Global Health Scholars Program

I got a phone call yesterday telling me that I had been accepted by the AMSA for the Global Health Scholars Program, which is a new certificate program for medical students interested in global health. It was a pretty competitive program-- out of about 100 people who applied around the country, they said, they interviewed 10 students, and accepted 4. One is from Yale, the other is from GW, and the third I can't remember. Anyway, it involves a 6 month curriculum of sorts and a couple of stipulations for things we have to do to finish the certificate. The first step is to read Paul Farmer's Pathologies of Power, and then in April we are going to have a conference call discussion with him about his work and the topics in the book. I think that is very exciting-- I saw Dr. Farmer give Grand Rounds at Columbia once while I was there, and he gave a very inspiring talk. On top of that, there is a chance that they are going to want the four of us to sit on a panel during the AMSA National Convention that is being held this April in Chicago. Again, also very exciting. Of course, all of this means more work, but it's still some great opportunities.

In other news, I took my Histo exam this past Monday, and it was overall a very frustrating endeavor. The questions were overly ambiquous I thought and I spent more time trying to figure out what they were asking than actually thinking about the correct answers. Sufficed to say I didn't do a stellar job-- enough to pass, but not enough so that I can coast through the final. Stupid practical. If there was any doubt about pathology before, I think I can safely say that it's definitely out of the running now.

I started my elective in Clinical Immunology today. It was kind of strange, to be honest, since it was just me and another student sitting in a room as this pediatric allergist gave us a talk that she have given that week to immunology residents. I must say that I think I understood a lot of it, but that was from an amalgam of personal experience and stuff I sort of remembered from the NIH. On the whole, it was somewhat interesting, but I kind of got a sense of it being dry and even a little boring. I don't know. We have another session next Monday and another one on Friday, maybe those will be more exciting. I mean, it doesn't have to be anything out of an ER episode, but I was just thinking about what Eric is doing for his elective (scrubbing in on ENT surgeries), and even though I don't think I'm going to end up doing something like that, it still sounds far more interesting. This week my specialty-of-choice is critical care. I'm not sure if I would be able to work in an ICU, but it seems to have a little bit of everything. I emailed a pulmonologist who works in the MICU to see what he has to say. I'll keep you posted.