Immunopatho-what?
Recently, I've been becoming more and more sceptical about the education I'm receiving here in the UK. The fact that the medical school starts straight out of high school (or sixth-form college) is an obvious major difference between the two systems of medical education. But I figured that in our first year, "Foundations of Medicine 1 & 2", they would teach us the "important" stuff from undergrad. Any biochemistry we would've missed, maybe a bit of important organic chemistry, but would leave out the less clinical parts, like "Origins of Civilization" and "Introduction to International Relations" (There are people who study those subject here, but as their major, not on their way to a science degree). However, I seem to be finding that we are generally taught things in a lesser detail schools back home would, with an attitude of "Oh, that's not important right now" or "You will have plenty of time to learn that in Manchester" (Manchester is where we go to complete our clinical training). I recently obtained a copy of the infamous pathology notes by Dr. Goljan, and while browsing through it, was horrified at the amount of information I had never come across. Seeing as how this is one of the main books used by students preparing for the USMLE, it looks like I'll have quite a bit of work on my hands for my summer times… While I did feel comfortable seeing some familiar terms ('calor, rubor, dolor…' – acute inflammation and the difference between the types of hypersensitivity reactions), these are just basic things that I would hope every medical school, no matter where it is, teaches. It's the more obscure things that scare me. Until next time, -AMiB
