After missing her final two high school seasons, Johnson savors chance to continue softball career at Shenandoah – The Daily Progress

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MADISON Three years ago, Hannah Johnson was on top of the world after helping the Madison County softball team win the VHSL Class 2 state championship while earning all-state honors.

An out-of-season knee injury and the COVID-19 pandemic kept her off the field for her final two high school seasons and put her aspirations of playing at the next level up in the air.

After some uncertainty, Johnson's dreams of playing college softball will become a reality. The Madison County senior has committed to play softball at Shenandoah University.

I absolutely adore the campus and I had heard a lot of great things about the school from people who had previously gone there, Johnson said. Not to mention, their amazing academic programs and lastly, the people who I came across on campus were all super friendly.

Johnson was one of the offensive catalysts for the Mountaineers during their run to the 2017 VHSL Class 2 state championship. She hit nearly .400 and belted seven home runs as Madison County captured its first state softball title since 1995. The sophomore second baseman finished the season with district, regional and state accolades.

In January of 2019, she tore her anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus during the basketball season which sidelined her for her junior season of softball. Fourteen months later, Johnson was set to return to the Madison County lineup for her senior season before Gov. Ralph Northam closed schools for the remainder of the academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After being highly recruited as a sophomore, Johnson admitted the interest from college programs dwindled a bit following the injury.

After missing my junior year, which is kind of like prime time for recruitment, it became stressful quickly because we had to go about my recruitment process differently, Johnson said. I had colleges looking at me, but after my knee injury, some kind of fell off.

One coach that remained in contact with Johnson through the entire process was Shenandoah Coach Courtney Moyer. The two met during Johnsons campus visit and clicked instantly.

We sat down in her office and we showed her a few clips of me playing in my previous seasons and she stayed in touch with me ever since, Johnson said.

Johnson liked the family environment Moyer and her staff built with the program, which mimicked what she had at Madison.

Coach Moyer and I talked about things they would do off the field to solidify their bonds as friends and not just teammates, she said. I believe Coach Moyer likes that I have a powerful swing and that, not only do I hit well, I can play in the field too.

Johnson was recruited as a middle infielder, but has the versatility to play anywhere on the field.

My goals are to continue to grow as a player and to enjoy every last moment of time that I can play, because as the past has showed me, nothing is promised, she said. I am going to take advantage of this opportunity and have fun. When Im older, I can reminisce with memories of what I got to do, not what I didnt get to do.

Johnson also felt very comfortable with the Shenandoah campus and the school's academic offerings.

I had been on a bunch of tours at many different colleges. Shenandoah stood out to me because it had been the only college that I walked onto the campus and immediately let like this was where I wanted to go, Johnson said. Shenandoah had a feeling of home that the other colleges lacked. Plus, Shenandoah is around an hour and a half from home.

Academically, Johnson plans to major in biology with aspirations of eventually moving on to medical school.

Virginia Wesleyan and Christopher Newport also were among Johnson's finalists, but her heart was set on Shenandoah.

I know that high school is it for some people and I am glad that thats not me, Johnson said. Especially because I didnt even get to finish that.

Johnson said a lot of people were responsible in making her dream a reality, including parents, her Madison County coaches and teammates, as well as travel ball coaches Heidi Freitager and Travis Estes.

Now the real work begins.

It means so much to me and my family that I have this amazing opportunity, she said. Ive played softball since I was eight years old and my parents have spent a lot of time and money to get me where Im at today and itll mean the world for them to come and watch me play.

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After missing her final two high school seasons, Johnson savors chance to continue softball career at Shenandoah - The Daily Progress

Alumni president reminds Class of 2020 ‘Harvard belongs to all of us’ – Harvard Gazette

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Like you, I thought I knew exactly where I would be on May 28, 2020: in Tercentenary Theatre welcoming you to the Harvard Alumni community as president of the Alumni Association. As a parent, I was also looking forward to celebrating the graduation of my son, Hamish, from the College, together with his roommates Ana, Liz, and Spencer and their families.

While we have lost a magical day together, you have given us so much more to celebrate on May 28.

We the entire alumni community are proud of your class. Like your families, we are proud of your hard work and achievement and, like your families, we are overwhelmingly proud of the way you have met the challenges of this year.

To protect the people of Massachusetts from the COVID-19 pandemic you left your classes and, in many cases, your home at Harvard to move to a virtual mode of education. At the same time, you stepped up to serve your communities across the world. Some of you moved straight onto the front lines of the pandemic, like the Harvard Medical School Class of 2020 students who chose to graduate early so they could join the fight and those from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health who volunteered to provide the contact tracing system for Massachusetts. Others kept student-led organizations like the Phillips Brooks House Association, WHRB, and The Crimson operating. Business School students banded together to create networks that kept PPE flowing to Boston-area hospitals. You have reached out to mentor students whose elementary and high schools are closed, staged virtual voter registration drives, supported your families, fed medical workers, and more. My heart is ready to burst with admiration.

So many of you physically left Harvard in mid-March, well before you expected. However, you will find that you never leave Harvard. Your classmates and your experiences will always remain yours and you will discover that Harvard is even bigger and better after you graduate.

You all are part of a community that includes everyone who has ever studied or worked at the University, a community that reaches to all parts of the world. It is a community that will welcome you unconditionally in places you wouldnt expect. Living in southern Australia, after growing up in Arctic Canada, and having lived and/or worked on every continent except the Antarctic, I can say this from personal experience. (I am also sure there is also a Harvard community in Antarctica. I just havent met them yet.)

Harvard belongs to all of us.

Wherever you go, this community will be there for you. We are waiting to meet you and we already have your back.

Harvard belongs to all of us and we belong to Harvard and to each other. This manifests itself most clearly, when as alumni we elect the Overseers of the University and Elected Directors of the Harvard Alumni Association. This is an enormous responsibility, which we hold together. Harvard alumni have created this community for you and now you can join us in paying it forward.

Wherever, however, and whenever, there are so many ways for you to maintain and build your own Harvard community.

It could be by continuing to hang out with your classmates, physically or virtually; or via your School reunions; or through your local club; or through one of the 57 HAA Shared Interest Groups like Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, Harvard Alumni for Education, Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Alumni, or Harvard Alumni for Oceania. Look for us on your School or Harvard Alumni Association website, on our club and shared-interest-group websites; our Facebook pages; on our Instagram and Twitter feeds; and even in the depths of subreddits.

Wherever you go, this community will be there for you. We are waiting to meet you and we already have your back. Come and find us!

So, I know now where I will be on May 28. I wont be in Tercentenary Theatre; I will be here in Melbourne, Australia, in the middle of the night in my pajamas, watching the livestream from Cambridge together with you and your families and crying tears of joy and pride for Hamish; for Ana, Liz, and Spencer; and for the incomparable Harvard University Class of 2020.

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Alumni president reminds Class of 2020 'Harvard belongs to all of us' - Harvard Gazette

Your Kid Probably Doesnt Have a Penicillin Allergy – The New York Times

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Physicians used to assume a child who developed a mild drug-related rash could have a more serious reaction in the future. But research conducted over the last 10 years has shown that isnt true. Our understanding has really changed for the better, said Dr. Stukus. But it can be quite confusing for parents because what they were told a few years ago or even what they themselves were told as children may be very different.

True allergic reactions, which occur when the bodys immune system overreacts, almost always come on suddenly within minutes to a few hours of taking the drug. Symptoms commonly include hives, itchy eyes and swelling in the lips, tongue or face. In some cases, the allergy can cause vomiting and diarrhea. Rarely, penicillin allergies lead to anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction that affects the entire body. Even more rarely, a child will develop severe symptoms such as a high fever or blistered, peeling skin days or even weeks after taking the drug.

Dr. Norton said parents should call their doctor if their child experiences any new symptoms while taking a drug. Take photos and write down pertinent details. Knowing what happens when a child has a reaction is key to figuring out how to manage these kids, so the parent really is an important part of this, she said.

If a health care provider is concerned about the symptoms, or just unsure, they may stop the penicillin and prescribe a different antibiotic, Dr. Norton said. If that happens, be sure to follow up with your physician or allergy specialist to figure out if your child is really allergic.

Allergy testing should be done in a doctors office or clinic where they have treatment on hand in case symptoms occur.

It can involve a lot of waiting to see if anything happens, so bring a quiet activity to pass the time. Most kids undergo an oral challenge where they are given a small amount of the drug, then if theres no reaction, the rest of the dose. If nothing happens after an hour or so, youre good to go.

If your child has a history of severe symptoms such as swelling, or shortness of breath or a rapid onset of hives, you will need to consult with an allergy specialist for a skin test. That involves first pricking the skin with an allergen, and if that doesnt cause a red bump to form, using a small needle to place more of the allergen under the skin. (The procedure is bloodless and less painful than it sounds.) If theres no reaction at the testing sites, the doctor will do an oral challenge to confirm your child isnt allergic.

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Your Kid Probably Doesnt Have a Penicillin Allergy - The New York Times

The Mother of Invention – Harvard Medical School

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When the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Harvard Medical School to move learning online in March, faculty moved swiftly, developingnew curriculum approaches, sometimes within hours,allowing educators to continue to teach classes and ensurethat students are achieving learning objectives remotely.

But, among Harvard schools, they had some unique challenges. Part of the process of teaching medical students how to fully assess their patients conditions requires human touchand that cant be done remotely.

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What is missing is the actual laying on of hands. We can use all of our other senses, but the ability to lay hands on and connect with a patient that way just can't be replicated with virtual learning, said John Dalrymple, associate dean for medical education quality improvement in the Program in Medical Education.

You can use your eyes and your ears a lot more, but just that physical connection Theres no way to replicate that effectively, he said.

Its an obstacle, but not one that HMS faculty are letting hinder their teaching or the medical students education. In response, they have become more creative, and theyve done it in record time.

Within weeks of moving classes online, for example, they converted objective structured clinical examination courses (OSCEs), into a virtual format. Ordinarily, students would perform OSCEs with standardized patients individuals trained to portray actual patients in the Schools Clinical Skills Center, while faculty observe, coach and assess.

Now, facultyled by OSCE Director Susan Farrell working with HMS IT teamshave developed a way to create televisits, where students can conduct standardized patient exams remotely, with faculty still able to watch and assess students skills.

Practicing telemedicine, and teaching telemedicine skills, was not necessarily a priority before the coronavirus pandemic, Dalrymple said, but it will be an important curricular element from now on.

Its been probably one of the most exciting, innovative and successful components of the curriculum crisis that weve been dealing with, Dalrymple said. Its probably going to be part of our armory of skills moving forward.

The approach has proven so effective that Dalrymple is working with other faculty on creating an electivethat will incorporate telemedicine for clinical students, as well as for students who have already finished their Principal Clinical Experience (PCE).

Many other faculty members have started incorporating telemedicine into their teaching, including the longitudinal Primary Care Clerkship. Several other advanced electives are also now being offered as virtual courses this spring.

Its amazing that weve gone from zero to 60 on the telemedicine front. I think weve been talking about it as a concept, but then once the pandemic came, it was amazing how quickly everything geared up and was no longer, 'Should we do this?' It was, 'Weve got to do this,' said Dalrymple.

During a recent faculty development workshop geared toward sharing some best practices for creating remotely taught courses, faculty members discussed what theyve been able to do, and what they hope to do going forward.

Its a brave new world for all of us, said Susan Frankl, associate director of clinical faculty development at HMS and assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Frankls team hustled to design a five-module telemedicine course that covers the basics, ranging from what telemedicine is, and what some of the ethical issues are around it, to how to set up successful televisits.

Theyve created videos that demonstrate how to perform physical exams remotely and worked with technology teams to allow students to shadow live physician visits by videowith patients knowledge and consent.

Students who have observed professors performing exams via video on one day can then perform follow-up visits the next day on issues of concern, putting together reflective questions for later discussion. These visits can include the use of monitoring equipment that patients alreadyhave at home, such as glucose monitors or blood pressure cuffs. Incorporating the readings from these devices can help in making assessments.

It's always important to review some protocol basics with students before they embark on remote patient visits, saidFrankl, such as reminding them to dress appropriately, work in a space that has few distractions, and ensure that the room theyre working in is private and that theyre in compliance with all HIPPA requirements.

Designing remote curricula for clinical clerkships that ordinarily take place in the hospitals, where most students are not currently allowed, has been more challenging.

Sara Fazio, HMS professor of medicine and Cannon Society advisory dean, is spearheading efforts to teach clinical skills to students who currently cannot be on the wards, while also preparing them for an eventual transition back into a clinical setting, knowing that it will take some time before all specialties can have both students and patients together.

She points to successful approaches that have been developed in the hospitals as excellent models. Faculty who administer the radiology clerkship, for example, created an entire virtual radiology course for 111 students in less than a weeks time, one that Fazio called, nothing short of spectacular.

I think we were worried about everything because we only had 2 1/2 weeks to put it together and there werent really any guidelines, said Sara Durfee, the radiology clerkship director and HMS assistant professor of radiology at Brigham and Womens Hospital, who devised a curriculum involving daily lectures, small group sessions, curated case reviews, and midterm and final exams.

[Courses] have interactive small groups, theyve got virtual reading rooms, theyre having residents interact with the students, theyve got clinical case discussions, said Fazio. The students were so excited that they were saying, Give us more this way. Why havent you been teaching us this way all along?

Barbara Cockrill, the Harold Amos Academy Associate Professor at HMS and Brigham and Womens and director of faculty development at HMS,noted that, for preclinical students in particular, interaction between students is a core part of the curriculum, and maintaining that interaction is an important aspect of online teaching efforts. Faculty strive to avoid just giving online lectures; theyuse breakout teleconference groups for students to discuss and teach each other and for faculty-facilitated discussions.

Richard Mitchell, HMS professor of pathology and health sciences and technology at Brigham and Womens and an advisor in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program, created a virtual clinical pathology course in three days time that began as a pilot course with six students that will soon expand to 10 students.

Like the remote radiology course, the pathology course provides teaching sessions, self-directed learning with online resources, small group sessions, and weekly meetings with faculty, fellows and residents who review students work. Students are required to make weekly presentations on what theyve learned.

Everything they would normally do with me at the microscope, they are doing, said Matthew Frosch, the Lawrence J. Henderson Associate Professor of Pathology and Health Sciences and Technology at Massachusetts General Hospital and an HST advisor, who developed a virtual neuropathology elective that requires students to present to faculty and five peers at the end of every week.

Its just like any other teaching. Its so fun, said Frosch.

Fazio said for post-PCE students, a number of additional virtual specialty electives have been developed, such as ophthalmology and dermatology, each of which has been rapidly put together in recent weeks.

Being able to teach, learn and minister to patients remotely is now likely to become a more standard practice in a relatively short amount of time.

I dont think this is going away, even when we come back. It is a special skill, said Cockrill, who took an entire classroom-based course, Homeostasis I, and put it online in the space of a day.

She added that, for faculty, there are a number of elements that must be considered when designing these new, virtual curricula, not the least of which is the technology.

How do you do a virtual visit, and then how do you engage a student in a virtual visit so they can really learn things? There are really two aspects. Were doing this in parallel. Were teaching the students, and were also having to teach the faculty and figure it out ourselves, she said.

The extra effort is worth it, however, given how positively patients respond to this new approach, Cockrill said, especially now, when many are unable to have in-person visits with physicians.

For my patients, theyre all really sick, so its hard for them to get a ride to the hospital and walk down the hall. So, they like being able to stay home and have a call, Cockrill said.

Even remotely, Fazio said, physicians are still able to convey a message of caring and connection with their patients.

Knowing that if you get sick, somebodys there It gives a little bit of assurance and quells the anxiety at a time when everybody is feeling overwhelmed and anxious, said Fazio.

Faculty are also thinking about how they might go about developing a virtual rounds course, which could be even more challenging.

Cockrill said ICUs may provide good models for that because theyre basically doing virtual rounds in the ICUs now. One person goes into the room and examines the patient and all the screens and everything are outside.

For many of the faculty members, some of the teaching demands created by the coronavirus pandemic have had fringe benefits. Theyve brought educators together with common goals and encouraged greater information sharing and much more interprofessional collaboration and education.

Nobodys holding back anything. Everyone is throwing themselves into trying to understand the best way to take care of patients. And I feel like thats something that we want to make sure that we share with students, that we are in this together, and were all pulling together to make the best or do the best for our patients, said Cockrill.

Weve been thinking for a long time about how to make some pedagogical changes in the way that we teach, particularly around the clinical clerkships, said Fazio. And this has forced us to make those changes.

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The Mother of Invention - Harvard Medical School

UT Health Austin and Dell Medical School looking for volunteers interested in helping with COVID-19 contact tracing – KVUE.com

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The goal is to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Volunteers would work a minimum of 24 hours per week for four weeks.

Since March, UT Health Austin and Dell Medical School have had a program where volunteers can sign up to be contact tracers. The program partnered with Austin Public Health so they can cover different segments of Austin's population.

From making calls to taking down the data of COVID-19 cases, Dr. Darlene Bahvnani, an MPH epidemiologist with the Dell Medical School, said contact tracing can be effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

"What if you could cut off that chain of transmission by following that first case very carefully and trying to understand who they came into contact with and making sure that those contacts never spread the infection?" Dr. Bahvnani said. We started off with just a handful of medical students volunteers, and weve now grown to 76 active volunteers and 200 and some in [the] queue."

Anyone can sign up to volunteer, but it's noted that being a public health, social work, clinical or having bilingual experience is a plus.

I think this can be [a] very very effective approach to opening up Austin and opening up the rest of Texas. I think this is absolutely necessary if were going to start walking around and going about, Dr. Bahvnani said. I think it will be important to have volunteers sign up and come and do their part."

For the contact tracing program, a minimum of 24 hours per week for at least four weeks is expected, and there's also a home monitoring program.

According to UT Health Austin's website, volunteers must meet the following expectations:

Addison Allen, a UT Health Austin volunteer in the program, said she's been doing it for several weeks now. According to Allen, somewhere between 45 and 60 calls are made every day, but the weekends are a bit slower.

Allen said volunteers wil ask for things like the daily routine of the people they call.

"Go through their day, what did they do, who did they see did they go anywhere and just try to figure out if they had close contact with anyone before they started to self isolate," Allen said. "Seeing that a contact that became a contact had less contacts potentially because we reached out and I think that's really big."

The program is exploring possibly paying people for the work in the future but as of right now, it is all volunteer.

"If you do get a call from a contact tracer, please pick up and please try to cooperate because we're doing out best to keep you safe," Dr. Bahvnani said.

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UT Health Austin and Dell Medical School looking for volunteers interested in helping with COVID-19 contact tracing - KVUE.com

Memphis medical students volunteer on the front line of COVID-19 testing – WREG NewsChannel 3

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. As Memphis battles the coronavirus pandemic, some of those on the front lines are medical students at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Its an initiative no other medical school in the United States has been allowed to do using medical students and leading a test center.

Last month the American Medical Association recommended medical students be taken out of hospitals because of the pandemic.

But Dr. Dave Schwartz, the chair of radiation oncology at UTHSC College of Medicine found a way to safely get students involved who wanted to help.

Traditionally, students have been kept out of the fray in times of crisis, Schwartz said. Fortunately, we not only had the talent, but also the spit and vinegar in the blood stream, sort of, to take the initiative.

Schwartz said the leadership of the medical school wanted to show the community that they were sitting on some of the best talent the city could offer in the students.

One of them is fourth-year medical student Bailey Little.

We had our first day operating in Frayser, which is pretty great to be able to make it a little more accessible to the community in Memphis, Little said. Being able to stay in touch with patients, hear their stories, how the pandemic is affecting them, is only going to make me a better doctor.

Students are volunteering and administering COVID-19 tests at Tiger Lane and at the North Frayser community center, where they gain real-world experience while providing testing to some of the citys underserved communities.

We are learning how to adapt quickly in a situation that a pandemic offers and how to work with local officials. So theres really tons of learning opportunities along the way, Sonia Ajmera said.

Medical students, who spend so much time in the classroom, can lose sight of the patient care aspect of the field, Kathryn Sowler said.

Doing something like this reminds you this what you want to be doing with your life, Sowler said.

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Memphis medical students volunteer on the front line of COVID-19 testing - WREG NewsChannel 3

School of Medicine offers online COVID-19 education elective for medical students – The South End

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Matriculates of the Wayne State University School of Medicine now have an online elective dedicated solely to the COVID-19 pandemic that has brought the nation to a near standstill.

The COVID-19 elective course, directed by Associate Professor of Pediatrics Nakia Allen, M.D., was born out a desire to equip medical students for clinical work in this pandemic.

We want them to have a baseline understanding of what we know about the virus and equip them to provide additional value to their clinical setting, Dr. Allen said.

The elective is updated regularly based on the evidence Dr. Allen and other faculty read in academic journals.

For example, at first we were focusing on distribution of resources, but now, it makes more sense to look at the pandemics impact of the social determinants of health, and articles designed to advise on how to end social distancing, she said.

Dr. Allen is mindful that many of the clinical faculty like her are very involved with patient care and are impacted by the pandemic. She also directs the medical schools Population, Patient, Physician and Professionalism, or P4, course.

This elective was also born out of our desire to share the clinical parts of our lives with our students, she said. Students have thanked us for putting this together, and they seem to appreciate the up-to-date primer.

The online curriculum includes opportunities for group work with student colleagues.

Dr. Allen volunteered to direct the course out of a sense of duty to WSUs medical students.

I know that everyone is going through unprecedented change and uncertainty.This was an attempt to address a need and bring some stability back while we wait this out together, she said.

The teaching team has also adapted portions of the course into the curriculums permanent P4 course, with emphasis on how the social determinants of health are implicated.

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School of Medicine offers online COVID-19 education elective for medical students - The South End

Coronavirus: The junior US doctors rushing to the frontlines – Yahoo News Australia

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Doctors now finishing at US medical schools are seeing their graduation dates moved forward in the calendar and are quickly being drafted into the battle against the coronavirus pandemic before the ink on their diplomas is dry.

With his white coat freshly pressed and his webcam poised, Patrick Lowe was ready for his graduation from medical school.

On Zoom, he recited his class' personalised version of the Hippocratic Oath. And in lieu of receiving his physical diploma from the University of Massachusetts, he shook his wife's hand and gave his six-month old son, Jack, a hug.

"It's been a bit of whirlwind," he told the BBC. "It's all pretty surreal, but also exciting."

The Covid-19 outbreak meant that a traditional graduation ceremony was out of the question, but the University of Massachusetts wanted to ensure that the class of 2020 was able to commemorate their achievement.

As a result, the university conferred 135 medical degrees in an online event streamed online for friends and family to watch.

Lowe and his classmates were originally meant to graduate on 31 June, and begin their respective residencies soon after. The time in between finishing up classes and graduation is usually when students brush up on their training and recuperate before starting their medical career in earnest.

"Some use it as vacation time," Lowe explains.

However, for the class of 2020, there wasn't much time to rest. As medical licences are expedited by the state, nascent doctors have been rushed to fill the gaping demands caused by the coronavirus.

The University of Massachusetts joined three other medical schools in the state - Tufts University, Boston University and Harvard University - to accelerate their students' graduation, and allow them to enter the medical workforce immediately.

Lowe swiftly started working on the general medicine ward at the University of Massachusetts Hospital. He deals with patients coming to hospital with conditions that are not coronavirus-related.

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The aim of the acceleration is to recruit junior doctors who can handle these cases, and ultimately free up more senior residents and doctors to handle the influx of Covid-19 patients.

"I feel I'm helping the system work more efficiently," Lowe told the BBC. "I'm just one piece of the huge puzzle."

At their virtual graduation, Terence R Flotte, the dean of the medical school, told the graduating class that "never before have we needed you more to join our ranks as healers and leaders of health care teams".

This attitude is certainly felt among graduating students.

Colleen Flanagan says she was "thrilled to have the opportunity to work". She is one of Lowe's classmates, and has spent the past three weeks working in the cardiac intensive care unit at the UMass Memorial Medical Center.

Flanagan is due to move to San Francisco in June to begin her residency in vascular surgery. Since she was unable to spend the interim period saying goodbye to her loved ones, she felt getting on the ward in Massachusetts was imperative.

"I had no interest in sitting around at home," she tells BBC News. "I was ready to help."

Flanagan explained that many patients with non-Covid conditions are choosing to stay home, but coming to the hospital at a stage when they're presenting symptoms more severely.

"It's heartbreaking to see someone who had a five-day old heart attack, but they didn't want to risk it," she says.

"We say 'time is tissue,'" she added.

Flanagan noted that while these issues can be devastating, they can also be helped if they are treated as soon as possible. She is ultimately concerned that the strain caused by Covid-19 might lead to a number of deaths at home because people are too scared to come to the hospital.

In New York City, medical students also graduated early to assist with the inundation of coronavirus cases. There are currently over 150,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the city, according to John Hopkins University.

For students like Brandon Mogrovejo at Columbia University this work has even included using 3D printers to make and assemble PPE (personal protective equipment) for medical workers throughout the city.

Mogrovejo was due to begin his residency as a paediatrician-in-training in June at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, but is volunteering in the meantime.

"It's so tangible he said," he said. "I look at the masks piling up on the table and you know that will be going to the frontline."

While Mogrovejo was initially apprehensive about how his graduating class were going to prove useful, he soon realised that volunteer work meant he was still able to make a difference.

"Part of the reason I got into this line of work was because I wanted to help people in need," he said.

"This is part of my calling."

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Coronavirus: The junior US doctors rushing to the frontlines - Yahoo News Australia

‘A Window Into the Anxiety’: Sent Out of the Classroom and Off Rotations, Harvard Medical Students Reflect on COVID-19 Pandemic, Offer Aid Remotely |…

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Second-year Harvard Medical School student Joshua Josh J. Ellis 17 thought he would be delivering babies at this time in April.

When the first few COVID-19 cases appeared at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center a Medical School teaching hospital Ellis was in the middle of a surgery rotation. The rotation was part of Elliss Principal Clinical Experience: a full year of learning in the hospital for second-year Medical School students.

But after all students were pulled from clinical work due to concerns over the novel coronavirus, Ellis said his experience in cardiac surgery was postponed indefinitely, along with his forthcoming April and May clinical rotations.

Now, instead of completing his OB-GYN rotation, Ellis is finishing up his second year of medical school virtually. He said that for him and his classmates, the disruption has been instructive but profound.

As medical students, our lives are pretty planned out for a long time, so everything is so routinized for us that its tricky when things get a wrench thrown into it, Ellis said. I think what weve learned and what weve realized is that its important to be fluid.

Like students across all 12 of Harvards degree-granting schools, Medical School students have transitioned to online courses and, in most cases, moved off campus as the coronavirus pandemic escalates.

But unlike their peers in other parts of the University, these students have spent their time at Harvard studying and practicing the very medical scenarios the nation has seen unfolding during the COVID-19 pandemic. The illness has forced them out of the classrooms and hospitals where they had been training to become healthcare workers, just like their professors and supervisors currently working on the front lines.

Ellis said he recognizes that by the time he and his classmates enter the workforce, their medical training will not be as cookie cutter clean as students in years past.

You know, I wish things were different, Ellis said. At the same time, I think its definitely been important to keep in mind that this is an unprecedented time, and no one really has walked this path before.

In early March, fourth-year medical student Josephine Josie T. C. Fisher started a clinical rotation in the emergency department of Massachusetts General Hospital another Medical School teaching hospital to fulfill a capstone course requirement while she prepared to graduate in May.

At the time, the healthcare staff in the MGH emergency room was trying to figure out how to manage suspected COVID-19 patients, according to Fisher, whose arrival at the hospital coincided with that of the first few suspected cases at MGH.

During those early days, MGH put out scores of new policies and procedures basically every single day to protect the students working in the hospital, Fisher said.

We were told immediately in the beginning, Definitely dont see anyone who is worried about having COVID, she said. It got even more restrictive as time went on, which was totally understandable in their attempt to protect us.

Students could not see patients who had coughs. As the hospital prepared for an anticipated equipment shortage, they were also barred from entering rooms that required personal protective equipment, or PPE.

After working in the MGH emergency department for only two weeks, Fisher found out that the Medical School was pulling all students from their clinical rotations leading to the premature end of her final clinical experience as a medical student.

I think we as students like to be super helpful, and we can play important roles, but we are non-essential personnel, Fisher said. Medical care can absolutely be provided without us there.

Then, the Medical School announced that students whose residency programs needed them to start early would be allowed to graduate early. Fisher who is staying in Boston after matching to the MGH internal medicine and primary care program said her program has told its matched students they are feeling appropriately staffed so far.

While Fisher said she wishes she could help right now and the best way I can by getting involved clinically, she also acknowledged it was comforting that MGH was not pressed for resources.

This to me is just very reassuring that I feel like were really lucky here in Boston, that we have these hospitals that are so well-resourced and well-staffed, Fisher said. It takes a lot to get us started as new hires, and so the administrative burden of that is a big barrier that they only want to have to deal with if its absolutely necessary.

Along with the disruption of being removed from rotations or having career plans delayed, Medical School students say the disruption has also led to profound shifts in how they conceive of their roles as future doctors.

LaShyra Lash T. Nolen a first-year medical student and the first black woman to serve as president of the Medical Schools Student Council said in an interview that as students days change, she has taken time outside of class to think on the level of social justice and equity by considering the many societal wrongs the pandemic has revealed and exacerbated.

I think we see this in who is dying from COVID-19 at rates disproportionately compared to others. And I think we see it in the fact that cashiers and folks who are carriers for the mail, they still have to work. Yet there are other individuals who dont have to work, and they are able to work from home, Nolen said.

This has just really made me think even more deeply about injustice in our society and privilege and how that will impact my patients, she added. The pandemic has really exposed America for the unequal space that it is for a lot of people.

Specifically, Nolen said the way the virus has impacted people of color is absolutely unacceptable. She believes working towards degrees in medicine and public policy will give her the tools to address this concern.

I think that its important for me to be able to inform policy and change the rules of our society so that when something like this happens again, these communities have the power to to fight against it and to make sure that they have the tools and the resources to protect themselves, Nolen said. As of now, they are completely bare, and they havent gotten that support that they deserve and need.

More broadly, Nolen said that as she continues her training as a medical doctor, the knowledge that doctors are not getting the protection they need during the pandemic will remain heavy on her heart and mind as hospitals across the country continue to report protective gear shortages.

I think the fact that I have professors who are wearing the same PPE all day is absolutely unacceptable, Nolen said.

If this happens again, who is going to protect me? And who is going to protect the cafeteria workers and the janitorial staff and all of those individuals who are working alongside me when something like this happens? she added.

National projects such as #GetUsPPE, a movement started by emergency medicine physicians, have sought to bring awareness to the need for more protective equipment in hospitals.

Third-year medical student Adam L. Beckman joined #GetUsPPE in mid-March, helping to turn the social media hashtag into a petition. That petition snowballed into a broader project to document the need for PPE and match groups that have PPE to those that still need it, Beckman said in an interview.

Beckman said he is also involved in covid19bill.org, a policy working group that has published recommendations for national legislation related to coronavirus.

The recommendations did have, as we understand it, some meaningful impact in terms of what certain congressional offices advocated for, for the first and subsequent stimulus packages, he said.

Inspired by these nationwide movements, Medical School students founded COVID-19 Student Response, a task force created to coordinate aid between Medical School students and hospitals, on March 15.

The team now has chapters throughout the country, according to its website. Its goals include supporting vulnerable populations and essential health staff, providing educational materials on COVID-19 for fellow medical students and the broader public, and aiding the clinical needs of hospitals through a student workforce.

Medical School Dean for Students Fidencio Saldaa said the completely student run and directed efforts have impressed and heartened him.

This is really outside of the curriculum, outside of any faculty mandate or direction, Saldaa said. Theyve really taken it upon themselves to organize students to be able to contribute to the community.

According to Medical School student Suhas Gondi, virtual efforts like #GetUsPPE, covid19bill.org, and the COVID-19 Student Response task force have inspired many students during a scary time.

But as a student who has completed nearly three of his four years at the Medical School, Gondi said he and many of his classmates believe they have enough experience with patient care to be helpful on the front lines. But the inability to join their mentors and colleagues in the hospitals can leave them feeling powerless.

To be a medical student right now is to be simultaneously energized about the many things that you might be able to do to help out, but also frustrated and helpless about the ways in which we can actually materially contribute, Gondi said.

Gondi said he has found a way to utilize skills from his clinical training by performing volunteer telemedicine for the Crimson Care Collaborative, a student-faculty collaborative clinic that provides primary care for greater Boston with several in-person clinics.

Though the clinics are now closed for in-person services due to COVID-19, many of the hospitals involved, including MGH and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, are relying on medical and nursing students to reach out to patients who may potentially be infected with the virus.

Under the supervision of an attending physician at BIDMC, Gondi said he called a number of patients who had suggestive symptoms but whose cases could not be confirmed due to limited testing, checking up on them to see how they were handling the illness.

Gondi said the calls revealed to him the bitter reality of what the patients were experiencing. One patient he spoke with had been having symptoms for nearly a month and was still feeling terrible, mentally and physically, but had not been able to get tested.

She was telling me about the progression of her symptoms, but what was so clear was the anxiety in her voice, and the feeling that she understood that tests were limited, and she understood that this is a pandemic that no one had prepared for, Gondi said. Even though shes on the tail end of her illness, she really just felt like she needed an answer whether or not she had COVID.

It was a really tough phone call for both him and the patient, Gondi said.

It gives you a window into the anxiety and the toll that this pandemic is having on patients, even those who are not hospitalized, are not in ICU, but are safely in their homes, Gondi said.

Correction: April 20, 2020

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that medical student Adam L. Beckman referred to "congressional officers." In fact, he referred to "congressional offices."

Staff writer Virginia L. Ma can be reached at virginia.ma@thecrimson.com.

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'A Window Into the Anxiety': Sent Out of the Classroom and Off Rotations, Harvard Medical Students Reflect on COVID-19 Pandemic, Offer Aid Remotely |...

COOPER: ECU medical school, others to begin test tracing for COVID-19 – WITN

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RALEIGH, NC (WITN) - East Carolina University's medical school will join two others in the state to begin test tracing to learn just how far COVID-19 has spread in North Carolina.

The three medical schools, ECU, UNC & Duke, will be part of a coordinated statewide effort to learn what percentage of people have no symptoms.

Gov. Roy Cooper hopes this will tell medical experts how the disease spreads and aid in the reopening of North Carolina.

At his briefing this afternoon, the governor says the state still needs help from the federal government to combat the virus. Cooper says they need more testing supplies to collect even more samples. He said so far they have used 73,000 tests and are using 13 labs to get those results quicker.

"I understand people are anxious to know which orders may be eased first and when that's going to happen," said the governor. "There's no perfect sequence or timing but there is health guidance, business guidance...and common sense."

Since March 30, the state has been virtually shut down except for essential businesses. More than 630,000 people so far have filed for unemployment in the state.

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I graduated early from medical school to help on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic – Yahoo News

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In a "normal" world, Fatoumata Nogoy Bah would be finishing her final year at University of Massachusetts Medical School, getting ready for family and friends to see her walk at graduation and preparing for an overseas trip before starting her residency in July.

Instead, Bah is working in a hospital on the front lines against the coronavirus pandemic.

The 26-year-old graduated from medical school more than a month early and volunteered to immediately start working as a medical doctor at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

"If you had told me a few months ago that this is what I'd be doing right now, I'd look at you like you were crazy," Bah told "Good Morning America." "This was just not what we had expected."

Bah graduated from UMass Medical School on March 31 in a virtual graduation ceremony the university held on Zoom.

She started less than a week later at UMass Memorial Medical Center, getting a crash course in telemedicine, among other things, so that she could treat patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Massachusetts has seen more than 28,000 cases of novel coronavirus, according to the state's Department of Public Health.

"I have a lot of health care providers in my family -- my mom was still working at a nursing home and my sister was still working as a nurse in an emergency department. I felt like I was sitting on the sidelines watching them go in," Bah said. "I really, really wanted to be a part of it, too."

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Bah works on the hospital's COVID-19 floor, but is in an office where she communicates with patients by phone and video. Only one attending doctor is allowed physically on the floor in order to minimize the risk of spreading the virus, according to Bah.

"A lot of the times it's a normal conversation that you're having with a patient -- they're not feeling well, they're pretty sick and they're just telling you how they're feeling," she said of treating patients with COVID-19. "It's just the novelty of the illness [that is different]."

"There's so much unknown about it that a lot of time when they're asking questions, there's a lot that we don't know," Bah added. "It's something that wasn't covered before."

MORE: Daughter chronicles dad's death from COVID-19: 'I cannot believe this is happening'

Bah is also not directly in contact with COVID-19 patients because of her upcoming residency. Officials are trying to keep recent medical school graduates free of COVID-19 so there is no risk they spread it when they start their residencies.

In July, Bah will begin her residency in anesthesiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, a hot spot of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

"When I matched I was super excited. New York was my first choice," she said. "I think now I'm a little bit more nervous because it seems like this could have a little bit more of a prolonged course, but I'm also excited because this is going to give me another opportunity to work on [these] skills."

Bah is currently living with her mother and sister as all three work in the health care industry. She said despite working about five shifts a week on the COVID-19 floor of a major hospital, it is only when she is at home that she starts to feel the weight of what she and her healthcare colleagues are taking on.

MORE: Lego is making 13,000 face shields a day for medical workers on the front lines

"In the hospital, everyone else is so calm and it just feels like we're doing what we should be doing," she said. "It's not until I sit at home and I'm watching the news and I'm like, 'Wow, this feels so much more real.'"

Despite stepping directly from medical school into a global health pandemic, Bah said she has no doubt her decision to help was the right one.

"I feel like I'm finding my purpose and I'm able to help in whatever ways that I can," she said. "If I had chosen to just stay home, I would have been sitting back still thinking, 'What can I do, what can I do?'"

I graduated early from medical school to help on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

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I graduated early from medical school to help on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic - Yahoo News

Six former pro athletes-turned-medical professionals who are on frontlines of COVID-19 fight – USA TODAY

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SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Steve Gardner discusses the story of Myron Rolle, a college football standout who is now battling on the front lines in the fight against coronavirus. USA TODAY

USA TODAY Sports takes a look at six former professional athletes who are using their medical careers to fight COVID-19:

Marshall Leonard, MLS:TheformerNew England Revolutiondefendertraded in his soccer jersey for physician attire in the emergency room. The 39-year-old isat a New York-area hospital after completing his ER residency in 2019 at Stony Brook University. He played defenderfor six seasons and 63 games in the MLS from 2002-07.

"I use the analogy to sports because thats all my life was prior to medicine, he said on "SportsCenter" two weeks ago. "I understand very quickly in medical school and my residency, you understand what sickness is, what death is, and you see that on a daily basis, really, in your residency. At the end of the day, you all have this common goal to get somebody healthy or at least calm their nerves in a stressful time."

Mark Hamilton, MLB:The former St. Louis Cardinals first baseman is graduating a month early from medical school in Long Island (Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell). He'll start his residency in June at the ICU at theLong Island Jewish Medical Center and North Shore University Hospital.The 35-year-old played 47 games with the Cardinals in 2010-2011.

"I could get the call tomorrow, that it's time to go in," Hamilton told The Associated Press. "I have had an incredible journey to becoming a doctor over the last four years, and not once did I think that I would find myself entering the field in a time like this."

Former St. Louis Cardinals teammates Yadier Molina, left, celebrates at the plate with Mark Hamilton after hitting a solo home run.(Photo: Brian Blanco, AP)

Myron Rolle, NFL:The former Florida State standout is athird-year neurosurgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. The 33-year-old wasselected by the Tennessee Titans in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL draft and spent three years trying to make a career in the NFL before retiring in 2013 to go to medical school.

He skipped his senior season at FSU to accept a Rhodes Scholarship and spend the year studying at Oxford in pursuit of his dream: to become a brain surgeon.

Nate Hughes, NFL:The former Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver is now a first-year resident at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. The 35-year-old graduated from medical school last year. After an All-American college football career at Alcorn State, Hughes made it on to several NFL practice squads and active rosters but a full-time football career never materialized. He took a full-time job as a nurse in 2011.

At the end of June, Hughes will move to New Jersey, where he will spend the next three years continuing his anesthesia training while completing his residency at Rutgers.

"So many people think they know so much about whats going on, but in the grand scheme of thingswe really dont know as much as we would like to know about the virus itself," Hughes told USA TODAY Sports at the beginning of the month.

Hayley Wickenheiser, Canadian Olympic ie hockey goalie:The four-time Olympic gold medalist started attending medical school at the University of Calgary in 2018. She was pulled from her clinical rotation as a medical student in Toronto emergency rooms as coronavirus cases grew rapidly. In Canada, medical students are not allowed to directly treat patients who have contracted COVID-19. So Wickenheiser has been assisting her certified medical professionals by gathering protective equipment for doctors, according to The New York Times. Additionally, Wickenheiser, 41, was one of the key voices to call out the International Olympic Committee for not postponing the 2020 Olympics sooner, helping the Canadian Olympic Committee to pull out of the Games before Tokyo organizers pushed them back to 2021.

Randy Gregg, NHL:The former Edmonton Oilers defenseman, 64, is now a family physician at a sports medicine practice in Edmonton,and back on a March 10 podcast he urged pro leagues to play games without fans before all sports were ultimately canceled.With the Oilers, he won five Stanley Cups, in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990. Following his retirement in 1992, Gregg completed his residency training program at the University of Alberta.

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Medical students are joining the front lines in the fight against COVID-19. Let’s cheer them (opinion) – Inside Higher Ed

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Its easy to shake our heads at the college students who flouted public health guidance and flooded Florida beaches even as COVID-19 spread across the country. But anger over the self-centered, selfish behavior of some students should not overshadow the remarkable courage and character being demonstrated by another group of students.

The coronavirus played havoc with all types of postsecondary education, and medical schools were no exception. Many medical students found their classes terminated and their clinical rotations cut. But rather than take a vacation from what was an extensive and intensive education journey, many felt called to serve. So they staffed patient hotlines, volunteered as first responders and raised money to buy, or even make, protective gear for hospital staff.

Now, medical schools around the country, like New York Universitys Grossman School of Medicine and Rutgers University's New Jersey Medical School, are holding virtual graduation ceremonies. And many of these newly minted doctors are raising their hands, reciting the Hippocratic oath and volunteering to work in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic -- New York City.

Shortening the length of an education during a national crisis is not totally new. During World War II, both West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy shortened their programs to get young officers to the front lines as fast as possible. The young men (and they were all men at that point) went willingly.

Today, these young doctors are demonstrating that same commitment and idealism. While World War II was fought across the globe, today the front lines are in hospitals spread across the nation. If there is one word to summarize what these idealistic young people share with that earlier generation of heroes, it is courage.

Courage is a curious character trait, because it cannot be seen in advance. Its impossible to tell if someone has it until they are placed in a situation where they demonstrate it.

Allison Horan, a medical student who urged NYU to get her class into the fight, has it. Im signing up, with the understanding that Im here to help and to serve, however is needed, she told The New York Times.

So does her classmate Evan Gerber, who added, It was a really easy decision to do this. You have a moral obligation to society.

All generations tend to think that those who follow them are spoiled, soft, self-centered and unworldly. Perhaps. But its equally true that all generations produce people who are idealistic, purposeful and ready to tackle the worlds great challenges. And while these young doctors may not be launching a battlefield assault, they are voluntarily and eagerly walking -- no, running -- into a modern battlefield. And the veteran doctors who are stretched to the limit saving lives will be grateful for the reinforcements.

So while we criticize young people, including college students, who think only of themselves, we must recognize and applaud those who are using their education and training to serve the public good, even if it puts their own lives at risk. Courage is an old virtue that never goes out of style. And its important to shine a spotlight on it when we see it.

We live in dispiriting times. Its tough to read the daily news, and serious planning for the future seems a fools errand. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote, You do not need to know exactly where it is all going. What you really need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

Thats why these medical students both instruct and inspire. Idealism married with courage is a powerful force. How wonderful and rare to see it so vividly displayed.

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Medical students are joining the front lines in the fight against COVID-19. Let's cheer them (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed

Michigan Medicine teams with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and 25 Michigan hospitals for unique COVID-19 data collection to help determine…

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Adapted from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. View the original

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan Medicine is teaming with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and 25 other Michigan hospitals to collect comprehensive clinical data on COVID-19 patients to be included in an extensive registry that will provide insight into best practices in treating patients with the virus.

Titled MI-COVID19, the comprehensive, multi-site registry will likely be one of the largest collections of COVID-19 patient data to date. It was developed at Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigans academic medical center, by a team that already leads other BCBSM-funded quality collaboratives.

Because the registry will include anonymous patient data from multiple hospitals throughout the state, it will offer a line of sight across geographic, economic and demographic boundaries. This provides a comprehensive clinical picture thats not typically available from smaller registries that contain data from just one hospital or health system.

Were fortunate in Michigan to have a mechanism in place that enables fast collaboration among providers to address critical health challenges such as the COVID-19 crisis, said Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan President and CEO, Daniel J. Loepp. Im incredibly proud that Blue Cross is one of the partners driving this initiative forward.

What we learn from this work will not only help now with currently hospitalized patients, but in the future should we experience another wave of COVID-19 patients, said Scott Flanders, MD, program director of theMichigan Hospital Medicine Safety consortium(HMS), chief clinical strategy officer at Michigan Medicine, and professor of Internal Medicine Hospital Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. Additionally, by studying long-term effects, we can better understand why some people need readmission to the hospital, or how long it takes to return to normal health.

Given the rapid onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding of patient care has been largely anecdotal, with limited data for providers to understand how to identify and treat patients, said Thomas Simmer, MD, chief medical officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. So, using the existing platform we use in the statewide Collaborative Quality Initiatives (CQI), we were able to rapidly gain statewide provider interest to convene the staff and hospitals necessary to launch this new effort.

The data collection is coordinated through the Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety consortium (HMS), a Blue Cross-funded CQI led by physicians at Michigan Medicine and focused on improving quality of care for hospitalized patients who are at risk for adverse events. Additional Blue Cross CQI programs, and U-M faculty and staff are lending expertise, support and resources to this effort.

By analyzing the registry data, participants of the MI-COVID19 initiative aim to identify factors associated with higher levels of critical COVID-19 illness and worse outcomes; identify patient characteristics and treatment regimens associated with improved outcomes; and understand long-term complications for hospitalized patients.

The type of information being collected for the MI-COVID19 clinical registry includes:

The list of participating hospitals continues to grow as this CQI has quickly launched. Currently, the participating hospitals include:

Blue Cross-funded Collaborative Quality Initiatives are internationally recognized, statewide improvement programs that bring Michigan hospitals and providers together to study areas of care that are rapidly evolving, have medical uncertainty, and where best practices are not readily known.The CQI platform has developed best practices across many areas of clinical care. In addition, U-M researchers at the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation have published many findings from CQI data in the medical literature for health care providers everywhere to use.

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Michigan Medicine teams with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and 25 Michigan hospitals for unique COVID-19 data collection to help determine...

This Is Why You Should Study Medicine Abroad – – VENTS Magazine

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Many students dream of studying medicine their whole life. Students choose this because medicine is one of the most lucrative careers that a student can choose. On the other hand, students who like other sciences like to pursue a career in engineering after studying from an engineering school.

But theres a problem here, while the number of engineering schools is constantly increasing all over the the globe, the number of medical schools is still way lower than the demand. As a result, from millions of students that apply for medical school, only a few thousand actually get a chance to study medicine.

But the gates of opportunity havent closed yet, as the option of studying medicine abroad is still available. If you think that there couldnt be a better option for you as compared to the medical field, you can try getting into the foreign medical schools to get a change to realize your dreams.

Here are some of the benefits of applying in a foreign medical school.

Wide Variety Of Options

No country on the entire globe has the enough medical schools to accommodate every local applicant. But if you choose to apply for a foreign study opportunity, your chances will increase considerably, and youll have lots of different options to choose from. All you need to apply in a foreign institution is a bit of courage and confidence in yourself, and you can achieve whatever you want.

Becoming An International Student

As mentioned earlier, it takes a bit of courage to apply for studying medicine in a foreign medical school. Well, thats the main reason why a majority of students never apply for a foreign opportunity. That decreases the competition for you considerably, and your odds of getting accepted increase manifolds.

Affordable Fees

There is a common misconception among students that the fees of studying in a foreign medical school is too high. While some of the medical schools do charge more fee, many are well within your range. The fee is very affordable for a wide range of students.

One way to explore affordable opportunities is applying for admission through the foreign exchange programs that many countries and schools offer. There are also lots of scholarship opportunities that you can avail.

Good CV

One of the biggest benefits that any student can get from studying abroad is experiencing a high quality of education on a foreign land. Internationally affiliated medical schools offer the best quality education that you can avail. For example; you can study medicine in Europe in English, and return back to your country with a great CV and academia record.

Many hospitals affiliated with international bodies prefer international degree holders over the local candidates. So, this is a great chance for you to stand out amongst other applicants when applying for a job in any hospital in your country. The house-job/ internship you do in a foreign country will name your CV colorful and top-rated in your own country.

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This Is Why You Should Study Medicine Abroad - - VENTS Magazine

Med school final exam plagued with technical issues after moving online due to COVID-19 – CBC.ca

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Fourth-year medical students across Canada are reporting stress and "agony" as the major standardized test that marks their transition from med school to residency has faced technical and communication problems.

The nine-hour Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination Part 1 made a major shift to online testing with remote supervision through virtual proctors because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there have been a series of system failures during the first month of exams.

More than 7,000 people have registered to take the test between June and September, according to the Medical Council of Canada (MCC). About a third of them are set to writethe exam remotely. It's administered by Prometric, a U.S. company.

Some medical students only agreed to speak to CBCNews on the condition of anonymity because they feared professional repercussions for speaking out against the MCC, their accrediting body.

One Ontario-based medical student saidshe was repeatedly kicked out of the online exam and struggled to be readmitted.

"I felt like it wasn't testing our knowledge, it was testing our endurance to deal with technical issues," she said.

The student said she had issues getting a Prometric security representative on video call to check her room for banned items a requirement to write the test which forced her to quit the exam and re-enter twice before she even got started. It then got worse.

"I was kicked out of the exam six times," she said. "I honestly felt like no one was on my side."

She said she rushed through her answers because she feared being forced to rebook the $1,300, day-long test at a later dateand having the qualifying exam the culmination of years of study hanging over her head for much longer.

"I'd spent so much time studying for this exam, and the exam was not even representative of how much time I studied because I was just rushing through to try to click as fast as I could," the studentsaid.

Another Ontario medical student also told CBC that his systemcrashed before he submitted the exam. This was after his virtual proctor warned the studentthat he could no longer see or hear him through his computer.

"I knew I would've had two hours remaining. Because of the system crash, that time was taken away from me," he said.

"There's no way to describe this exam as standardized or fair by any means."

Dr. Valerie Lavigne, a fourth-year student atMcGillUniversity in Montreal, said she was only able to sign up for overnight exams with start times of 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. because she required special accommodation.

Lavigne is pregnant and was entitled to extra bathroom breaks. Although she was eventually able to rebook her test during the daytime, she calledthe situation "stressful."

Dr. Adrianna Gunton, a student at the University of Sasktchewanin Saskatoon, had moved back to Kamloops, B.C., due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. She said she would haverather writtenthe test at an in-person test centre, but there were none nearby.

Gunton said no proctor was monitoring her progress during the test.

"I was just concerned that my exam would be void if I didn't have a live proctor watching me the whole time," she said.

She tried to contact Prometric during her lunch break, but it was unable to reach her proctor. So Gunton said that after her break,she redid the security check for the camera by herself, but she still doesn't know whether the lack of supervision means her test is invalid.

"For me, that's almost two weeks sitting in agony wondering about this exam, if it's going to count."

More than 2,000 people have now joined a closed Facebook group to share their frustrations about the examand pass on tips abouthow to avoid technical issues.

The MCC said about 300 students who haveso far taken the test remotely have raised issues ranging from difficulty starting the exam at home tosystem failures. Almost 1,200 remote tests have been administered.

Dr. Rishi Sharma, education director ofthe Canadian Federation of Medical Students, said students are frustrated.

"We're kind of in limbo and we don't have much support," Sharma said. He managed to take the test without incident last week, but he chalks that up to luck.

WATCH: The director's perspective

"This is an exam that runs roughly eight to nine hours, so having gone through that much time and effort, to have all of that crash and to have to reschedule that exam is unfair," Sharma said.

He said the MCC and Prometric have been pointing the finger at each other, with students caught in the middle.

"Students largely want the MCC to be accountable for these issues and compensate students because we're not typically writing the examination as it normally would," he said.

In a written response to CBC's questions, the MCC said the problems with remote exams have been "unacceptable," and it is working every day to improve the situation.

"We are meeting twice daily with Prometric senior executives to develop solutions to all reported issues, in particular those related to test accommodations, hardware compatibility, proctor responsiveness and connectivity before and during the exam," Dr. Maureen Topps, the council's executive director and CEO, said in the statement.

The MCC said candidates writing at test centres are using the same interface as people takingthe examat home and it's the same system that was used last year.

In a statement, Prometric, the U.S. testing company, blamed the bulk of the issues on internet connectivity, especially when both the med student and the remote proctor are using home wireless connections.

"The MCCQE Part 1 is the first full-day (nine-hour) professional health-care assessment program to utilize an online remote assessment platform. There is inevitably risk that accompanies innovation of new solutions," the statement said.

Prometric has set up a toll-free helpline to assist students and isworking on reopening additional in-person testing locations across Canada.

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Med school final exam plagued with technical issues after moving online due to COVID-19 - CBC.ca

New med school scholarships to support students from Kentucky – MU The Parthenon

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New Marshall School of Medicine scholarship to support students from Kentucky

First-Year medical students are now able to receive the Dr. Bobby L. and Eric K. Hardin Miller Scholar- ship, preferring incoming medical students from Boyd or Greenup counties in Kentucky. The scholar- ship will be renewable for three additional years, pending normal academic progress.

Kentucky natives Bobby L. and Eric K. Hardin Miller established this scholarship because they, want students from backgrounds similar to ours to have the opportunity to benefit the way I have as a son or daughter of the school of medicine. stated Miller.

Bobby L. Miller, M.D., graduated from Marshalls School of Medi- cine in 1997. He also completed his

medicine-pediatrics residency at Marshalls medical school, then proceeded to complete a neonatol- ogy fellowship at Baylor University in Houston, Texas. He is currently a neonatologist with Marshall Health and has also served as Vice Dean of Medical Education at Marshalls School of Medicine since 2013.

Eric K. Hardin Miller earned his Bachelor of Science from Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, and a Master of Arts in Counseling from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. He also worked with Marshalls ac- celerated B.S./M.D. program in its early years as well as with standard- ized patients in Marshalls clinical skills lab.

Both have graciously hosted the annual Marshall Medical School fun- draiser, Standing Out In Our Field, for the last six years and will continue to in 2021 due to the pandemic.

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New med school scholarships to support students from Kentucky - MU The Parthenon

Immelman, Griebie have mutual admiration for each other – CSB/SJU

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Annie Griebie and Aubrey Immelman have established a true mutual admiration.

So its hard to say who holds who in the higher regard.

Griebie, a College of Saint Benedict senior psychology major from Minnetonka, Minnesota, considers Immelman to be her mentor, someone who has encouraged and supported her research and made her a better student.

Immelman, an associate professor of psychology at CSB and Saint Johns University, considers Griebie to be one of the most talented students hes had the privilege of teaching in his nearly 30 years at CSB and SJU.

Griebie came to CSB as a chemistry major and switched to biology during her first year, but that changed during her sophomore year.

I took introductory psych with Dr. Immelman just by chance in the fall of my sophomore year (in 2018), Griebie said. She followed that up with Immelmans evolutionary psychology course during spring semester 2019 and personality psychology in the fall.

I quickly realized I loved psychology, that I had a real passion for this field, she said. So, I changed my major at the end of my sophomore year to psychology, and I began research with him that summer.

I think one of the advantages of schools like Saint Bens and Saint Johns is getting to take courses in different subjects, and find out if you have a passion for a field or a discipline. I really didnt know anything about (psychology) until I took those classes.

Her research the past two summers involved assisting Immelman, who directs the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics. Established in 1999, it is a collaborative faculty-student research program in the psychology of politics at CSB and SJU and specializes in the psychological assessment of presidential candidates and world leaders.

Over the years, the unit has conducted psychological assessments of presidents (George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump), presidential candidates (Al Gore, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Hillary Clinton) and President-elect Joe Biden, among others.

My first summer, my primary responsibility was to collect diagnostically relevant data for our profiles. We collected those from media reports and other sources, and used them to supplement the leader profiles we were working on, said Griebie, a graduate of Benilde-St. Margarets School.

It soon became evident that she had developed a sophisticated understanding of personality dynamics, so I increasingly relied on her to assist with the more complex coding and classification decisions involved in developing the personality profiles of presidential candidates, Immelman said.

This past summer, he (Immelman) gave me a lot more independence in the research and responsibility. He allowed me to advise the other two student researchers who worked with us this past summer, and he also trusted me to train a psychology student at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, said Griebie, noting that collaboration produced an analysis of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

During that second summer, Annie continued with data collection but completed coding and classification tasks more or less independently, operating more as a colleague than as a research assistant, Immelman said, noting that Griebie assisted him in training an additional two graduate students at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russias top-ranked university.

Griebie also co-authored a paper with Immelman on Trump, which was presented at the annual scientific meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, and papers on Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

The research process includes much deliberation among Immelmans team of student researchers. It truly is a team, Griebie said.

He has deliberately told me in the past that he sees us (students) as collaborators, and always urges me to express my own opinion, even when my opinion contradicts his own, Griebie said. Part of our research does involve that deliberation process, and within that process, he constantly encourages me to share my own thoughts on how I think the items should be categorized before even offering his own professional insights.

So, his encouragement and mentorship has really helped me to gain confidence in articulating my thoughts as well as help me feel like Im a valuable member of his research team, Griebie said.

Within that team setting, hes also helped me grow my own ability to do independent research as well, she said. Hes encouraged me to do an all-college thesis. Im working on elaborating the conceptual links between presidential leadership style and the personality-in-politics model that Dr. Immelman created and used in our research. So, hes really pushed me to become better as an independent researcher and student in general.

I do not believe in using students as mere data collectors doing the heavy lifting; I try to establish a collaborative, collegial relationship, Immelman said. Students play a significant role in helping me determine the personality profiles of the public figures under investigation by conducting targeted searches for specific life history and behavioral data I need for psychodiagnostic purposes.

Immelman is also helping Griebie take the next step toward post-baccalaureate studies, be it graduate programs in psychology or medical school.

No matter what program or school Ive told him Im thinking about, he always believes in it and believes in me, Griebie said. He is my adviser as well, and he has helped me take the right undergraduate classes as well as helped get a position as a teaching assistant and research experience, which is always super important when applying to the next step after Saint Bens.

I dont know if I would even consider applying to some of the programs that Im thinking about if he hadnt been so encouraging, Griebie added.

Immelman passed on his opening paragraph from Griebies medical school recommendation.

Among the scores of students for whom I have written recommendations for medical school or graduate programs in psychology, Anne Marie Griebie receives my strongest recommendation, easily ranking in the top 10%, he wrote.

In short, I consider Annie the best all-around, most talented student I have taught in my 30-year career; she possesses a rare combination of superior intellectual ability, high emotional intelligence, academic competence across the curriculum, genuine compassion, impeccable character and indefatigable conscientiousness, Immelman added.

Although Griebie says there are other professors at CSB and SJU who have helped mentor her, Immelman stands out.

Dr. Immelman has really, I believe, gone above and beyond. Hes been incredibly supportive. Hes given me such unparalleled opportunities and really fostered my entire education here, Griebie said.

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Immelman, Griebie have mutual admiration for each other - CSB/SJU

Three UMass Medical School researchers are studying ways to stop, treat and protect against COVID-19, as the disease continues to kill worldwide -…

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A trio of researchers at UMass Medical School in Worcester are attacking the coronavirus pandemic from three different angles, as part of a $17-million Massachusetts effort to help the world combat the disease which has killed more than 400,000 people globally.

Dr. Jeffrey Luban, a professor of molecular medicine at UMass Medical School

The researchers Dr. Robert Finberg, Dr. Ann Moormann, and Dr. Jeffrey Luban are studying ways to treat COVID-19, understand how it spreads, how people can be immune from its effects, and how herd immunity can be achieved.

We would like to know a little bit more about exactly how the virus causes the damage that it does, Finberg said.

The three UMass Medical School researchers are part of the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, known as MassCPR, which is a statewide initiative including scientists and clinicians from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts, and local biomedical research institutes.

MassCPR is working to develop the infrastructure to address the COVID-19 pandemic. It was created through a research agreement between Harvard and the Evergrande Group in China, which is sharing financial support equally between Massachusetts research and researchers at the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health in China. The funding is for five years.

MassCPR has obtained roughly $16.5 million to support and fund this first round of initiatives and projects. After receiving more than 400 applications for funding in March, MassCPR chose more than 60 applicants to receive funding, including the three at UMass.

This was obviously a very stiff competition, so anyone who actually received funding had an amazing application, said Professor David Golan from Harvard Medical School, one of the faculty co-leads of MassCPR.

According to UMass Medical School, projects selected were for their potential to influence clinical outcomes within the next 12 months. Luban, for example, a professor of molecular medicine at UMass Medical School, is researching the virologic mechanisms of COVID-19, attempting to discover what makes it unique. He aims to precisely understand infectiousness of coronavirus with his research.

Finberg, chair of the UMass Department of Medicine, is researching how to identify and target host cells and genes crucial in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. His background in studying respiratory viruses makes researching COVID-19 a natural shift.

Dr. Robert Finberg, chair of the UMass Medical School Department of Medicine

The questions I was interested in are one, whether we can find a drug to treat the virus and the other was to find out exactly what cells the virus infects and what kind of cells respond to the virus, Finberg said in a phone interview.

His project funded by MassCPR focuses on specifically these two parts, how disease is caused and if there could be a viral treatment. Finberg does this through studying human samples.

Infectious disease can be defined in what cells the virus infects and what the host response is both cause disease, said Finberg.

Other than looking at the possibility of an antiviral agent to treat COVID-19 and how exactly the disease is caused, he is trying to understand how the virus works inside the body.

Part of Dr. Finbergs research has to do with finding so-called host targets that could be potentially drug targets that could help to prevent the infection of cells by the coronavirus, said Golan.

Moormann, a professor at UMass Medical School who focuses on infectious diseases and immunology, is looking into one of the most popular current research topics in relation to COVID-19, functional antibodies, which help the body fight off the disease.

Dr. Ann Moormann, a professor at UMass Medical School

Her study measures the spectrum of functional antibodies, how long these antibodies last for, and how they differ in people of different ages. Antibodies indicate past infections.

Part of the research I have funded is to look at the question of how long do the immunities to the virus that causes COVID-19 last, said Moormann.

Though looking at human samples to see how many antibodies currently exist in a person is part of this project, her research has a more longitudinal element where she looks at how the antibodies change over months, getting samples three, six, and nine months after the initial sample.

You can have an immune response that only protects you for a certain period of time, and it might be because your immune response doesnt become a memory response but it helps clear the infection We dont know how long [COVID-19 antibodies] last, said Moormann.

Moormann gets samples from patients who have recovered from coronavirus but also from people who were not diagnosed. She recruits study participants that are healthy and that are patients. She then tests to see whether or not the individual has antibodies.

Participants can choose to give a sample once, or, for those who want to be in the longitudinal part of the study, choose to come back in the following months to give more samples.

I want to look beyond [a few months]. Like in six months, in nine months, do you still have antibodies? Are you still protected? Moorman said.

Her research is a necessary part of understanding if and how herd immunity can be achieved to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moormanns research is one of the very hottest topics right now in thinking about the pandemic, Golan said.

Its incredibly important for two reasons. One is when people get coronavirus infections, they develop the antibodies and its a question whether those antibodies protect you against another infection of coronavirus, said Golan.

Each of these doctors research projects aims to understand COVID-19 better so they are able to correctly fight against it which is why they obtained crucial funding from MassCPR.

MassCPR has been able to create a community of researchers and scientists in Massachusetts that have come together to better understand and control coronavirus. Golan said the collaboration and sharing of data between researchers is a key part of MassCPR and is already leading to important findings.

One thing that has been hugely highlighted by this pandemic is that we werent too well prepared for it, Golan said. Its our obligation to the next generation to be ready for the next one in a better way.

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Three UMass Medical School researchers are studying ways to stop, treat and protect against COVID-19, as the disease continues to kill worldwide -...

Edison Nation Medical Launches a National Back to School Initiative to Protect Students and Educators from the Spread of COVID-19 – GlobeNewswire

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Company Prepares for National Distribution of PPE in Schools

Bethlehem, PA, June 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Edison Nation Medical, a division of Edison Nation, Inc., is pleased to announce their commitment to the prevention of the spread of COVID-19, by focusing on the crucial need for PPE in schools and universities across the country.

Edison Nation Medical has established a sustainable infrastructure to provide a steady supply of masks, gloves, face shields, desk guards, sanitizer solution and proprietary sanitizer stands. In addition to the standard 3-ply and surgical masks, the Company is able to provide Made in the USA custom fabric masks.

Our entry level sanitizer stand is corrugated material with the ability to be branded and customized. Pricing for the entry level stand begins at $99 and includes two gallons of the Companys private label hand sanitizer, Purple Mountain Clean Sanitizer. The one-gallon refills are priced at $22 each.

The Company is currently working with a half dozen school districts throughout the US, inclusive of the second largest school district in the country.

Our expertise in sourcing and developing high quality products has allowed our sales team to prepare for this critical distribution, explained Edison Nation Chief Executive Officer, Chris Ferguson. We have quickly established a supply chain that can keep pace with the current and future demands for PPE in an effort to help schools around the country return to safe, in-person learning.

Edison Nation Medical

The Companys medical division, Edison Nation Medical, has launched its online portal for hospitals, government agencies and distributors to access its catalog of Personal Protective Equipment. The site can be found at http://www.edisonnationmedical.com.

About Edison Nation, Inc.

Edison Nation, Inc. (EDNT), is a multifaceted ecosystem which fosters innovation and drives IP, media and consumer products. Edison offers innovation sourcing, product design, sales, manufacturing, and fulfillment services. Edison Nations model is to source innovative ideas to launch internally or license to brand partners. Edison Nation hopes to leverage its television property, Everyday Edisons, to become the recognized leader in the innovator community. For more information, please visit http://www.edisonnation.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release regarding strategy, future operations and plans, including assumptions underlying such statements, are forward-looking statements, and should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any subsequent date. Such forward-looking statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date of this release and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, some beyond the Company's control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these fossrward-looking statements, including consumer, regulatory and other factors affecting demand for the Company's products, any difficulty in marketing the Company's products in global markets, competition in the market for consumer products, any inability to raise capital to fund operations and service the Company's debt. Additional information that could lead to material changes in the Company's performance is contained in its filings with the SEC. The Company is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any responsibility to, update or alter forward-looking statements contained in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Relations: Aimee Carroll Phone: (484) 893-0060 Email: Investors@edisonnation.comSource: Edison Nation, Inc.Released June 23, 2020

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Edison Nation Medical Launches a National Back to School Initiative to Protect Students and Educators from the Spread of COVID-19 - GlobeNewswire