So lately I’ve been participating in a miniature journal club for the lab I’m working in. Would anyone here be interested in starting a journal club here? We could choose a paper once a week then all read and discuss on the forum later. We could do clinical topics, microbiology (I’m reading a lot of HIV papers), anything that people would be interested in. I think this would be helpful to anyone interviewing soon who wants to be able to discuss recent trends in medicine or hot topics. I could organize this and can get just about any journal article out there through my school. Anyone up for it, let me know!
Definitely.
What are your clinical/research interests?
Any of the core sciences related to medicine, emergency medicine, trauma, prehospital medicine, and brain injury.
I like literature reviews because of how much you can learn so I’ll read anything as long as it is relevant.
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I’ll do some looking next time I’m in my lab.
If you want, my mentor has a big (BIG) review on viral fusion complexes. Fascinating stuff. I’ve read it twice but still need to keep reading to really get it. I read clinical stuff too, usually related to women’s health. I can dig around and see what I have. If you find anything good, let me know and I can probably get it.
Yeah, I think its a good idea to start the Journal, there can be then sharing of ideas and knowledge.
Any word on the Journal Club? I am totally interested!! 
If I can offer some direction, since the majority of people here are looking to be clinicians, maybe the journal club should focus on clinical medicine rather than pure science topics. I am throwing in a vote to review the 10 most prevalent diseases in the U.S. like diabetes, heart disease, and even the common cold; seems like a good place to start. As topics go, then the journal club could entertain the specifics of these as we encounter them… ? Any takers?
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I think this is a great idea, but I will be honest, I don’t think I will have the time for it. I think I’ve filled up my plate and then some for my fall semester. That being said I did come across an article specific to clinical/academic medicine that I personally find very interesting. I hope to become a medical educator on some level and one thing that really turns me off about medical education is the pimping and badgering that is notorious in med school and residency. Well, this article addresses the culture of (dis)respect and suggests changes need to be made. I have not read this in full yet (there is a part I and part II) but it may be something of interest to others: http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Full text/…
Read it and love it!! One of the things that really gets my goat with this is how this behavior is complicitly “co-signed” by other doctors and supervisors. The pervasive code of conduct that says “They have their license, they earned it, they must be allowed to practice as they see fit, it is their perogative” I have a very RUDE and disrespectful doctor in my department who is mean to the patients all the time. The patients really dislike/hate him because he is so punitive and condescending. I documented it heavily and took it to his superior and nothing was done. It is as if once you get the license, you have carte blanche to behave in any way you choose without reproach or supervision. Bad behavior is tolerated and supported. This aspect of the medical field, that a doctor can “do no wrong” and virtually does not have to answer to anyone, baffles me. It is a primary motivator behind my desire to NOT be that kind of doctor. I think this article is also relevant to the thread about “Are people in medicine not nice?” Very well written piece of work. Nice to see it recognized in a scholarly fashion.
Thanks for the feedback, Vicki, and personal insight. I, too, am motivated to be a doctor that is kind. Human, too, as we all have our faults, but overall kind. Isn’t that what doctors should be? It baffles me also that it is as if all those eager med students were lying about their mission to help people and/or the culture of medical education has somehow made these people mean, jaded, disrespectful jerks that think they are better than the whole of the human race. I find this to be evident in academics as well, not just academic medicine in which my experience is nil and opinions based on anecdotes. We all know those professors who seem to get kicks out of deriding and berating students. It seems more pervasive in the science and math disciplines than the humanities or social sciences. I personally never witnessed an English or Art History prof act anywhere near as awful as I’ve seen from some science profs. That is just my experience, though. It could be that the culture of academia fosters this “you earned it” now you have full license to be a jackass attitude. At any rate, the goal of medicine, to help and heal, makes this behavior in doctors all the more reprehensible. When I finally reach my long awaited goal and become a physician and hopefully in an academic center where I can teach I will always be mindful of the fact that, like it or not, I will be a representative of medicine as a whole, and therefore must always strive to be professional and kind. Especially as a teacher. I just do not get those that think the drill sargeant approach is applicable anywhere but in the military. All it does is breed more a-holes who carry on the tradition.
Why is medicine still such an “old boys” club resistant to change?
I am really interested as a Microbiologist applying for med School.