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Category Archives: Medical School

South Africa ready for private medical school

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To speed up the country's delivery of qualified doctors, Western Cape Health MEC Theuns Botha says private medical schools are necessary.

South Africa is ready for its own private medical school where doctors can be trained without the help of the state, said Western Cape Health MEC Theuns Botha. (AFP)

South Africa is ready for its own private medical school where doctors can be trained without the help of the state, said Western Cape Health MEC Theuns Botha at the 18th Rural Health Conference in Worcester on Tuesday. I intend addressing the issue on national level. Why can the country have privately run courses for almost all other professional fields, but not for medicine? Botha asked.

Private medical schools are currently prohibited by the National Health Act only public universities are allowed to train doctors. Medical students can therefore only do their practicals at public hospitals under the supervision of doctors employed at state hospitals and clinics.

According to the national health department South Africas eight medical schools have been producing an average of 1200 doctors per year for the past decade. Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has told the Mail & Guardian previously that he plans to at least triple this number to 3600 doctors per year for the implementation of governments National health Insurance Scheme.

According to the governments White Paper on human resources, South African medical schools will have to double their output of general practitioners over the next 15 years just to maintain the current ratios to population.

The ministry has funded a new medical school at the University of Limpopo and is planning to build more training hospitals. Motsoaledi plans to expand several health institutions, including Sowetos Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and Tygerberg Hospital in Bellville.

But Botha says a private medical school is also needed to speed up the countrys delivery of doctors.

Understaffed SA hospitals It therefore requires a healthy debate to determine way forward. We do not have enough medical doctors in SouthAfrica and the national government reverts to the Cuban programme to address it. Our solution is permission for a private academic platform, incentives to retain professional skill inSouthAfricaand support and expansion of the existing medical schools, Botha said.

Cuba, with a population of 11-million, compared with South Africas 52-million, produces more than eight times the number of doctors that South Africa does: about 11000 annually from its 25 medical schools.

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South Africa ready for private medical school

Medical students who attended community college likelier to serve poor communities

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The community college system represents a potential source of student diversity for medical schools and physicians who will serve poor communities; however, there are significant challenges to enhancing the pipeline from community colleges to four-year universities to medical schools. The authors recommend that medical school and four-year university recruitment, outreach and admissions practices be more inclusive of community college students.

Researchers from UCLA, UC San Francisco and San Jose City College found that, among students who apply to and attend medical school, those from underrepresented minority backgrounds are more likely than white and Asian students to have attended a community college at some point. Community college students who were accepted to medical school were also more likely than those students who never attended a community college to commit to working with underserved populations.

The study also found that students who began their college education at a community college were less likely to get admitted to medical school than those students who never attended a community college or only attended a four-year university.

Using data from the 2012 Association of American Medical Colleges matriculant and applicant files and the AAMC's Matriculating Student Questionnaire, researchers examined the association between students' participation in a community college pathway, medical school admission and intention to practice medicine in underserved communities or work with minority populations.

Of 40,491 medical school applicants evaluated, 17,518 enrolled in medical school. Of those, 4,920 (28 percent) had attended a community college concurrently with high school, after high school or following graduation from a four-year college or university in order to take courses in preparation for medical school.

The researchers found that a higher proportion of underrepresented minority matriculants used the community college pathways compared with white students or other racial and ethnic groups. Thirty-four percent of Latinos had attended community colleges, (538 of 1,566 matriculants), compared with 28 percent of black students (311 of 1,109), 27 percent of white students (2,715 of 9,905), 27 percent of Asian students (963 of 3,628) and 30 percent of students identifying themselves as mixed-race or other race (393 of 1,310).

Applicants who attended community college after high school before transferring to a four-year college or university were 30 percent less likely to be admitted, compared to those students who never attended a community college or only attended a four-year university to medical school, after adjusting for age, gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, grade point average and MCAT score. The same group also was 26 percent more likely to intend to practice medicine in an underserved area than their non-community college educated peers.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences. The original article was written by Enrique Rivero. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Medical students who attended community college likelier to serve poor communities

Upper Dublin girl named semi-finalist for medical school scholarship

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Jennifer Deasy has suffered from migraines since she was 11 years old more than half the 18-year-old Upper Dublin girls life. And she has an idea that just may ease the pain a bit for her and other migraine sufferers.

It also could net her a medical school scholarship.

Basically, her idea is to cure migraines with stem cell treatment.

Deasy has been named one of 12 semi-finalists for a National Academy Medical School Scholarship Challenge sponsored by the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists.

Three of the 12 will be selected to present their research proposals at the November Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Washington, D.C., according to an academy press release. One will receive a medical school scholarship up to $185,000, with $10,000 scholarships going to the runners-up.

The winners will be determined by scholars attending the November Congress.

Deasy was one of 3,100 honor high school students who attended the February Congress, where students were challenged to identify an unsolved medical/scientific/world health problem and create an original investigation to solve that problem.

My guidance counselor nominated me to attend the February Congress, said Deasy, a 2014 Upper Dublin High School grad and current freshman at Franklin & Marshall. Attending medical school has been a dream for as long as I can remember.

I always found [medicine] cool and interesting, she said, noting her dad is an oral surgeon, three uncles are doctors and one is a nurse. She hopes to become a neurologist, both seeing patients and doing research on the brain and its workings with different hormones and how they can affect brain function, like seizures and migraines.

Pain medication or caffeine pills are currently used to treat migraine symptoms, she said. It is not known what causes the severe headaches often accompanied by nausea, and there is no cure. Continued...

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Upper Dublin girl named semi-finalist for medical school scholarship

Medical Students Who Previously Attended Community College More Likely to Serve in Poor Communities

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IMPACT The community college system represents a potential source of student diversity for medical schools and physicians who will serve poor communities; however, there are significant challenges to enhancing the pipeline from community colleges to four-year universities to medical schools. The authors recommend that medical school and four-year university recruitment, outreach and admissions practices be more inclusive of community college students.

FINDINGS Researchers from UCLA, UC San Francisco and San Jose City College found that, among students who apply to and attend medical school, those from underrepresented minority backgrounds are more likely than white and Asian students to have attended a community college at some point. Community college students who were accepted to medical school were also more likely than those students who never attended a community college to commit to working with underserved populations.

The study also found that students who began their college education at a community college were less likely to get admitted to medical school than those students who never attended a community college or only attended a four-year university.

Using data from the 2012 Association of American Medical Colleges matriculant and applicant files and the AAMCs Matriculating Student Questionnaire, researchers examined the association between students participation in a community college pathway, medical school admission and intention to practice medicine in underserved communities or work with minority populations.

Of 40,491 medical school applicants evaluated, 17,518 enrolled in medical school. Of those, 4,920 (28 percent) had attended a community college concurrently with high school, after high school or following graduation from a four-year college or university in order to take courses in preparation for medical school.

The researchers found that a higher proportion of underrepresented minority matriculants used the community college pathways compared with white students or other racial and ethnic groups. Thirty-four percent of Latinos had attended community colleges, (538 of 1,566 matriculants), compared with 28 percent of black students (311 of 1,109), 27 percent of white students (2,715 of 9,905), 27 percent of Asian students (963 of 3,628) and 30 percent of students identifying themselves as mixed-race or other race (393 of 1,310).

Applicants who attended community college after high school before transferring to a four-year college or university were 30 percent less likely to be admitted, compared to those students who never attended a community college or only attended a four-year university to medical school, after adjusting for age, gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, grade point average and MCAT score. The same group also was 26 percent more likely to intend to practice medicine in an underserved area than their non-community college educated peers.

AUTHORS The research was conducted by Dr. Efrain Talamantes, Dr. Carol Mangione, Karla Gonzalez and Dr. Gerardo Moreno of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Dr. Alejandro Jimenez of UC San Francisco; and Fabio Gonzalez of San Jose City College.

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Medical Students Who Previously Attended Community College More Likely to Serve in Poor Communities

MSc student wins medical school essay competition

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Monika Sharma

Twenty-one people entered the contest, the results of which were announced at a recent prizegiving event on campus.

Mr Harris, who won $500 for his essay, titled ''Unlocking Prostate Cancer'', is an MSc student in the university biochemistry department.

He is researching how to achieve a more accurate early diagnosis of prostate cancer, at the department's cancer genetics laboratory. His postgraduate research is supervised by laboratory director Prof Parry Guilford.

The society awarded a second prize, of $250, to Monika Sharma, a PhD student in biochemistry, who is studying aspects of the complex role of lipoprotein(a).

Dr Anita Dunbier, who is the convener of the Otago Medical School Research Society Student Prize for Writing, said the competition aimed to ''inspire young scientists to communicate their research to the public''.

Research at Otago University was undertaken to ''bring benefit to the people of Otago and beyond'' but, all too often, ''exciting findings'' remained within the walls of science laboratories.

Dr Dunbier, who is also the society's treasurer, said the Student Prize for Writing aimed to help share with a broader audience some of the ''great research'' being undertaken by Otago students.

The competition had attracted a high standard of entries and many students used ''very creative analogies to explain complex concepts''.

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MSc student wins medical school essay competition

UC Riverside Med School seeks out, fast-tracks local med students to keep new doctors in region

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Medical student Crystal Deedas leans over and peeks into the ears and noses of pint-sized patients she's caring for during her rotation at the Riverside Medical Clinic. "Does this hurt?" she asks an 8-year-old boy visiting the clinic with his mother.

"What about now?"she says, as she further examines his ear. Theres nothing unusual about a medical student, such as Deedas, doing supervised work on real- life patients. Thats all part of the clinical rotation experience required by medical schools.But what is unique is that Deedas is seeing patients in her first year of medical school. Typically, med students wait until their third year before getting such clinical experience. Deedas, of Riverside, is part of the second class to enroll at the new University of California Riverside School of Medicine. The school opened last summer, in large part, to address the growing doctor shortage in the Inland Empire. We need physicians," says Dr. Ravi Berry, a pediatrician at the Riverside Medical Clinic who mentors Deedas. "If we grow our own they stay in the area." To combat that dearth of doctors, administrators at UCR's School of Medicine have created a novel program aimed at attracting home-grown med students, training them and then keeping the newly-minted doctors in the region. We have to provide for the physician manpower for inland Southern California. We also have to train doctors that are going into the fields that society needs, says Richard Olds, dean of the School of Medicine and UCR vice chancellor of health affairs. We want the physicians that we train to be reflective of the cultural, ethnic and economic diversity of our region and we want to improve the health of the community we serve. And key, he says, is to attract and enroll local students. About 40 percent of the decision where doctors practice is based on where they come from, their family connections, where they were born, went to high school and went to college, Olds says. Tofind those candidates, he says, admissions officers sift through a pile of applications in search of students who have local roots and community ties.

Olds says there were 5,600 applicants for the 50 seats in this year's class. Only 10 percent of them were from the area. Still, administrators managed to fill more than half of the seats with local students, such as Deedas.

But the efforts don't end there.

The other important factor in where a doctor ends up practicing is where they finish their training, Olds said.

So he aims to address that, too, by creating new residencies in the area.

This is the three to five year training that doctors get after they graduate from medical school.

But those offered at the UC Riverside Medical School veer from tradition, Olds says. Most residency programs, which provide doctors with three to five years of post-graduate clinical training, take place at university-run hospitals. UC Riverside doesnt have its own med center, it instead collaborates with local hospitals and clinics to provide the training.

So far, 100 med school graduates are now enrolled as residents. Olds hopes the community training they'll receive will further embed the young doctors into the community.

That sounds appealing to Sarah Gomez, a Riverside local and second year student at UC Riverside Medical School. Gomez says she's eager to apply for one of the local residencies once she graduates. You want to be somewhere where you can impact change," she says. "The easiest and best way to do that is in your home town.

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UC Riverside Med School seeks out, fast-tracks local med students to keep new doctors in region

Upper Dublin girl names semi-finalist for medical school scholarship

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Jennifer Deasy has suffered from migraines since she was 11 years old more than half the 18-year-old Upper Dublin girls life. And she has an idea that just may ease the pain a bit for her and other migraine sufferers.

It also could net her a medical school scholarship.

Basically, her idea is to cure migraines with stem cell treatment.

Deasy has been named one of 12 semi-finalists for a National Academy Medical School Scholarship Challenge sponsored by the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists.

Three of the 12 will be selected to present their research proposals at the November Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Washington, D.C., according to an academy press release. One will receive a medical school scholarship up to $185,000, with $10,000 scholarships going to the runners-up.

The winners will be determined by scholars attending the November Congress.

Deasy was one of 3,100 honor high school students who attended the February Congress, where students were challenged to identify an unsolved medical/scientific/world health problem and create an original investigation to solve that problem.

My guidance counselor nominated me to attend the February Congress, said Deasy, a 2014 Upper Dublin High School grad and current freshman at Franklin & Marshall. Attending medical school has been a dream for as long as I can remember.

I always found [medicine] cool and interesting, she said, noting her dad is an oral surgeon, three uncles are doctors and one is a nurse. She hopes to become a neurologist, both seeing patients and doing research on the brain and its workings with different hormones and how they can affect brain function, like seizures and migraines.

Pain medication or caffeine pills are currently used to treat migraine symptoms, she said. It is not known what causes the severe headaches often accompanied by nausea, and there is no cure. Continued...

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Upper Dublin girl names semi-finalist for medical school scholarship

Research evaluates neurodevelomental, medical outcomes in single family room NICU

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The prevalence of preterm birth -- the birth of an infant prior to 37 weeks of pregnancy -- is a significant health problem that has increased over the past two decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), preterm birth affects nearly 500,000 babies each year, or one of every eight born in the U.S. While medical care has improved survival rates for preterm infants, questions remain about ways to positively impact the neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm infants.

Research led by Barry M. Lester, PhD, director of the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and James F. Padbury, MD, pediatrician-in-chief and chief of Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine at Women & Infants Hospital and the William and Mary Oh -- William and Elsa Zopfi Professor of Pediatrics for Perinatal Research at the Alpert Medical School, entitled "Single Family Room Care Improves Neurobehavioral and Medical Outcomes in Preterm Infants," is published in the October issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The researchers found that a single-family room environment provides for appropriate levels of maternal involvement, developmental support, and staff involvement, which are essential to provide the kind of care that can optimize the medical and neurodevelopmental outcome of the preterm infant and lead to the development of preventive interventions to reduce later impairment.

As medical care has improved the survival rates for preterm infants, especially those born weighing less than 1,000 grams, nearly half of these infants still suffer long-term neurodevelopmental impairment and/or serious health consequences. Drs. Lester and Padbury led a research team that performed a prospective, longitudinal study to examine associations between the open bay vs. single family room NICU and medical and neurobehavioral outcomes at hospital discharge. They also examined, for the first time, factors that could help explain, or mediate, potential differences in NICUs.

"There are few studies that have compared the individual single family room neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with the traditional 'open bay' model of care. In particular, two critical issues have not been systematically addressed," explained Dr. Padbury. "First is the effect of the single family room NICU on neurodevelopmental outcome. The second is how and why positive or negative effects of the single family room NICU occur."

In September 2009, Women & Infants Hospital, a U.S.News 2014-15 Best Children's Hospital in Neonatology, opened what was at the time the largest single family room NICU in the country. Prior to that, approximately 1,400 babies each year were cared for in the hospital's open bay NICU. The single family room model also offered an opportunity to more comprehensively implement a family centered model of care, where families are now more actively involved in their baby's care and care team.

Dr. Lester explained, "We hypothesized that infants cared for in the single family room NICU would have better medical and neurobehavioral outcomes than infants cared for in the open baby NICU, as well as that medical and neurobehavioral differences between NICUs could be explained, in part, by developmental support, parenting factors and the adoption of family centered care."

Approximately 400 infants born weighing less than 1,500 grams were enrolled at Women & Infants Hospital -- 151 were cared for in an open bay NICU and 252 were cared for in the single family room NICU. The open bay data were collected consecutively over 18 months in 2008 and 2009 prior to the opening of the hospital's new NICU. After a three-month hiatus (no new patients were enrolled during the first three months in the new single family room NICU, and no patients were enrolled who were cared for in both settings), data were again collected consecutively over 31 months from 2010 to 2012 in the single family room NICU.

The results showed that the infants cared for in the single family room weighed more at discharge, had a greater rate of weight gain, required fewer medical procedures, and had a lower gestational age at full enteral feed and less sepsis. In addition, these infants showed better attention, less physiological stress, less hypertonicity, less lethargy, and less pain.

"What we found was that the single family room provides more opportunities to do things that improve outcomes, such as increased maternal involvement and increased developmental support," said Dr. Lester. "If you build a single-family room unit and do not change how you care for the babies, it would be unrealistic to expect to see any significant improvement."

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Research evaluates neurodevelomental, medical outcomes in single family room NICU

Construction Starts For Medical School In Chaffee Crossing

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FORT SMITH(KFSM) Crews are preparing to break ground on a nearly $60 million medical school at Chaffee Crossing. Crews started moving dirt for the new medical school going up Monday (Sept.22). Leaders said its a project several months in the making.

The first building going up on campus will be the Osteopathic School followed by the Physicans Assistant School. Crews said the Osteopathic School will be three stories tall located on the west side of Chad Colley Boulevard. Once its up, theyll turn their attention to other areas on campus including several additional small buildings, a main entry for the school, and a pond.

Leaders said local companies are all teaming up to bring this medical school to the area. An investment from the Fort Smith Regional Healthcare Foundation is helping make it all happen, as well a grant of 200 acres from the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority.

Executive Director Ivy Owen said its amazing watching the community pull together. That project is happening and its ahead of schedule, said Owen. According to Owen, As a matter of fact, by the fall of 2016 there will be a class in that medical school.

Even though crews are starting construction now, they wont have the official ground breaking ceremony for the medical school until the frame for the building goes next spring.

Once construction starts, crews said traffic will be re-routed to Taylor Avenue and Wells Lake. The medical school is set to open in the fall of 2016.

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Construction Starts For Medical School In Chaffee Crossing

MU School of Medicine announces new scholarships

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Sep. 22, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

HUNTINGTON -- Six new scholarship have been created at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine to assist students with tuition and other medical school expenses.

Linda Holmes, director of development and alumni affairs, thanked donors who are supporting the scholarships for their generous commitment and praised the two most recently graduated classes for endowing scholarships.

"These awards are designed to help students defray some of the costs associated with obtaining a medical education," Holmes said in a press release. "Our donors understand the financial burden that many of our students incur, and we are forever grateful that they are helping ease that burden."

The scholarships include:

The Sean K. and Beth L. Hammers Scholarship, once endowed, will be awarded to an entering medical student with first preference given to a resident of Lawrence County, Ohio, or Cabell County, West Virginia. Second preference will be given to a resident of West Virginia. This award is renewable for three additional years.

The Huntington Clinical Foundation MUJCESOM Expendable Scholarship is a gift of $30,000. A one-time, $10,000 scholarship will be awarded annually for three years to an entering first-year student. The MU JCESOM Scholarship Committee, in cooperation with the Office of Student Financial Assistance, will select the brightest, most academically gifted student for the award. The Huntington Clinical Foundation will review the recipient's qualifications before the award is offered.

The Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Class of 2013 Endowed Scholarship will be awarded to a first-year medical student, and is renewable for three additional years. The recipient will be selected by the Scholarship Committee in cooperation with the Office of Student Financial Assistance.

The Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Class of 2014 Endowed Scholarship will be awarded to a first-year medical student, and is renewable for three additional years. The recipient will be selected by the Scholarship Committee in cooperation with the Office of Student Financial Assistance.

The Mr. and Mrs. Guy C. Nangle Scholarship Fund has been established through a gift from the Mae E. Nangle Trust. The scholarship will be awarded to a Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine medical student and is renewable.

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MU School of Medicine announces new scholarships

Rep. DeLauro, school & medical staff to hold enterovirus briefing

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NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) -

With a confirmed case of enterovirus-68 in Connecticut and potential cases still awaiting test results, doctors and schools have been getting flooded with calls and questions.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, school officials and health experts held an informational briefing Monday.

"People need to take all the normal precautions they would take against the flu or any other virus," DeLauro said. "This is not a cause for panic, but we are seeing higher incidents of enterovirus this year and it can be particularly dangerous for children with asthma. So people need to have the facts and the tools to recognize the symptoms. I want to urge people to take all the normal precautions they would take against the flu or any other virus. If your children have trouble breathing or severe symptoms, contact a health professional."

The goal of the event was to answer questions like what to look for and how to treat the respiratory illness, then get the answers to school nurses so they can spot symptoms and pass information to parents.

Doctors said the virus typically affects children with asthma the most. They could experience wheezing, trouble breathing and blueness in the face. For most, the symptoms are similar to that of the common cold with a runny nose, coughing, sneezing and body aches.

If a child comes down with it, in most cases, they might not even know it.

"Couple of days they'll get better, and they - the parents - won't even know," said Dr. Richard Uluski, a pediatrician. "They'll go to school, have fun."

Parents and doctors alike have been cautions since health officials confirmed EV-68 at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital last week.

Eyewitness News was told a 6-year-old with symptoms came to the hospital and was treated and released. It's the only confirmed case in the state so far, but a number of hospitals are still waiting to see if there will be more.

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Rep. DeLauro, school & medical staff to hold enterovirus briefing

Harnessing Genetics to Identify Druggable Targets and Causes of Off-Target Cardiotoxicity – Video

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Harnessing Genetics to Identify Druggable Targets and Causes of Off-Target Cardiotoxicity
Christopher Newton-Cheh, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School Director, Electrocardiography Laboratory Faculty, Cardiovascular Research Center Center for Human Genetic...

By: Duke Clinical Research Institute

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Harnessing Genetics to Identify Druggable Targets and Causes of Off-Target Cardiotoxicity - Video


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