June 2013
- Medical Student Perspectives: From the Council of Student Members: Leadership Day 2013
- My Kind of Medicine: Rahul Rajkumar, MD, JD, FACP
- IMIG Update: Submit Your Club as the Internal Medicine Interest Group of the Month
- Advocacy Update: Physicians Urged to Be More Active in Getting Patients to Quit Smoking
- Winning Abstracts: West Nile Virus Associated Flaccid Paralysis
- Subspecialty Careers: Allergy and Immunology
- In the Clinic: Lyme Disease
- Virtual Dx - Interpretive Challenges from ACP
- Highlights from ACP Internist® & ACP Hospitalist®
Medical Student Perspectives: From the Council of Student Members: Leadership Day 2013
On May 21 and 22, medical students from all across the country gathered at our nation's capitol to lobby for issues pertaining to health care as part of the American College of Physicians' annual Leadership Day.
MoreMy Kind of Medicine: Real Lives of Practicing Internists: Rahul Rajkumar, MD, JD, FACP
What kind of person pursues a medical degree and law degree simultaneously? Someone who is very smart, extremely focused, who wants to serve the health care system at the policy/leadership level. Someone like Dr. Rajkumar, who says he was encouraged to pursue the dual degree program by another doctor-lawyer, Dr. David Kessler, who was then Dean of Yale University's Medical School and former Commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration.
MoreIMIG Update: Submit Your Club as the Internal Medicine Interest Group of the Month
Does your club host unique and interesting events about internal medicine? Does your IMIG have a strong presence on your campus? ACP wants to know more about the activities being planned for IMIG clubs for 2013-2014!
MoreAdvocacy Update: Physicians Urged to Be More Active in Getting Patients to Quit Smoking
ACP has joined a nationwide effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to encourage conversations between smokers and their doctors about quitting tobacco use.
MoreWinning Abstracts from the 2013 Medical Student Abstract Competition: West Nile Virus Associated Flaccid Paralysis
This year over 4,000 cases of West Nile virus have been confirmed in the United States, with over 200 reported deaths. Neuroinvasive West Nile Virus (WNV) is responsible for almost 200 deaths this year alone. Acute flaccid paralysis is a rare neurological manifestation of WNV infection and the pathophysiological mechanism is yet to be elicited. The clinical and diagnostic studies outlined in this report may support previously hypothesized mechanisms by which WNV leads to acute paralysis.
MoreSubspecialty Careers: Allergy and Immunology
Allergy is derived from the Greek word allo, meaning "other or different" and ergon, meaning, "work." In this sense, allergy is something that "works differently" from normal. Immunity is derived from the Latin word immunitas, meaning "an exemption from taxes or public or military service." In the late 19th century, when knowledge of toxins and infection evolved, the meaning was extended to persons "exempt from" or protected against the onslaught of foreign substances and were said to be "immune."
MoreIn the Clinic: Lyme Disease
Today, Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the US, with over 22 500 confirmed cases in 2010. Borrelia burgdorferi, a spirochete, is transmitted by the bite of infected Ixodes ticks. These ticks have a 3-stage lifecycle (larvae, nymph, and adult) and take 1 blood meal at each stage. They become infected by feeding on an infected wild animal-typically white-footed mice, voles, chipmunks, or birds-during the larval feeding. The infection is maintained during the tick molting process to the nymphal stage and can be transmitted to other animals to maintain the cycle of infection in the wild. Both nymphal and adult Ixodes ticks can transmit infection to humans.
In the Clinic is a monthly feature in Annals of Internal Medicine that focuses on practical management of patients with common clinical conditions. It offers evidence-based answers to frequently asked questions about screening, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, and patient education and provides physicians with tools to improve the quality of care. Many internal medicine clerkship directors recommend this series of articles for students on the internal medicine ambulatory rotation.
Highlights from ACP Internist® & ACP Hospitalist®
How
to start and stop bisphosphonates
A new online tool and a few simple rules can inform internists how
to start bisphosphonates and when to consider taking a drug holiday
at the request of another physician, a dentist or even the
patient.
Graduate
medical education and the new accreditation system
Residency program directors serve an intimidating number of
masters, leading them to worry about the "go-live" of the new
accreditation system for graduate medical education.
Cases from
Yale-New Haven Hospital: trainee edition
Leukocytoclastic vasculitis associated with cocaine abuse, the
Sister Mary Joseph nodule as presentation of advanced malignant
peritoneal mesothelioma, and other cases are discussed.