June is LGBTQ Pride Month. This commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have had on history and to memorialize those lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS.
ACP Member Keshav Khanijow, MD, a hospitalist and an instructor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, explains how to foster patients’ trust by using currently preferred wording for gender identity and sexual orientation in a recent ACP Hospitalist article.
Feature
Lights, Camera, Medicine
(from the April 13, 2022, ACP Hospitalist)
There are varied reasons why patients might ask to video their encounter with a hospitalist, said David Alfandre, MD, MPH. “Maybe the patient has limited English proficiency, and it's very hard to understand everything at the time, and they like to review it after the encounter.”
I.M. Internal Medicine
Spotlight: Sowmya Nagaraj, MD, FACP, FHM
Read more about Dr. Sowmya's career path and her advice about what factors you should consider when choosing your specialty.
Council of Student Members (CSM) Spotlight
Knowing Your Limits: A Lesson in Humility
As a student, it's easy to get caught up in the fantasy of what we picture medical practice to be. Many of us rely on modern media and entertainment to give us a glimpse of what it's like to be a physician: how much impact we can make and how many lives we can save. We strive to be heroes, the only one in the entire hospital who diagnoses the one medical zebra. During my third-year rotation on internal medicine, I learned that there is so much more to it than that.
Medical Student Perspective
Three Tips for Choosing Your Specialty and Preparing for the Residency Application
Deciding what you're going to do in the next 20 to 40 years based on 4 years of medical school can be daunting. I list here three tips that may guide you through the process.
Advocacy Update
ACP Launches New Advocacy Toolkit for Protecting Physicians and Health Care Workers from Violence
(from the April 1, 2022 ACP Advocate)
Violence against physicians, public health officials, and other health care workers is an increasingly serious problem in the United States, and the American College of Physicians is introducing a new advocacy toolkit to help members push for more protection in their states.
Read the full article in ACP Advocate.
The ACP Advocate is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that provides ACP members with news about public policy issues affecting internal medicine and patient care.
Annals Spotlight Article, On Being a Doctor
Curiosity
(from the Jan. 5, 1999, Annals of Internal Medicine)
Several importunate politicians called to tell me that, in their opinion—which presumably reflected that of their constituents—medical students, by selection or by their isolation by the medical curriculum, were insensitive, mechanistic, technocratic, inhumane brutes. The solution, these politicians insisted, was the intercalation of humanities courses into an already crowded curriculum.
Read the full article in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Annals of Internal Medicine is the premier internal medicine academic journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It is one of the most widely cited and influential specialty medical journals in the world.
Winning Abstracts
CMV Transverse Myelitis in Unmanaged HIV Infection
Acute transverse myelitis (ATM) is an inflammatory spinal cord injury that may be an isolated process or caused by a secondary disease (1). Symptoms of ATM include lower limb weakness, urinary incontinence, numbness, or paresthesia. Diagnosis is made by clinical presentation and MRI or lumbar puncture revealing acute inflammation. Prior to the availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART), ATM was seen in patients with primary HIV infection due to opportunistic infections (2). We present a case of ATM attributed to cytomegalovirus secondary to uncontrolled HIV.
Want to have your abstract featured here? ACP holds a National Abstracts Competition as part of the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting every year. Find out more at ACP Online.
Subspecialty and Combined Training Careers
Critical Care Medicine
Critical care medicine encompasses the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of clinical problems representing the extreme of human disease. Critically ill patients require intensive care by a coordinated team. The critical care specialist (sometimes referred to as an “intensivist”) may be the primary provider of care or a consultant.
See all the career pathways open to internal medicine doctors and explore a “day-in-the-life” of an IM specialist/subspecialist at the bottom of our “Medical Student Career Path” page.
Analyzing Annals
Community-Acquired Pneumonia
Community-acquired pneumonia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. It can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Community-acquired pneumonia can be prevented through vaccination with pneumococcal, influenza, and COVID-19 vaccines.
Annals of Internal Medicine is the premier internal medicine academic journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It is one of the most widely cited and influential specialty medical journals in the world.
Get Involved
ACP IMIG Sponsorship Program Application Deadline is June 1, 2022
The Internal Medicine Interest Group (IMIG) Sponsorship Program provides funding, resources, and learning opportunities to medical school groups to support their interest in internal medicine. The deadline to apply for funding for the 2022-2023 year is June 1, 2022. See details.
Residency: What to Expect Webinar: June 9, 2022 at 7pm
Join us for this free, live webinar with ACP's Council of Resident/Fellow Members. Panelists will answer your questions and provide first-hand accounts of their experiences in internal medicine residency. You can submit your questions ahead of time or ask live on Thursday, June 9, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. ET. Register.
IMIG Event Inspiration
Informal Subspecialty Chats (with Pizza!)
The internal medicine interest group at Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus held a series of informal meetings with internal medicine or IM subspecialist providers. Chats were timed to coincide with the preclinical curriculum students were currently studying (i.e., hearing from a nephrologist during renal block). The meetings were a chance for students to get a free meal AND to help connect preclinical studies with possible career paths. See more IMIG event ideas.
Medical Student Story Slam at Internal Medicine Meeting 2022
Couldn't Make It? Listen Online Now.
The Medical Student Story Slam was the kickoff event for the Medical Student Track at this year's Internal Medicine Meeting in Chicago. In its first-ever in-person format, eight medical students presented their stories on the theme of “Lost and Found.” Stories are just 5 minutes long and each can be heard online. Thank you to the students for sharing their incredible, inspirational stories! Listen.
Chapter Chatter
ACP Caribbean Chapter Health Screening Program
The Caribbean Chapter of the ACP organized an outreach program with Pat's Senior Citizens' Home in Nassau, Bahamas. Fourteen ACP student members from the University of the West Indies School of Clinical Medicine and Research in Nassau, led by Dr. Christine Chin, FACP, Healthy Lifestyles Team (HaLT) leader. They screened 41 residents and guests for hypertension, diabetes, and overweight/obesity and provided advice on healthy living. See details.
The membership of ACP is divided into 85 chapters and regions, each uniquely tailored to the needs and interests of its members. See what events are coming up in your local chapter.
“Quiz Me!” Question
Test your medical knowledge each month with questions from The Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program® (MKSAP)
A 59-year-old man is hospitalized with a 5-day history of nonproductive cough and fever. He recreationally breeds carrier pigeons. He reports no travel outside of the United States. Medical history is noncontributory, and he takes no medications.
The Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program® (MKSAP) has been the “go-to” resource for board prep and lifelong learning since 1967. Learn more.
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