Join the Ride for World Health!

Ride for World Health (R4WH) 2009 wants YOU!!!!
http://www.rideforworldhealth.org

Join us for a 3,700 mile bicycle journey that starts from San Diego and ends in Washington D.C. During the seven weeks, we’ll deliver lectures at colleges, elementary schools, medical schools, rotary clubs, and other locations to promote awareness of global health issues. Some topics we plan to cover include HIV/AIDS, poverty and medical disparities, and women’s health.

Since its inception, R4WH has currently raised over $260,000 to benefit Partners in Health, the Global Health Access Program, the Pendulum Project and Doctors without Borders.

The 2009 Ride for World Health (R4WH) is accepting applications for the following positions:

  1. 2009 Cross-Country Riders (April/May 2009 – Elective Credit available)
  2. 2009 R4WH Portion Riders (participate in shorter portions of ride)

Deadlines: Sunday, June 29th 2008 at 5pm – for cross-country rider
Sunday, March 1st 2009 at 5pm – for portion rider

Contact:
Jesson Yeh
Student Recruiter, R4WH
NYMC, class of 2009
Jesson_Yeh@nymc.edu

Do you have more questions?? Don’t hesitate to ask! Drop us a line at info@rideforworldhealth.com

Kaplan to Give Away Free Step I Qbanks on SDN!

This month Kaplan launched a new and improved Step 1 Qbank with important new features like a Score Estimator - able to predict your USMLE score based on your Qbank performance - and brand new questions that are even more like the actual exam.

Learn more about the important upgrades to Kaplan’s Qbank and see how you score on a Qbank Challenge at www.qbankchallenge.com.

Only on SDN - Enter to win Kaplan’s new Step 1 Qbank!
Kaplan is giving away a Step 1 Qbank to the first 100 SDN members who respond to our post. Check the Step 1 forum on Monday, December 10 to learn how to win a FREE 3-month Step 1 Qbank!

SDN Welcomes Business of Medicine as a Partner Organization

PRESS RELEASE
The Student Doctor Network would like to announce a new partnership with The Business of Medicine. Founded in 2006 by medical students at Georgetown University, The Business of Medicine (BOM) is a nonprofit national medical student organization and currently applying for 501(c)3 status. BOM’s mission is to increase medical student awareness of financial challenges and opportunities impacting the practice of medicine. Read more »

SDN Forges Relationship with AMA Alliance

PRESS RELEASE

The Student Doctor Network would like to welcome its newest partner, the American Medical Association Alliance. The mission of the AMA Alliance is to partner with physicians to promote the good health of America and support the family of medicine. The Alliance network of physicians and physicians’ spouses represents all stages of the medical lifestyle, from the training years to retirement.

The President of the AMA Alliance, Dianne Fenyk, has a message for SDN users. Read more »

SDN Welcomes New Partners

PRESS RELEASE

The Student Doctor Network is pleased to announce partnerships with two premier health care organizations: the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations - United States (IFMSA-USA) and the Student Osteopathic Medical Association, Undergraduate Division (Pre-SOMA).

IFMSA strives to offer future physicians a comprehensive introduction to global health issues. Through programming and opportunities, IFMSA-USA develops culturally sensitive students of medicine, intent on influencing the transnational inequalities that shape the health of our planet.

The goal of Pre-SOMA is to promote and inform the public about osteopathic medical education as well as to increase the number of applicants to osteopathic medical schools.

SDN is excited to partner with two organizations so dedicated to pre-health and health professional students and looks forward to the reciprocal benefits these alliances will provide. Welcome!

Access Denied: IFMSA Addresses Health Care Inequity

International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations
Reprinted with Permission

Almost 1,000 medical students from over 90 different countries gathered in Canterbury this August to tackle inequities in health care across the globe. The 56th August Meeting of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations returned to the UK with the theme, “Access to Essential Medicines.” It proved to be a fascinating, tumultuous, and at times controversial week.

The IFMSA is the largest student body in the world, founded in 1952 to provide a cohesive voice for medical students across the globe. Its biannual general assemblies aim to educate and inspire its members to take action on international health issues, each centered around a chosen theme. The decision by the UK to focus on “Access to Essential Medicines” (AEM) was taken in light of its key relevance to both the developed and developing worlds. More than 10 million deaths each year can be attributed to lack of access to life-giving medications, in direct contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, entitling every citizen the right to “health and well-being of himself and his family, including … medical care and necessary social services”.   Read more »

Pharmacy Debate: Refusal to Fill

Refusal to FillPharmacists’ refusal to fill legally written prescriptions has recently become a topic of debate among healthcare providers, employers, lawmakers, and the general public.

The issue is often framed as a question of patient rights vs. pharmacist rights, due to the public controversy over the emergency contraceptive “Plan B” which has unfolded over the past decade. However, the issue carries broader implications, extending to drugs intended for abortion or immediate post-abortion care, lethal injection for use in the potentially abused medications such as narcotics.

The stakes are so high for interested parties that states across the country have been pressured to take a position for or against pharmacists’ refusal to fill through legislation and policy changes. As of November 2006, five states (AR, CA, GA, MS, SD) have chosen to codify the right of a pharmacist to refuse to fill a prescription on moral grounds, while four (IL, MA, NC, PA) have passed legislation requiring pharmacists to fill or transfer certain prescriptions.1 Read more »

Horrible Handwriting: Horrible Mistakes

Horrible MistakesThe longstanding joke is that doctors have horrible handwriting. But it’s no laughing matter.

While handwriting doesn’t play a major role in most peoples’ careers, in the medical field, it can mean the difference between life and death. Whether it’s a mix-up between Lamisil and Lamictal, Cerebyx and Celebrex, Zyrtec and Zantac, or Sarafem and Serophene, confusion over drugs with similar spellings and similar sounds accounted for 15 percent of all errors reported to the United States Pharmacopeia Medication Errors Reporting Program from 1996 to 2001. In fact, it’s such a problem that the Food and Drug Administration even appointed a panel of experts to review proprietary drug names—just to try to alleviate such confusion in the future.

But beyond drug name mix-ups, poor penmanship also accounts for many other errors. Read more »

New Medical School Announced in Michigan

Rochester, MI

Oakland University Medical SchoolOfficials from Oakland University and Beaumont Hospitals announced last week they will create a privately funded medical school on Oakland’s campus.

Beaumont and Oakland jointly filed a letter of intent with the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) to begin the process of establishing an allopathic medical school.

“Studies show that there is a looming shortage of physicians, nationally and especially in Michigan,” said Ananias Diokno, M.D., Beaumont’s Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. “This new medical school will help fill the gap.” Read more »

Debated Studies: Animal labs for medical students

We present this article to highlight the debate currently in progress over use of animal labs in student education. SDN has no formal or informal position on animal labs. Our volunteer members have a diverse view on this topic and have worked together in an attempt to cover this topic fairly and evenly.

Animal labs for medical students

Jeff Tomasini likes dogs. That was one of the reasons that prompted the first-year student at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) to opt out of a course he considers barbaric and unnecessary. During the three-day class that took place last month, Jeff’s classmates anesthetized 60 dogs obtained from the local pounds, opened up their chest cavities, examined their hearts, and then euthanized the animals.

“Killing an innocent animal is unethical,” Jeff says. “The top medical schools produce some of the country’s best physicians without ever harming an animal.”

And he is not the only one to protest the course that is fueling heated debates among students, physicians, and medical school educators across the country: do live animal labs have educational merit for medical students, or are they relics of the past? Read more »

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