Figure 1 Quiz of the Week An 11-month-old male with a two-day history of irritability and lethargy is brought to the emergency department by his mother. She reports that he has vomited four times today and has had fewer wet diapers than usual. He is up to date with his vaccinations. On examination, he is…

You block off an entire Sunday afternoon to tackle the beast that is the AMCAS—the centralized medical school application. You’re clicking through the online form, filling in the boxes until you get to the page titled “Volunteering and Shadowing.” You stop there. Do you feel like you have enough exposure to the medical field for…

Figure 1 Quiz of the Week A 40-year-old male presents to the emergency department with sharp chest pain and palpitations. He says the pain is worse when he lies down and is exacerbated by coughing, but improves when he moves to a seated position. He was recently diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) after investigation…

3:30 am – Wake up. 4:00 am – Leave apartment. 4:15 am – Arrive at hospital. 4:20 am – Print out the patient list. 4:21 am – Split the list of 50 patients with your partner; go to a computer and write down every patient’s 24-hour vital signs, any reported fevers and what was done, what…

Figure 1 Quiz of the Week A 38-year-old man presents with itchy, scaly lesions on his elbows and small, erythematous papules in the web spaces of his fingers.   Image credit: @RamonaNP. Answer: Scabies Scabies is caused by the tick Sarcoptes scabiei, that burrows into human skin where it lays its eggs. The inflammation is caused…

By: Maria Filippa Trikantzopoulou Politics has never been on my radar. After all, I have a degree in engineering and just began a career in medicine; it never occurred to me that I could be involved in policy-making and grassroots organizing.   Well, at least that is what I thought—until I came to realize how…