MedSceNe1

Welcome to MedSceNe!

This is the first issue of an Electronic Newspaper for Medical Students in the

Northern Deanery!

It is written by Medical Students for you, yes you reading this! I know,

you’re thinking, how did we know what to write just for you? Its because we

are just that good…

Yeah right! Its written by Medical Students for Medical Students.

- That means we aim to publish what you want.

Want us to write about revision? We’ll write a topic on how to revise and tips

and tricks we’ve picked up over the years. Or maybe you’ve written some-

thing and want others to know about it? We can publish it for you! This is

MedSceNe and we are here to provide a link between all Medical Students

studying in the North East. Newcastle University, Durham University and all

the Base Units from here to Carlisle. Want help or want to see your work

across the North? Then get in touch and we’ll do our best!

A word from the Editor: Apologies for the dribble above, I’m actually really keen

to see the newspaper go somewhere. I see other universities with similar

work and I believe we deserve the best! This Newspaper can be used to

promote your society, promote your event and even promote your work.

If you’d rather not read an entire paper written by me then join the team

and stop me from doing it again. I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards, Christopher Taylor

5th Year Intercalating Student

Graphics

As you may have guessed by even the quickest

glance at this newspaper I am very graphically

orientated.

However, a full time position is available

for a student with artistic flair; they will help

with the overall appearance and ‘feel’ of each

article, but you can’t always judge a book by

its cover so they will also be able to write their

own articles if they wish.

Liaisons

Now what good is a newspaper if no one

knows when the next issue is out?

Apart from general publicity, this position

is open to anyone with an interest in

journalism & writing and would like the extra

thrill of helping run the society .

Its all about potential, this newspaper has

potential to be whatever you want it to be and

Liaisons is the perfect way to learn.

Editors

A Newspaper is nothing without its Editors;

we would like some enthusiastic students with

an interest in journalism or would just like to

give it a go.

We can’t guarantee a weekly column for

every student but we aim to publish as much

as we can, and if demand is high enough we

can even increase the frequency of new issues.

Project Leads

Project leaders are editors who are in charge of

a particular article or topic. Current thoughts

on positions include:

Year Representatives -

must ensure that there are enough articles

for their year group and adequately repre-

sented in the newspaper.

Queens Campus Representative -

as an ex-DUQC student is would hate to

think of Durham students missing out on

something like this and feel they need to

be equally included within MedSceNe

You

Read something interesting in the news or a

science magazine? Done an interesting

summer vacation research project, audit,

teaching experience or elective report?...

Want to share that experience with

other students? Or maybe you don't know

how to do the above and would like to

know more, write to us or send you work in

and you could see it in the next issue! [email protected]

The NHS is both the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world. It is able to function in the way that it does because it is primarily funded through the general taxation system. The system thus provides healthcare to anyone normally legally resident in the United Kingdom with almost all services "free at the point of use", one of the core principles from the original NHS set-up, which is non-negotiable. It is often described both domestically and abroad as the only health service of its size, depth, and prevalence to offer all essential services completely free at all times. Most similar nationally and regionally run universal healthcare systems require some sort of up-front payment from the patient, followed by reimbursement of the cost. The NHS also provides free emergency-based care to all people within UK borders, regardless of their legal status or national origin. People of questionable legal status or a different national origin who do not have the legal right to be in the UK long-term are not entitled to the full NHS, but they are entitled to emergency care without having to pay for it. The NHS has further agreed a formal constitution which sets out the legal rights and responsibilities of the NHS, its staff, and users of the service and makes additional non-binding pledges regarding many key aspects of its operations, of which the current primary legislation is the National Health Service Act 2006.

The English NHS is controlled by the UK government through the Department of Health, which takes political responsibility for the service. Parliament has devolved management locally to ten Strategic Health Authorities that oversee all NHS operations, particularly the Primary Care Trusts, in their areas.

The Department of Health is led by Andrew Lansley; the Secretary of State for Health.

With two Ministers of State: Simon Burns & Paul urstow and two Parliamentary

Under-Secretaries of State: Anne Milton & Earl Howe.

The current Permanent Secretary is Una O'Brien. Following 2006 a separate post of Chief Executive was recreated and is held by David Nicholson. The official headquarters are in R i c h m o n d H o u s e , Whitehall, London.

No Apostrophe!

MedEd is a medical education society set up by medical students for medical

students. The first committee was run by a group of dedicated 4th and 5th years

with an interest in teaching and education. The society is in its second years and

has become firmly established within the medical school after the success of

some of our projects.

Teaching is a vital part of any doctor’s career and we wanted to provide more

opportunities for students to get involved at an early stage and help facilitate

peer learning.

Our aims are:

To support medical students, providing additional teaching tailored to their

learning needs.

To provide opportunities for medical students to teach in accordance with

the GMC’s guidelines set out in Tomorrow’s Doctors 2009

To raise awareness of peer education, foster enthusiasm for medical

education and promote a culture of lifelong teaching and learning.

The society is holding its first event this month for 3rd and 4th years.

The ‘MedEd Explained Evening’ has been developed to introduce students to the

society, some of the projects that we have run and future opportunities students

can become involved with. The society is also looking for new members not

only to help develop some of the projects and teach but also new committee

members to organise the events.

There has been an overwhelming positive response from students which has

demonstrated a need for the society and its work. For many of our events

attendance reaches over 300 students and with very promising feedback.

Our main projects include review sessions where 1st and 2nd year students are able

to attend relatively short sessions on materials they have covered that term. In

May last year we sent out a questionnaire to identify areas students wish to

cover or felt they would struggle with in their summer exams. After identifying

these topics we spent a long time developing a reviewing the session materials,

making them as memorable and interactive as possible.

After recruiting 3rd and 4th years we held teacher training sessions to ensure those

running the review sessions could deliver the material in an engaging and

professional way.

The success of Dr Dark’s clinical skills review sessions for 4th and 5th year, along

with the Family Study, Patient Study and Critical Appraisal sessions, created a

lasting and positive impression on students and staff alike. This year MedEd aim

to improve these sessions with the feedback we collected, as well as develop

new and exciting projects.

If you wish to know more about MedEd or would like to become involved in teach

or a committee position we would love to hear from you. We have a forum on

the LSE or you can email us at [email protected]. We look forward to

seeing you at one of our future events soon.

We are looking for keen 3rd and 4th Years!

Can you help?

Knowing less can make you a more perceptive student, a better teacher

and a happier person overall. It could even make you richer!

HEY, you, stop reading right now. This article might be bad for you. Put it away, kick your feet up and do something mindless instead.

Still here? Perhaps it would change your mind if I tell you that there are many virtues to being ignorant. We all aspire to have the smarts, but it now seems knowing less can sometimes be an asset. "Ignorance can be valuable," says Nate Kornell of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. An erudite mind could therefore be a dreadful hindrance. You may want to find out why over the next few pages, but if you come unstuck thanks to the "curse" of this new-found knowledge, don't say I didn't warn you…

One of the more obvious places to see it in action is the classroom. "It's an oxymoron, but ignorance can be a virtue in education," she says. To teach effectively, you need to see things from the naive perspective of the pupil - and the more knowledge you have acquired, the harder it becomes. "Sometimes a less-experienced teacher can be better at pitching the message at the right level," she says. In fact, almost anytime you are explaining an idea to a less informed person, a dash of ignorance will help you to judge their knowledge and abilities more accurately.

Acknowledging your ignorance could make you a better learner in the long term, too. Kornell and colleagues recently showed 25 participants a set of general knowledge questions and answers, and asked them to try to memorise the answers. They tested their knowledge a few minutes later. Next, they staged a more difficult trial: this time, the participants had to answer a set of similar questions, but without seeing the answers beforehand. They performed dismally, which was not surprising considering that many questions were fictional to prevent their prior knowledge playing a role. The bliss of ignorance. The "Dunning-Kruger effect" has since been found in various other realms: among chess players, medical students, lab technicians and even hunters.

If you think this doesn't apply to you, think again. "Nobody knows everything about everything," says Dunning. "We are more ignorant than we realise. Believing we know more than we actually do is one of several "positive illusions" we hold about ourselves and our true talents, which are essential for our well-being. For instance, Shelley Taylor of the University of California, Los Angeles, has shown that positive illusions are associated with good mental health, and that people who don't entertain these misconceptions are more likely to be clinically depressed.

He explains that there are usually two stages to any given task: planning and execution. While you are more likely to be successful if you think through the first stage, he says, a fully realistic picture during the second could be a hindrance not a help. In fact, the thing that you are by far the most ignorant of is the true extent of your own ignorance. Chances are, acquiring this nugget of knowledge won't have done you too much harm. Psychologists agree that learning about the extent of your ignorance and how it affects you is probably for the best.

Don't get smart: The curse of knowledge: NEW SCIENTIST: 27 July 2011 by Richard Fisher

When you think of the Dissection Room you may think there is

just a room full of cadavers for you to look forward to.

However, there is much, much more…

… there’s the glassy eyed students…

… the dull and faded anatomists…

… and the piles and piles of history!

The study of anatomy begins at least as early as 1600 BC, the date of the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. The earliest medical scientist of whose works survives to any great part today is Hippocrates (460 - 377 BC). His work demonstrates a basic understanding of musculoskeletal structure, and the beginnings of understanding of the function of certain organs, such as the kidneys. Much of his work, however, and much of that of his students and followers later, relies on speculation rather than empirical observation of the body. One of the greatest achievements of Hippocrates was that he was the first to discover the tricuspid valve of the heart. The first use of human cadavers for anatomical research occurred later in the 4th century BC when Herophilos and Erasistratus gained permission to perform live dissections, or vivisection, on criminals inAlexandria under the auspices of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Herophilos in particular developed a body of anatomical knowledge much more informed by the actual structure of the human body than previous works had been.

The final major anatomist of ancient times was Galen, active in the 2nd century. He compiled much of the

knowledge obtained by previous writers, and furthered the inquiry into the function of organs by performing vivisection on animals. Due to a lack of readily available human specimens, discoveries through animal dissection were broadly applied to human anatomy as well. His collection of drawings, based mostly on dog anatomy, became the anatomy textbook for 1500 years. The original text is long gone, and his work was only known to the Renaissance doctors through the careful custody of Arabic medicine.

The first recorded public dissection was performed in Bologna in ~1315 by Mondino de’Liuzzi, who also wrote the first modern book of anatomy in 1316. From the 15th century the pace quickened, with more dissections and more works being devoted to human anatomy. Renaissance artists wanted to appreciate what the body looked like on both the outside and the inside; Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings are some of the most famous of the period. While the early anatomist Andreas Vesalius had his great work, ‘De humani corporis fabrica’ is the first medical book in which the illustrations are more important than the text. As a results, the history of anatomy can be divided pre– & post-Vesalian.

The history of anatomy is a deep and fascinating history that any medical student should become familiar with throughout their study of medicine.

Some great books to get you interested include:

A Very Short Introduction; The History of Medicine

&The Knife Man (by Wendy Moore )

Ever wondered why bad

musicians always win the

Eurovision Song Contest, or

how incompetent politicians

get elected?

How can you tell someone is

lying?

What does the way you walk

reveal about your personality?

Why should women have men

write their personal ads?

You need some Quirkology in

your life

Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives By Professor Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman is Britain’s only professor for the Public Understanding of

Psychology and has an international reputation for his research into unusual areas,

including deception, luck, humour and the paranormal.

He is the psychologist most frequently quoted by the British media and his

research has been on over 150 television programmes in the UK. He is regularly

heard on Radio 4 and feature articles about his work have appeared prominently

throughout the national press.

Quirkology uses scientific methods to study the more curious aspects of everyday

life. This approach to psychology has been pioneered by a small number of

researchers over the past hundred years, but has never been formally recognised

within the social sciences. Professor Wiseman documents his adventures and experi-

ments, along with many other quirky findings that have, until now, been hidden

away in obscure academic journals.

Learn how your star sign and date of birth affect your grades and why laughter really

is the best medicine. This funny, informative book is a great read for any medic.

Other work by this author include: The Luck Factor, Did You Spot The Gorilla?, 59 Seconds and Paranormality

Professor Richard Wiseman uncovers the secret ingredients of charisma, explores

how our personalities are shaped by our surnames and examines why people usually

miss the obvious signs of their partner’s infidelity.

Using scientific methods to investigate offbeat topics, Quirkology brings a new

understanding to the backwaters of the human mind and takes us to places where

mainstream scientists fear to tread.

Recommended Retail Price - £8.99

Amazon: Used - from £0.01 New - from £0.92

Your Guide to Dissecting the

Stethoscope

The stethoscope is an essential tool for

every medical student and is

commonplace in many hospital

specialties, so mastering this useful tool

early in your medical career will set you

up for long term success.

The stethoscope was invented in France in

1816 by René Laennec, his device was

similar to the common ear trumpet, a

historical form of hearing aid.

In the early 1960s Dr. David Littmann,

a Harvard Medical School professor, cre-

ated a new stethoscope that was lighter

than previous models and had improved

acoustics.

The three main parts to the stethoscope

are:

The Tubing - an important part to

help individualise yourself, a bright

colour is bound to make you stand

out from the crowd!

The Diaphragm - when placed on

the patient’s body sounds vibrate the

diaphragm and create acoustic pres-

sure waves which travel up the tub-

ing to the listener's ears. [Figure 1]

The Bell - the vibrations of the skin

directly produce the sounds as it

transmits lower frequency sounds.

[Figure 2]

A cheap stethoscope will serve you as

well as an expensive one, most exams and

many wards have their own available but

it is nice to practice with your own. It is

important to note that a more expensive

stethoscope will provide higher quality

sounds but unless you’re a fully qualified

Cardiovascular Consultant you’ll be OK

with a cheap-o!

Listening with a Stethoscope:

Grade 1 – Very faint, just audible by an expert in

optimal conditions

Grade 2 – Quiet, just audible by a non-expert in optimal

conditions

Grade 3 – Moderately Loud

Grade 4 – Loud with palpable thrill

Grade 5 – very loud with palpable thrill, audible with

stethoscope partly off chest

Grade 6 – very loud with palpable thrill, audible without

stethoscope

Figure 1

Figure 2

Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is taken while the patient is relaxed, on their right arm with calibrated equipment with the cuff wrapped

around the upper arm inflated over the brachial artery

Inflate the cuff to past arterial pressure when the pulse is no longer palpable – then position the stethoscope just below

the cuff on the brachial artery

Cuff pressure is slowly released until (Korotkoff) sounds (phase 1) can be heard showing SYSTOLIC PRESSURE

The pressure is dropped until sounds are muffled (phase 4) and eventually until they can no longer be heard (phase 5)

showing the DIASTOLIC PRESSURE

The Korotkoff sounds may disappear (phase 2) and reappear (phase 3) between systolic (ventricular contraction) and

diastolic (atrial filling) pressures