Medical

Learn about medicine and how to become a physician in our articles for pre-medical students (including the MCAT), medical students, resident physicians, and practicing physicians.

Q&A With Physician-Author Matt McCarthy, MD

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Matt McCarthy
1.  What specifically prompted you to write The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly?
I was having dinner with my editor three years ago, and he asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book about medicine. I had kept a journal during my intern year, but I was hesitant to write about my experiences. Some were great, but a lot weren’t and I wasn’t sure I could convey the difficult moments fairly. My editor and I spent a long time working on the tone of the book, trying to capture just how terrifying and inspiring that first year is.
2.  What would you say is the most controversial part of the book?
The trickiest thing is writing about your own patients. Some medical writers believe we should only write about patients if we have their written consent. Most journalists tend to disagree with this and you occasionally see arguments about it break out on social media. In a few cases, I wasn’t able to get written consent for my book, so I had to change identifying details to protect anonymity. It’s not just about complying with HIPAA. It’s about changing personal details so thoroughly that you’re really protecting identities. Patients are vulnerable, and we have to be careful when we write about them.

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5 Reasons Intern Year is Better Than Medical School

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students with disabilities

I had a certain level of (I thought well-justified) terror anticipating the start of intern year. No longer able to hide behind the protective “I’m just the medical student” blockade, I was worried about not being able to live up to the burden and the privilege of being someone’s doctor. Third year was rough and I could only imagine the horrors that awaited me as an intern. Yes, it has been a difficult year, filled with long hours and intense days. However, what I found was that contrary to my fears, intern year has been so much better than medical school. If you recently walked across the stage and accept your diploma, congratulations! Here’s what you have to look forward to:

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5 Mistakes I Made in Med School (So You Don’t Have To)

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It has been nearly a year now since I walked across the stage at Carnegie Hall to accept my diploma. Now approaching the end of internship – let’s say that again, one more time, with appropriate emphasis: the end of internship – I can look back with a little more objectivity on my four years of medical training. As with everything else, hindsight is mostly 20/20 and, while there are a lot of things I did right in medical school, I now realize I made some mistakes, or, if they weren’t outright blunders, at least things I would do differently if I had to do it again. Let that these not be your mistakes:

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Is Summer MCAT Prep Right for Me?

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MCAT history

Preparing for the MCAT during the summer months is a choice that many pre-medical students make – and for good reason. Summer prep provides several advantages over simultaneously juggling coursework with MCAT review during the school year. However, students should also understand that summer prep can be more difficult in certain situations. Below are four questions to consider when debating whether or not to prepare for the MCAT over the summer:
1. Are you able to effectively multitask and prioritize?
One significant difference between preparing for the MCAT during the school year versus preparing for the MCAT during the summer is that summer prep often allows you to focus solely on MCAT review. Studying for the MCAT during the academic year – while also taking courses and participating in various extracurricular activities – requires well developed time management and prioritization skills.
If you currently struggle to manage multiple commitments during the school year (as is common for many pre-medical students who are stretched quite thin), then you may benefit from preparing for the MCAT during the summer months. Free of distractions, you will be better able to truly focus on this crucial exam.

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How We Found Our Voice As Hospitalists

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Approximately a year ago, our CEO hired a healthcare performance company to evaluate our hospitalist group’s performance and make recommendations as to how to cut costs and improve efficiency. What soon followed was a Request for Proposal (RFP) which was released in the summer of 2014. Our CEO was searching for a third-party company to take over management of our hospitalists and save our non-profit corporation the cost of employing and managing the hospitalists. Needless to say, this was more than upsetting for the 37 employed hospitalists. Were our jobs secure? Were we going to be fired and have to apply to be hired by this third-party corporation if we wanted to stay in this community?

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20 Questions: Allan S. Stewart, MD: Cardiothoracic Surgery

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Thoracic surgeon Dr. Allan S. Stewart is director of the aortic surgery program and co-director of the valve repair center at Mount Sinai Health System. Stewart received his bachelor’s degree in biology magna cum laude from St. Peters College (1991), and his MD from University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (1995). Dr. Stewart completed an internship and residency in general surgery at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the division of cardiothoracic surgery/department of physiology at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, a chief residency in general surgery at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and a residency in cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia University Medical Center. Lastly, he completed a fellowship in ventricular assistance at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Stewart is currently associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System.

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Tips from the Trenches: 5 Tips for Surviving Intern Year

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Dear Incoming Interns,
Congratulations on matching and reaching the end of medical school! I am sure you are very excited to be graduating, and we interns are equally excited for you as it means we are about ready to say “so long” to our intern year. (Right now, I have 62 clinical days left – but who’s counting?) Intern year is one steep learning curve after another. Just about the time you figure out a particular service, you switch to the next. Over time, however, themes emerge, the transitions become easier, and the mass of random lab values, medications, signs and symptoms, slowly gel into cohesive patient narratives. Below is some of my own hard-earned advice from this year, some practical, some personal.

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Picking the Right Medical School Program

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medical school rankings

There’s a popular phrase, “If you’ve seen one medical school… you’ve seen one medical school.” Every school is completely different, so it’s a good idea to thoroughly research what programs would be best for you before you start the application process.
What are you looking for?

Source: The Official Guide to Medical School Admissions, AAMC 2015
Source: The Official Guide to Medical School Admissions, AAMC 2015

When you’re deciding which medical schools to apply to, consider some of the same factors you weighed when applying to college: Are you looking for a public or private university? Do you want to attend school in your home state or out-of-state? You may also narrow your choices by considering the specialties offered or even which clubs and organizations are available to med students.

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20 Questions: Mary Lupo, MD, Dermatologist

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Mary Lupo, MD, is a practicing dermatologist and clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Lupo began using combination protocols for her patients that included collagen fillers, light chemical peels, and topical products such as Retin-A and alpha hydroxy acids with sun protection. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Newcomb College of Tulane University (summa cum laude, 1976). She received her MD from Tulane University School of Medicine (1980). She then completed an internal medicine internship at Ochsner Hospital (1980-1981) before entering the dermatology program at Tulane University School of Medicine (1981-1984), where she served as chief resident in her final year.
Dr. Lupo is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology (former committee member); American Dermatological Association; American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (former board of directors and committee member); Women’s Dermatologic Society (former president and committee member); Eastern College of Health Vocations (medical advisory board); TopMD Skin Care (medical advisory board); Strathspey Crown (founding member and operating partner); Annenberg Circle of the Dermatology Foundation; and Stegman Circle of the ASDS Dermasurgery Advancement Fund. Dr. Lupo is the author of more than 60 published articles and book chapters, and she has been a speaker on various dermatological topics at nearly 250 national and international meetings and seminars. She serves on the editorial board of Prevention Magazine, Current International, the Journal of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, and Cosmetic Dermatology. Dr. Lupo has been published in Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, Journal of Clinical Aesthetic Dermatology, Cosmetic Dermatology, Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, The Skin Cancer Foundation Journal, Dermatological Surgery, Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, Dialogues in Dermatology, Journal of Dermatological Surgery Oncology, Postgraduate Medicine, and Archives of Dermatology.

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Those Who Can Do, Teach….and Lead: A Conversation with Mark Walton, MD

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At this past year’s UC Davis Pre-Health Conference, Stanford Health Care’s Chief of Staff, Dr. Mark Welton headlined three popular sessions. His talks centered on what a chief of staff is, how you get to be chief of staff, and what we need to do to maintain health care costs.
No one would have guessed that back in the 1970’s, on this same campus, the distinguished physician and leader was told he’d never make it through UC Davis’s pre-med program, let alone get into medical school.
“I struggled through some of the classes,” Walton, who is also the Chief of Colon and Rectal Surgery, admits. Lucky for the medical profession, he not only managed to make it through pre-med, but successfully finished medical school at UCLA and completed a fellowship in colon and rectal surgery at Washington University. After teaching at University of California, San Francisco for 8 years, Walton transitioned to Stanford in 2001 and has been there ever since.

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What to know before applying to medical school with AMCAS

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The 2016 American Medical Colleges Application System (AMCAS) application season opens on Tuesday, May 5, 2015. Here are some things to know before starting your application.
1. See if you are eligible for the Fee Assistance Program now.
The AAMC’s Fee Assistance Program assists those who would otherwise be unable to afford to apply to medical school with the AMCAS application. If you are approved for fee assistance, your AMCAS fees for up to 15 medical school designations will be waived. However, in order to take advantage of this benefit, you must apply and be approved for fee assistance before you submit your AMCAS application. Fee Assistance approval can take three weeks, so start this process now.

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