Tuesday, September 14, 2010

I'm not playing a game, I'm preparing myself!

In honor of Halo: Reach coming out today, I thought I'd refer you to this gem at Ars Technica.  A recent research paper published in Current Biology shows that gamers who enjoy action games take less time to make decisions while remaining just as accurate as non-gamers who take a greater amount of time.  So, rather than say I'm wasting all of my time today playing a video game, I'm going to stick with the story that I'm honing my decision-making prowess so that I can make decisions faster and on less information when I start my clinical rotations, especially for emergency medicine.  Yeah, that's plausible enough... kinda.

In the meantime, I'm going to get as much studying done as possible until UPS shows up with my copy.  I love Amazon's release-date delivery!

Monday, September 13, 2010

I Almost Forgot I'm Going to be a Doctor

A strange thing seems to happen throughout your 1st year in medical school: you forget you're actually going to be a doctor at some point.  You get so caught up in studying anatomy, biochemistry, histology, cell biology, etc. that you lose sight of WHY you're studying all of that stuff.  Instead, you spend all of your time studying (or, if you're me, you spend all of your time reading skeptical blogs and books about the financial collapse, and playing Halo or Call of Duty until 2-3 days before an exam).  You don't really experience much outside of the classroom.

However, you really need to have a lot of that basic medical science down before you can even approach anything clinically-oriented.  In my yearly meeting with a faculty member the other day, I explained how utterly useless most 1st year medical students are when they attempt to give us some amount of clinical exposure.  Sure, they can take 1st years into the hospital to interview patients and get a history, but the patients tend to know more about their disease than we do.  I've joked a few times that at this stage in my medical career, I'm a lot like my uncle when it comes to computers -- I [think I] know just enough to be dangerous.  Some schools brag about offering clinical exposure in the first year, but realistically, it's basically like show & tell back in kindergarten.  You get to see some pretty machines, neat disease processes that you still don't understand, and meet some interesting people.  But don't plan on the encounters changing your life or enhancing your understanding of the science you're trying to learn.

But a funny thing happened at the beginning of this semester.  The professors snuck up on me and reminded me that I'm actually going to be a doctor.  This year, I get to do some exciting things.  I see at least one patient every week to work on history-taking and physical exam skills.  More often than not I even have a clue as to what's going on with them and how that disease has progressed.  Each week we have a special session about a particular specialty where we learn about the specialty and have some sort of clinically-oriented experience.  For example, when we had the session for plastic surgery, I got to practice my suturing skills (on a pig's foot).  It was comforting to know that after spending a semester dissecting a cadaver last year, I actually did pretty well in stitching skin back together.  It was too little too late for the pig though.

So, since my medical school did me the kindness of reminding me that I'm in medical school to do more than just learn neuroanatomy and pathology this year, I'm going to follow suit and try to post a little more often about medically relevant topics.  I'm sure I have a few readers who are interested in the medical school perspective on more than just science topics, so I'll try to include some of that when I can.  Considering my ADHD nature, however, I'm confident I'll still bounce around quite a bit between that, skepticism, what I'm reading on my Kindle, and whatever else happens to hold my attention while I'm at the computer.  I hope you enjoy it!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A Game of Thrones

I finally finished A Game of Thrones.  Despite some of the annoyances I discussed earlier about the eBook being an OCR'd copy of the print version, it was one of the most compelling pieces of fiction I've read in a while!  If you haven't read this book yet, you need to start now.  That way you can finish before they start the HBO series in Spring 2011!  The book was recommended to me by one of my preceptors from last year, and ironically enough, it was probably the best advice he's ever given me!  Now when the HBO series starts, I can be one of those elitist pricks who constantly complains that "it was never like that in the books," or "they totally screwed up that character," and "the books were WAY better."  Though I actually have a good bit of confidence that HBO will do right by this series.  We'll find out.

A few friends have warned me that I'll be extremely pissed after the first 4 books because it's been 5 years since George R.R. Martin released the 4th book and there's no release date in sight for #5.  Unfortunately, I'm already addicted so I can't stop now.

I usually find enough nonfiction to satiate my palate between Orson Scott Card's books that come out a couple times a year, but I'm glad I tried something new.  Of course, I've already pre-ordered Pathfinder, but I'm going to try to get through as much of A Song of Ice and Fire (the name of the series) until then!  Next up is A Clash of Kings.

So, if haven't already, give A Game of Thrones a shot.  It's not exactly a quick read at ~850 pages, but it's worth it!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Review: Kindle 3G + WiFi vs. Kindle for Android vs. Hardcover Book

I've had my Kindle for a week now, and I don't know that I've read this much in a while.  It's just so much more convenient to be able to read with my Kindle rather than having to carry around a big hardcover wherever I go.  But when I shelled out $249 for this thing ($189 Kindle + $60 cover), I wondered how it would compare to having Kindle for Android on my HTC Evo, or just reading out of a good old-fashioned hardcover.  It better be a wonderful experience, considering how much I spent on the device just so I could spend more money on books in the Kindle Store!

I purchased the 3rd generation Kindle with 3G.  At first, I was tempted to get the WiFi-only version and save $50, but I figured if I'm going to have this thing for a few years, I'd rather not worry about always being in WiFi range to download/purchase new books or sync my place in a current book should I decide to read on my phone instead.  I had money from working over the summer, so the $50 extra wasn't the end of the world to me.  If you're on a tighter budget, you would probably be just fine with the WiFi-only version.  Personally, I haven't used the Kindle anywhere outside of my apartment yet, but I could envision myself reading in the park or by the canal downtown.  I'm of the mind that if you're going to be making any purchase that will last for more than a couple years, you better make sure you're happy with it so that 1 or 2 years down the line, you don't regret the fact that you cheaped out that extra $50 or whatever.

In addition to the Kindle itself, I spent $60 on the lighted black leather cover.  The leather is alright and it feels plenty sturdy to protect the Kindle.  The light is bright enough and covers the screen adequately.  Some of the reviews on Amazon complain about it being an uneven light due to its position, which is true, but I still have no problems reading the last few lines.  The convenience of having the light as part of the cover and having it powered by the Kindle is worth it, even if the light is uneven.  I'd prefer that to having to carry around a clip-on light.  As I've said previously, the case adds quite a bit of heft to the Kindle.  I've mostly gotten used to it now, though if you don't plan on needing the light, you might better off with a lightweight protective skin instead.  I've been reading in bed at night quite a bit, and I prefer to have the light with the cover rather than having to situate myself specifically to read by desklight.  So I'm plenty happy with my purchase, although $60 is pretty steep.  I think $30-40 would be more reasonable.

So, $249 later, I have a brand new Kindle.  But how does it compare to Kindle for Android or a hardcover book?

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Kindle Has Arrived

As I mentioned on Sunday, I pre-ordered a 3rd generation Kindle about a month ago.  It was delivered yesterday -- ahead of schedule!  I've had some time to play around with it, and so far I'm very pleased.  I'll post more about it over the weekend after I've had time to really put it through its paces (and when I don't have a quiz and an exam the following morning), but I wanted to take a few minutes to post my initial thoughts.

The device itself is incredibly light and very comfortable to hold.  If I'm holding just the Kindle (more about the cover below), I could probably read for hours without tiring.  Most hardcovers I read tend to be around 350 pages, and I can't say the same when I'm reading those.  I'm reading A Game of Thrones now (a whopping 704 pages for the hardcover, 831 for the paperback), and I can't imagine lugging around such a massive book in my bag all day.  It's also nice to be able to set the Kindle down for a moment and not worry about losing my place.  The size and feel of the Kindle are both excellent, and the text display is perfect.  It's VERY clear and easy on the eyes.  The E-ink display is perfect for text, although the display does occasionally look a little wonky when changing all screen elements.  That's a product of the technology, however, and given the quality of the text display and the battery life, I'm more than OK with the trade-off.

To Start a New Student Interest Group?

I'm debating starting a new Student Interest Group (SIG) at my med school.  We have all kinds of them for various specialties (dermatology, orthopedic surgery, family medicine, etc.), cultures/beliefs (LGBT, Christian Medical Association, Spanish language), and other commonalities.  I tried to get involved with one SIG last year that presents 1 hr presentations about science/medicine to students at a local junior high school to get them interested in the topic, but unfortunately the date I was scheduled to present was rescheduled.  But aside from that particular SIG, I haven't found one that really speaks to my interests.  I don't just want to be in some SIG that will sound good on a residency application; rather, I'd like to be a part of something that will have a lasting effect on myself and my peers by preparing us to deal with the challenges that lie ahead.

This led me to an idea for a new SIG, which I would call SkepSIG.  Catchy, I know.  It would basically be a way for medical students to get together to discuss science and medicine and how to effectively communicate these topics to patients.  When I read about how people respond when the scientific evidence contradicts their own beliefs, or when I observe such political and public outcry when it is recommended that an ineffective breast cancer drug have its FDA approval revoked, I can't help but consider how the scientific attitudes of physicians, patients, public officials, and the general public will affect my ability to help my patients in the future.