about having Digital Creativity

I

In the previous post I wrote that to learn about Web 2.0 and Medicine is as important as to learn how to write. But the main idea here, it is to realize that with the technologies we have on our desks, we can express our ideas and share our knowledge in many different ways, not only by writing. We can use sounds, images, videos, animations, we can talk to others, we can discuss with others, we can share screens, edit documents at the same time, create communities, etc. There is no limit. Just use your imagination and be creative.

Digital Creativity

"New technologies give us the ability to represent so many different kinds of object in the same standard digital format (text, layout, image, sound, 3D object, moving image, etc.). They also provide us with the mechanisms to capture, store, manipulate and output these representations to produce objects we can experience through our senses. This unity of underlying representational form and technological processing provides the foundations of a convergence."

   Recommended links:
   Pictobrowser
   Web 2.0 : Imagine the Possibilities
    Digital Creativity

Why is Important to Learn About Web 2.0 and Medicine ?

I

have been learning about the Web 2.0 for more than a year. Since February I have been writing about it in this blog. The purpose is to share with others what I know, to get more and more people involved with it. Not all my colleagues I have talked to about it really understand the concept or why it is so important to learn about it though.
That is why I have been thinking how to teach my colleagues in the health care community about the importance of Web 2.0 and Medicine. But without complicated terms or definitions. Why is important to learn about it? For me it is really clear that these concepts and technologies of the web 2.0 applied to medicine are going to change how the flow of medical information is created. With the use of these "new" tools we are going to go back to basics, and we will have the chance to learn medicine in a Socratic way again. We will have more time to spend with our peers to talk about the humanistic side of medicine. Learning about Web 2.0 and Medicine is as important as to learn about writing. All of us recognize the importance of knowing how to write. I think all of us can recognize the importance of writing in the mankind history.
I going to quote The British Library Board. Why to write: "For thousands of years human beings have used marks, symbols, drawings and signs to communicate with one another. In order to share knowledge, we need to be able to store information and pass it on to future generations. Memory is our first resource, but, over the centuries, we have developed many other ways to store and transmit information."
You know how to write in paper format and you know all the advantages it has. But do you know how to write on internet ? How much do you know ? Can you imagine all the opportunities the learning of these technologies can generate? That is why to learn about Web 2.0 and Medicine is important.

Digital Literacy: How to Search the Web

W

e are living in the era of information. Information is knowledge, and knowledge is power. But how to find what you look for? That is why it is important to learn and to develop "digital literacy skills". Nowadays it is so common to find patients who look for answers to their health problems before they go to their primary doctor. With the information accessible to any person from their computers, lot of people without access to the health care system will try to cure themselves. But what type of answers are people finding? I think we have to spread awareness about this fact in the health care community. And that is why we have to learn how to search for information on internet. This presentation was made by Patricia Anderson. I highly recommend it. At the end of the post you will find more links to improve your searching skills.

   Recommended links:
   Professional & Clinical Information Skills Beyond UM 1
   Professional & Clinical Information Skills Beyond UM 2
   Professional & Clinical Information Skills Beyond UM 3
   Professional & Clinical Information Skills Beyond UM 4

Medicine 2.0 : Blog Carnival # 11

W

hat's a blog carnival? It's a quick way to keep up to date on the "blogosphere" around a particular subject -- in this case, Medicine 2.0, the intersection of health care and the social Web. "A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks links to other blog articles on the particular topic"(Wikipedia). And for me is an amazing way to learn from what others think, an easy way to share knowledge. Click here to go to Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival

Digital Literacy: Find Whatever You Need for Medicine

Y

esterday I received an email from a friend. He asked about information to do a protocol. He told me he did his research for information in Google, but this was not useful. I think it was not useful because he did not know how how look for the information he needs that is in Google, and also because not all the information is there. Theassumption "if it is not in Google, it does not exist" is false. That is one reason I think digital literacy is really important. Today I am going to leave some links really useful to those people who are trying to get into a residency program. One presentation on PowerPoint, a list of questions you will be asked and some you can ask, and finally three videos of residency interviews. Enjoy them.

      What do the program directors look in a resident?
      General Competencies for a Resident:
      patient care,
      medical knowledge,
      practice-based learning and improvement, and
      interpersonal and communication skills,
      professionalism,
      systems-based practice.
      source: Outcome Project

      Material to READ:
      Smart Strategies for Successful Residency Interviews UCLA
      Interview Planning. Interview Questions: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

      List of Questions:
      List 1
      List 2
      List 3

      Interview VIDEOS:
      University of Texas: Bad Interview and Good Interview Examples
      University of Washington: Preparing for Interviews
      University of Minnesota: Residency Interview Workshop

Web 2.0 and Medicine: It is About Spread of Ideas

W

hat do you know that can be shared with others? I think each one of us has something special to teach to others. No matter what type of formal instruction you have. All of us are an invaluable source of ideas. In our daily life, at the school, at the hospital, in the clinics, or at home, we all play an important role. Do not be afraid of express yourself. It takes time at the beginning but then it is really easy. Sometimes we do not transmit what we know because we think that is not important. I always remember this story about José Saramago, a Literature Nobel Laureate, when he received the prize, he gave thanks to the two wiser people he ever met: his grandparents who did not know how to write or how to read. So next time you have an idea: share it. Web 2.0 is about that: "spread of ideas", your ideas. An amazing site I found on internet with tones of videos is TED. You will find here really amazing thinkers of different fields, not only medicine. Watch this video: Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes. You will find more at TED.

Web 2.0 and Medicine is about Values in Practice

"Solidarity is more than give just a hand, it is more than share with a brother. It is an universal feeling that disappears borders between countries no matter believes, races or colors."

W

eb 2.0 and Medicine is an amazing combination. It is something that has lot of potential in our field. But Medicine and Web 2.0 - or Health 2.0 - are not only about information and technologies. It is about values that we can put on practice. Solidarity and collaboration with no interest. It is a big idea. From my point of view, they can only generate more well being for more people, and sometimes for ourselves. Last months I was working on my personal statement. It was not easy to put all my ideas in just one page. Now this work is done. But I know lot of International Medical Graduates (IMG) each year have the same problem, trying to write something good about themselves. That is why I made this post, to share some templates and guidelines that where really helpful to me. If you know about more templates or guidelines to write a personal statement, please leave your comment and the link to these resources.

   Personal Statement Examples
   Personal Statement for Surgery
   Personal Statement for Family Medicine
   Personal Statement for Internal Medicine
   Personal Statement for Internal Medicine 2
   Personal Statement for Internal Medicine 3
   Personal Statement for Pediatrics
   Personal Statement for Pediatrics 2
   Personal Statement for Emergency Medicine
   Personal Statement 6 Examples

Web 2.0: Medical e-books and the Importance of Digital Literacy

F

ew weeks ago I went to UCLA Medical Center. Medical students were presenting their posters about the work they did during the summer. There were many interesting ones, but there was one that caught my attention. It was about how publishers are changing from paper publications to electronic publications during the last years. This week I read a post from K.S. Descartin. She wrote about her experience with the use of e-books and all the advantages that this fact represents. Even when I like a lot techno-gadgets. I have to admit that they still have disadvantages when compared with paper materials. While you can access lot of information with a simple click. You depend on the duration of the battery of your device to access the information you want. And actually you have to buy the gadget - what not all can afford -. And what about if the system crash. No internet connection. Have you think about that? What will happen if you can not access the information you want the moment you need it. Of course technology has lot of advantages we can not deny too. But, are we using these technologies efficiently? These things make me think about the importance of digital literacy again. And the fact there is still a lot to learn. Somehow each one of us learn about it by our own. I have not found a formal course to learn about it. I think now more than ever, with lot of information you can access if you know how, learning is a matter of motivation more than a merely passive act.

This is a funny video just to think why digital literacy really matters:

   Recommended links:
   Medicine 2.0 in action (blog carnival)
   Medicine 2.0 Tool: Study On The Go With Medical e-Books plus Some Experiential Babbles & Lessons On Integration
   How to Use Web 2.0 to get Medical Ebooks
   Using Web 2.0 to Access Medical Ebooks Online and More

Web 2.0 : Learning Molecular Biology Online

M

olecular Biology is for sure a really interesting subject. Here two links to amazing lectures from UC Berkeley and MIT. We can access them on internet for free. I recommend the lectures at the MIT. The lecturers not only know what they are talking about, but they show the passion they feel for this field. And sometimes this is really important to motivate students to learn. The photo above shows Linus Pauling holding models of water molecules in a classroom at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

   Molecular Biology Lectures Online

   Name:Bio 1A General Biology Lecture
   Source:UC Berkeley
   Date: Spring 2007
   Tip: To watch streaming video, to listen and to download MP3.

   Name:Introduction to Biology
   Source:MIT OPEN COURSE WARE
   Date: FALL 2004
   Tip: To watch streaming video click here.

   Molecular Biology PowerPoint Presentation
   Name:MBB 222-3 Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
   Source:Simon Fraser University
   Date: Fall 2003
   Tip: To find PowerPoint presentation on internet with Google, type what you are looking in the search box followed by FILETYPE:PPT ( example: molecular biology filetype:ppt ).

   Recommended links:
   Linus Pauling A Documentary History
   Linus Pauling from Nobelprize.org
   Linus Pauling Scientist for the Ages

Web 2.0 : An Useful Tool to Study Embryology

E

mbryology for sure was one of the most difficult subjects I took at the university. I was clueless about embryology and the human development inside the uterus. Trying to figure out just by looking at static graphics was so hard for me. When I found this material on internet I said to myself that how come I could not learn it before. So this is for those who are studying embryology for the first time and for them who just like to learn. The draw above is named "The foetus in the womb" was made by Leonardo da Vinci (c1510-12)

   Embriology Lectures Online
   Name:Human Embriology
   Source:Temple University
   Date: 2005
   Tip: you will find here presentation with audio, animations, etc, really excellent page.

   Embriology Animations Online

   Name:Human Embriology Animations
   Source:Indiana University
   Date: unknown
   Tip: animations with no audio, review system by system development.

   Name:Embryonic Folding
   Source:University of Cincinnati
   Date: 2006
   Tip: animations with audio, 3D animations.

   Dare to use your computer
   If you to download Embryonic folding you can install FlashGet and the Firefox addon Flash Got. To download the movies to your PC try with Quicktime Pro to download it click here.

   Recommended links:
   Universal Leonardo
   The drawings of Leonardo da Vinci
   Leonardo da Vinci from bbc.co.uk

Web 2.0 : A tool to Study Histology by Your Own

I

am thinking about what we can learn at home without the necessity of moving out of there, and without the necessity of spending lot of money in tuition fees, books, transportation, etc. While doing that I start with these posts. The links I put here are all around the blog, but because I notice people do not spend time checking all the blog, I decide to select the best links and share them directly with all of you. This post is about Histology, like many other courses of basic sciences I studied at medical school, I did it in black and white only, from photocopied books I could afford. Now internet allows new generation of doctors avoid this, and study from really good material they can access for free. The photo above is "Santiago Ramón y Cajal at work", to learn more about him click in the links at the end of the post.

   Histology Interactive Tutorial
   Name:Virtual Textbook of Interactive Histology
   Source:University of Calgary
   Date: 2001
   Tip: You can listen audio, and watch the slides.

   Histology Interactive Atlas
   Name:Virtual Slidebox Histology
   Source:University of Iowa Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
   Date: unknown
   Tip: It is always useful to add some images we like to our work. If you want to capture the images, an useful tool you can use is FastStone Capture. It used to be a freeware, but now they make it a shareware. If you want to use the freeware version click here to download it.

I think these two pages are excellent; however for medical student it is never enough. They want to have all sources of information available, even if they can not read all the information they have in hands. For those check my histology links in del.icio.us and check this links to find histology books. Finally, this phrase that is just beautiful: "The stories condemn useless rhetoric and unquestioning obedience, the qualities Cajal found most inimical to science".

   Recommended links:
   Santiago Ramón y Cajal from Wikipedia
   Santiago Ramón y Cajal from Nobelprize.org
   The strange science fiction of Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Web 2.0: A tool to Study Anatomy by Yourself

T

he following is a post based on a premise "What I can learn without going to a medical school". The links posted here contain information that is available for free on internet. Anyone can watch, listen, read, capture and download -if you know how- what is there. The image above is The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, oil on canvas by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1632. To learn a little bit more about this painting click here.

Anatomy Lectures:
IB 131 General Human Anatomy
source: UC Berkeley
date: Fall 2006 Course
to watch, to listen, to download audio.
streaming: General Human Anatomy Fall 2005 on Google

Anatomy Dissection Videos
Medical Gross Anatomy - Dissection Videos
source: The University of Michigan
to watch embedded in the site click here.
to download the movies to your PC try with Quicktime Pro to download it click here.

Anatomy Atlas Online
Anatomy of the Human Body
author: Henry Gray
not enough: Visit this link click here you will find more than 140 anatomy books to download or visit Del.icio.us.

Finally, I want to share with you what I read last week on the wall of a room at Sun Valley Middle School: "We do not know what we can do until we try".

Web 2.0: Medical Collaboration with no Borders

C

ollaboration is an interesting word. The understanding of this concept is important when we talk about the tools of Web 2.0. A definition I found in Wikipedia says, "Collaboration is a process defined by the recursive interaction of knowledge and mutual learning between two or more people who are working together, in an intellectual endeavor, toward a common goal which is typically creative in nature". The fact that there now exists new and better tools to collaborate with others -no matter the time or the place- does not mean that we have to leave the use of classical interaction with other people, but at the same time we have to recognize that the learning of the use of these tools has a tremendous potential to create new and better content and more. Web 2.0 does not mean we have to become techno-freaks, it is about using the tools that exist online to do our work more efficiently. It is about hearing others' opinions and improving our ideas. In medicine the Web 2.0 could be used to interact with other colleagues and with our patients. In medicine the access to the information and the sharing of experiences among colleagues is paramount. The Web 2.0 allows us to do that. If we learn about it, I am sure in the future doctors will not have to leave small towns -and patients- in order to remain current in their field. Because I think the place does not matter for medical practices in times of Web 2.0, or does it?

Interesting Links:
Rural Doctors on a Global Stage: Do Local Communities Make a Difference?
Liberate your control freaks

Not about Web 2.0 or Medicine

I

t has been a while since my last post, and this post will not be about Web 2.0 or Medicine. This post is going to be a little personal. I just got my score of my Step 2 CS that I took in L.A. in April 2nd. Now I know that I passed this test and with that I got my ECFMG certification. Therefore, there is just one test more ahead of me, but a long way to become what I want to be. "I want to be a man able to cure. I want to be a man who can serve his fellows, a man who can take lightening to those who suffer, I want to be able to give back the health to the patients and the hope to their relatives". I read this beautiful paragraph in a book named "By the River Piedra I sat down and wept" written by Paulo Coelho. While reading this book I cleared my ideas about the kind of doctor I want to become. At the same time I thought that this will not be possible without the help of really generous people I consider my friends. With this post I want to thanks all of them for their support and friendship. I also want to thank God for everything, good and bad things.

Using the Web to Access Medical Databases Legally

S

omething important for a wide use of the internet and the web as a productivity tool in medicine is the fact that we have to work hard in changing the way people think. This is a really difficult task. If we take in consideration the fact that few people talk and apply the concepts of Web 2.0 to their daily routine in medicine. This is just a consequence of belonging to a system that is based on the ignorance of us. Maybe I am wrong, but I realize that when lot of people use the internet, they think that there is only one way to do something. Most of the people do not realize that internet is a universe of infinite possibilities. Most of the people do not realize that with all the world connected, the chances to find someone who has the same interest of us is really high. To demonstrate that, I am going to show you one useful example. During the month of May MD Consult offered a Open House subscription. Now the offer is ended. If you want to continue with the subscription, you have to pay for it. Is it right? The answer is NO. Do you have to look for a password that does not belong to you on internet? the answer is NO. What you have to do is to visit Promedicum, open your own account, and that is it. The web is in Spanish, if you do not read in Spanish, follow your common sense. That is paramount when using the internet in medicine. Or do you want to continue belonging to the system?