Kaplan’s NEW Step 2 CK Qbank is coming soon! Kaplan’s new and improved Step 2 CK Qbank will be available starting May 14th with important new features like a Score Estimator - able to predict your USMLE score based on your Qbank performance - and 500 never-before-seen exam-like questions created by Kaplan Medical’s expert faculty and reviewed by top-performing test takers.

Learn more about the important upgrades to Kaplan’s Qbank and see how you score on a Qbank Challenge at http://www.qbankchallenge.com/step2. You can lock in the low price of Qbank today – buy now and delay your start date up to 90 days!

Only on SDN - Enter to win Kaplan’s new Step 2 CK Qbank!
Kaplan is giving away a Step 2 CK Qbank to the first 100 SDN members. Check the Step 2 forum to learn how to win a FREE 3-month Step 2 CK Qbank!

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

• If you think you know someone who might be interested in receiving this email, please forward it along! This is a national organization and we’re looking for a diverse group of riders.
• If you have any unique thoughts as to how you can improve or support our organization, we certainly welcome them.
• Concerned about being able to ride across the country? Join the club. So were most of our 63 previous national riders. We believe you can do it! Let’s talk about it.

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

SDN: Gary, your resume is pretty awesome. You currently hold the position of Medical Director of the East Dayton Health Center, a community health center with federally qualified health center status; and you are simultaneously Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Admissions at Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio.

Yours is a unique postion, with major responsibilities in a community health center serving the disadvantaged, and as the dean of students for a medical school, which will include lots of students from more privileged backgrounds.  (more…)

The contract provisions couldn’t look any better:

• $ 300,000 annual salary guarantee
  • sustained by hospital/practice
  • forgiven over 5 years
  • phased out beyond 15 months to full productivity remuneration
• $10,000 sign on bonus
• $20,000 relocation expenses
• 3.5 weeks annual vacation
• 2 weeks annual sick time
• 10 days paid CME
• 401K investment
• Profit sharing/open partnership in 12 months.

But before signing the dotted line, take the contract home, read it carefully and understand it. Equally importantly, get to know the people behind it.

For many doctors soon to complete their residencies, one final round of interviewing is underway. This time, unlike prior interviews, it is an audition for your job post-residency, in your chosen profession. Finally! (more…)

The online world has evolved substantially over the past decade. Today it is commonplace for students to have a presence on social sites such as Facebook, Xanga, LiveJournal, or MySpace. But what most students do not appreciate is the fact that potential employers and schools may use these sites to evaluate their applicants.  They use them to weed out candidates for their positions and to decide if a potential employee is the type of person that would make a good “fit”.  Thus, our pages on Facebook and MySpace have become additions to our resumes and personal statements. One survey conducted by ExecuNet in 2007 found that 83% of recruiters use the Internet to evaluate their candidates and 43% of those have turned down a candidate based on what they saw online. The burning question is: how can students protect their personas on the Internet?  (more…)

In my last article for SDN, I addressed the importance of physician shadowing and clinical experience. This time, I want to focus on recommendation letters.

Recommendation letters are used by admission committees and are part of your application. To get good letters, participation in extracurricular activities and positive interactions with faculty and physicians are important.

Admissions committees see on the application what activities you have listed, but recommendation letters tell them how you interact with people, what type of person you are, and (hopefully) stress your good qualities and support your application to medical school. (more…)

SDN Staff Writers

For some, the answer to the question, “Why do you want to study medicine?” is a simple one: to make money.  These individuals, however, are in a shrinking minority, a recent survey has found.  Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions examined the responses of 914 students in its medical and law school preparatory courses to examine their motivations for professional study.  It seems that even as the traditional financial windfalls associated with medicine continue to wane, students’ passion for medical study is as fiery as ever.  In fact, less than half of pre-med respondents indicated their future earning potential “very much” or “somewhat” influenced their decision to study medicine.  But what does this mean?  Pre-professional students are notorious for their exaggerated claims of altruism while the true and ulterior motivation remains the big salary.  …or at least that was the belief.  (more…)

Students enrolled in a full-time health or health-related undergraduate or graduate course of study are invited to submit a poster presentation for the 2008 U.S. Public Health Service Scientific and Training Symposium. The conference will be held June 9-12 at the Tucson Convention Center. More than 1,000 public health administrators, providers, clinicians, professors and representatives from business employing public health professionals are expected to attend. This is an excellent opportunity to obtain experience presenting and to network with others in the field. (more…)

In our first docLive chat, Dr. Harry Rosen, author of The Consult Manual of Internal Medicine, will lead a live discussion wherein he will answer your questions about surviving 3rd year medicine clerkships. During this Sunday, April 20th session, participants will be able to ask Dr. Rosen their questions and receive real-time responses.

The chat session will take place at 8:00pm Eastern Time on SDnet, the SDN Chat Server. A temporary link to the docLive web client will appear in the Clinical Rotations forum at 7:30pm ET. For those wishing to use their own chat client, simply point it to irc.studentdoctor.net:6667 and join #doclive.

Please post in this SDN Forums thread to indicate your plans to attend, as space is limited. Come meet Dr. Rosen and walk away with strategies to make your Medicine rotations go much more smoothly!

Benefits and Risks of Immunization
Over ten million childhood vaccinations are given to children (birth through 5 years) annually, and many millions of doses are given to adults.  All medicinal products, including vaccines, have risks and benefits.  Vaccines protect many people from dangerous illnesses, but, like drugs, can cause side effects, a small percentage of which may be serious.  The benefit of vaccines is measured as prevented disease, and the risk of vaccination is measured as potential side effects; both are monitored as part of the US public health system.  (more…)