Giving medical school students a head start

NOXEN -- Identifying a heart murmur for the first time in her medical career, second-year medical student Brianna Shinn, of Clarks Summit, experienced firsthand the value of an early mentoring program between The Commonwealth Medical College and local medical practices.

The Continuity Mentor program with TCMC offers students a unique opportunity to develop a learning relationship with northeastern Pennsylvania doctors and patients. The integrated learning atmosphere helps to reinforce what the student is learning academically with supervised hands-on experience.

The in-field training only occurs once a week during a three-week period known as Community Weeks for first- and second-year students. The students shadow the physicians -- learning how to interview the patients and identify any history of family health issues -- and begin to perform the initial exam.

Third-year students continue the program but add the responsibility of figuring out the symptoms of the patient to develop a plan of action. By their fourth year, students will be expected to present a plan of treatment to their mentors.

Shinn and classmate Stephanie Veit, of Chesterfield, Mo., spent Tuesday at the Monroe-Noxen Health Center, a primary care facility in Noxen, with Drs. Krista Civiletti and Gwen Galasso.

The program covers 16 counties in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Wearing the standard white physician's jackets, Veit and Shinn visited with incoming patients.

"I love this office because you see a variety of things," Shinn said.

Shinn's excitement of recognizing a heart murmur comes after just finishing a cardiology and pulmonology unit in class.

"We just finished cardiology and pulmonology," she said. "We had a patient today with COPD and just being able to listen and understand what I was hearing was great."

Go here to see the original:

Giving medical school students a head start

Medical students play charity hockey game

Three teams used pairs of ice skates, hockey sticks and pucks to try to change the world by raising $14,500 for patients of pediatric cancer.

In the 2014 Winter Classic Hockey Game on Friday, the Medwings, students and alumni of the New Jersey Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, competed against the Bitewings, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine students and alumni, to fundraise for charity in the Amerihealth Pavilion at Newarks Prudential Center.

This years charity match raised funds for the Sean Hanna Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 by RWJMS senior Jessie Hanna in honor of his brother, who died of pediatric cancer at the age of 20.

The organizations purpose is to alleviate burdens from patients of childhood cancers by providing financial support and assistance to them and their families. It also offers undergraduate scholarships to patients and their siblings, Hanna said.

Hanna feels a sense of responsibility toward every family who turns to him for assistance, but he said he has never failed anyone.

My brothers life has inspired me to help other children suffering from cancer, encouraging them to live their lives to the fullest and combat the disease until the end, he said.

The Sean Hanna Foundation is exempt from federal income tax. The organization employs volunteers, therefore all the funds directly benefit the patients and their families.

Additionally, the organization supports pediatric oncology research at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which devotes its time to discovering innovative approaches for the disease and ultimately finding a cure.

As an undergraduate student, Jessie Hanna was president of Sigma Phi Epsilon while also involving himself in various organizations, including sports clubs and church groups.

He engaged in volunteer work in the Middle East through the international health care organization Project HOPE, Health Opportunities for People Everywhere, which provides general medical assistance. Such an experience reinforced his passion for the medical field.

View original post here:

Medical students play charity hockey game

Medical school gig a healthy challenge for actors

David Solomon lay in bed, a sheet draped over his legs.

His darkened bedroom was silent, except for the ticking of a clock on the wall. A box of tissues sat on a bedside table; a Hebrew-and-English siddur, or prayer book, rested on his lap.

The cancer that the 70-year-old cosmetics merchant had held at bay for 12 years was no longer responding to chemo. His breathing was labored, and his morphine-addled gaze wandered. It took all his effort to focus on the white-jacketed medical student who stood next to him.

"Even though we're done treating your lymphoma, we're still here to help," the student said, gently.

"I want to talk about hospice," Solomon croaked.

He had signed paperwork urging doctors to withhold interventions such as a feeding tube during his final weeks and thought he wanted to die here, at home. At the same time, he worried how his decision would affect his family.

"Do I want my family to walk into this room and the last memories be saying goodbye to me?" he asked.

The room fell quiet again. The medical student was still. Two of his classmates, in chairs nearby, dabbed their eyes. One reached past Solomon, grabbed a tissue and blew her nose.

"Time out!" their instructor shouted.

The patient sat up in his bed, pulled a canary-yellow yarmulke off his head and smiled.

Read the rest here:

Medical school gig a healthy challenge for actors

Computerized checklist reduces type of hospital infection, Stanford/Packard study finds

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Feb-2014

Contact: Erin Digitale digitale@stanford.edu 650-724-9175 Stanford University Medical Center

STANFORD, Calif. - A computerized safety checklist that automatically pulls information from patients' electronic medical records was associated with a threefold drop in rates of one serious type of hospital-acquired infection, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford.

The study, conducted in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, targeted bloodstream infections that begin in central lines - catheters inserted into major veins. The infections are a preventable cause of illness and death, and hospitals across the country are working to reduce their frequency.

The automated checklist, and a dashboard-style interface used to interact with it, made it fast and easy for caregivers to follow national guidelines for keeping patients' central lines infection-free. The new system combed through data in the electronic medical record and pushed alerts to physicians and nurses when a patient's central line was due for care. During the study, the rate of central line infections in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit dropped from 2.6 to 0.7 per 1,000 days of central line use.

The findings will be published online Feb. 23 in Pediatrics.

"Electronic medical records are data-rich and information-poor," said Natalie Pageler, MD, the study's lead author. Often, the data in electronic medical records is cumbersome for caregivers to use in real time, but the study showed a way to change that, said Pageler, who is a critical care medicine specialist at the hospital and a clinical associate professor of pediatrics. "Our new tool lets physicians focus on taking care of the patient while automating some of the background safety checks."

Central lines have many uses, such as administering long-term antibiotics or chemotherapy and providing access to the bloodstream in patients who need kidney dialysis or frequent blood draws. The Institute of Medicine's 1999 report on medical errors, To Err is Human, identified central line infections as a key target for reducing harm in health care. Approximately 40 percent of patients in the pediatric intensive care unit have central lines at some point during their hospital stays.

The research team collaborated with engineers from HP Labs to program the checklist and build a dashboard interface that displayed real-time alerts on a large LCD screen in the nurses' station. Alerts - shown as red, yellow or green dots beside patients' names - were generated if, for example, the dressing on a patient's central line was due to be changed, or if it was time for caregivers to re-evaluate whether medications given in the central line could be switched to oral formulations instead.

View original post here:

Computerized checklist reduces type of hospital infection, Stanford/Packard study finds

Fenstermacher's title punctuated Liberty's big wrestling weekend

KJ Fenstermacher wasn't sure which result disappointed him more: the loss in December or the fact that he wouldn't get a rematch at districts. In the end, the Liberty freshman found a way to make history anyway.

Fenstermacher won the District 11 Class 3A wrestling title at 113 pounds on Saturday, becoming the first Liberty freshman ever to claim a title. He also was named the outstanding wrestler of the Class 3A tournament.

Fenstermacher's victory was part of a satisfying weekend for the host Hurricanes, who had two district champs, seven regional qualifiers and their highest finish in the team standings in 32 years.

"This is pretty crazy," Liberty coach Jody Karam said after his team placed second to Nazareth. "They have far exceeded our expectations. If you would have told me in November that we'd finish second at districts, I'd have thought you were crazy."

Critical to that finish were senior Jake Gunning, who won the 220-pound title, and Fenstermacher, whom Karam called probably the most advanced freshman he has coached. Fenstermacher (36-3) has spent the entire season at 113 pounds, where he lost to Nazareth's Tyson Klump at the Bethlehem Holiday Classic in December.

He called that a "very big loss," which was compounded when Klump dropped to 106 for the postseason. Fenstermacher said he had been looking forward to a rematch with the Nazareth sophomore, who also won a district title.

"When he dropped, it was really heartbreaking," Fenstermacher said. "Since [the December loss], I've been working my butt off for this."

And doing so with obstacles. Fenstermacher said he is wrestling with several injuries, including one that will need postseason surgery. One opponent texted him prior to their bout, saying he intended to exploit those injuries, one of which occurred during a practice session with Gunning.

"He really embraces better competition," Karam said. "That's cool."

Liberty's second-place finish, its best since winning the title in 1982, extended the team's historic season. The Hurricanes won a school-record 19 matches and became just the fourth team in state history to reach 850 wins.

Originally posted here:

Fenstermacher's title punctuated Liberty's big wrestling weekend