How You Can Spend Summer As A Medical Student

This is advice I would have appreciated before summers of the past years of med school. Unfortunately very few people in life - especially med students - like to share information that might help others (one of the main reasons I started this blog, to provide information that might help everyone)

1. Summer after Foundation year: Foundation year is like an extension of high school. So unless you need to repeat a course you got a less than optimum mark in, then this is pure beach- and sleep-filled vacation. There is nothing career - medical career that is - related you can do, that I know of, at this stage.


2. Summer after Year 1:
   A) Summer courses (university electives and compulsory courses), if need be, are preferably taken here.
   A chat about summer courses is overdue at this point: In foundation year, lecturers scare you about not finishing elective and compulsory courses before graduation. They tell you stories of students in their final year of medical school but who had not finished the elective and compulsory university courses and were not allowed to graduate because of that. Scared shitless, many medical students spend all 3 summers after foundation year trying to finish these courses during the summer semester. This is an utter waste of time, unless you feel you cannot manage studying an elective course with your usual medical studies. With a little planning, you can finish all your university compulsory and elective courses before Year 3. I felt confident enough to juggle elective and compulsory courses alongside with my medical studies. Based on that, I laid the following plan for myself. Remember, lay down the plan you feel suits you. You don't need to compare yourself to others. By year 2, students who had taken 2 summers filled with courses were nearly done but I wasn't. Yet they spent a 3rd summer to finish these courses while I got to enjoy 2 summers more than they did.

B) Start preparing for USMLE Step 1 if you are planning to take it in the next few years. Most, if not all, students think that the USMLE, like all exams, is cramming. Exams are not about cramming. Give your brain time to consolidate memories of information. Read and re-read. Then read again the same information. And again. Over time. That is the real secret to understanding and keeping information in your long-term store for use even past the USMLE and college exams (which I assure you, you will need). Even though cramming works, students know it is only a temporary storage of information. Yet we are forced into it because of a lack of time.


3. Summer after Year 2: If you are interested in research, allocate a time during this summer to learning about research (whether in our university or elsewhere). Research labs. Community research. Whatever interests you. Contact professors in university or other universities who are conducting research and ask to be mentored. (This is a point I wish I had known about at the right time. I only discovered the fact that our university conducts research a few weeks ago.)


4. Summer after Year 3: This summer should be for a clinical attachment. Public hospitals may have clinical attachment programs (Rashid Hospital, Dubai Hospital, you may want to try Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah. There are many more hospitals but these are the ones I know of.). Contact the department you are interested in and ask them or visit their website.



Alternatively, you can take a break in the summer after Year 2 (I know how hectic that year is). Then in this summer, allocate 1 month to research and 1 month to clinical attachment.
(I juggled both research and clinical attachment in 2 months at the same time. It was utterly exhausting. Why did I do this? I didn't know till this summer that our university conducted research.)


5. Summer after Year 4: shortest summer of med school. You will have 6 weeks to do your elective in any place of your choosing (I'll write a post after I've stepped in a few puddles myself and found the solutions and right way of stepping over the puddles)

Note to all med students reading this: Medical life is tough because of the competition. It's easy to get lost in the heat and jumble of things, lose yourself, your health and your life. Summers were meant to be a break for the mind and body. The above is only a humble suggestion from yours truly. But you can always spend summers to grow your talents. 

Year 3: Semester 1

Note: All books I recommend are books I've read unless otherwise stated. 
Also, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have more questions or are in need of any books or help.

The 2 poles of opinion on this semester:
1. This semester gave me a brain-gasm! 
2. I don't think I could hate medicine more than I do now.

No gray area in the Neuroscience Unit. What team you are depends on how you're studying. I am not going to sugar coat this one for you.

Pros of semester:
1. It's all about neuroscience. Not a billion units in one semester. Advantage? Your study is focused. 
Disadvantage? Delving into minute details.
2. Pathology here is the most fun and easiest of all units. But this is mainly because you will understand neuropathology like no other pathology you have taken before. It will still be imprinted in your brain a year later.
3. A lot of pharmacology will be repeated over the weeks.

Cons of semester
1. Pharmacology is not very logical (few exceptions) and includes many classes and each class contains many drugs (but then again, I hate pharmacology. For a reason might I add. Not blind hate.).
2. The final 2 weeks are in the wrong place. That is to say they shouldn't be the final 2 weeks. What smart organizer places the introduction of TWO new systems (hearing and vision) in the final 2 weeks before the exam? Incompetent fools is who. But there is no changing that. Or is there? (Do I hear the Student Academic Council anyone?)

General Tips:

1. Study the Sight and Hearing unit lectures before the teachers give you the material and after they give you. Then when you study for the exam make sure you start with these two weeks first and work your way backward. Why? I found this helped me a lot. How? Well the neuroscience unit is connected each week with the next. So by the time you reach the final few weeks you would have gone over the material of the first few weeks a bunch of times. But not too much for the last few weeks. So starting from the last weeks helps consolidate the material better. But if you feel near the exam times that you still do not have a good grab on material, then start chronologically. Each to his own after all.
2. Every student knows the key to this semester. That is why a lot of our class scored somewhere in the lower 90s spectrum. Repetition. This will come indirectly with the weeks. But you must also spend considerable effort and time on your own. Do not rely solely on lectures. Library books are free. Rummage the library for books you feel suit you best. Read material from different sources. This way, you may chance upon facts missed by one source or you may find clearer explanations in another. But do not confuse yourself with TOO much sources. Find one or two to your taste and stick to them in a particular subject.

How to Study:

Pathology

1. ATTEND ALL THE PATHOLOGY SESSIONS. Do not just solve the TBL and leave the class discussion and teacher explanation.
2. Attend all practical labs. You may get one-on-one teacher explanations of histopathological pictures if you ask. Important for getting information stuck in your synapses till the OSPE.

Anatomy

1. There are 2 main domains: 
1. Head and Neck
2. Neuroanatomy
2. They go hand in hand. Study them in chronological order if you can because they are connected. Do not study them as separate sections because one is related to the other. If you miss out on a few lectures, you may be lost later on because of the inter-connectedness of the subject.
3. Try to integrate the studying of anatomy. At the end of the semester by the time of the exams, study everything all over because everything will fall in line and you will feel satisfaction as you everything goes single file through your neurons (you understand everything thoroughly in other words).
4. Make the most of your anatomy lab timings this semester. Then, go to the anatomy labs after class hours. Bring your anatomy atlas along (you may be quite lost without it). Go at least 3 times before the exam (before written, OSPE and OSCE) because this is the time you will have finished all the theoretical knowledge and can finally put everything together in your imagination using models.
5. If you feel you may not manage alone, bring a study partner along. (Make sure it is someone who is willing to learn, optimistic and fast-paced. Be sure it is someone encouraging, and not someone envious and greedy for self-knowledge only.)
6. You may find it helpful to do as I did if studying alone is what gets information in your mind but you need a partner to consolidate information and make sure you are not learning wrong information: alternate visiting the lab alone and with a partner. I used to think studying alone was more efficient. But while revising with a partner, we joked and that helped the information stick till now.
7. In the first week, focus on scrupulously understanding the motor and sensory spinal tracts. Why? They are of utmost importance in nearly all the upcoming cases. (At least this is how I felt when I studied them in the first week. The PBL cases and mini PBL problems during the rest of the semester were a breeze to diagnose based on the signs and symptoms that relate to motor and spinal tracts.)
8. Books specifically for neuroanatomy - in addition to your traditional anatomy books:
1. BRS Neuroanatomy: great for reviewing things just before each lecture of neuroanatomy or the exam
2. Clinical Neuroanatomy Made Ridiculously Simple
3. High Yield Series - Neuroanatomy
4. Snell's Clinical Neuroanatomy

Physiology

1. In summary: studying the lectures is enough for exams if you are lazy. 
2. If you are genuinely interested in neuroscience physiology (because the brain physiology is truly breathtaking and grand to behold), I suggest not only reading books but also websites with animations and explanations (not that I need to recommend that to a 21st century student).
3. Books: 
1. Guyton's Physiology: many students don't like it because it goes into details. If you are like me and would like to understand things to minute levels, then you will like this book for neuroscience.
2. Costanza: I personally haven't read it, but I have heard many compliment this book for not only the neuroscience unit.

Pharmacology

1. Study each week as you pass it. Do not leave lectures to accumulate till the end of the semester. Neurogenic drugs are many.
2. If you don't know some neuroanatomy and physiology, you may not understand the mechanisms involved in neurological drugs. Therefore, if you miss out on lectures, it is most important to read neurophysiology and anatomy before proceeding to the pharmacology.

Microbiology
The written exam (Paper 2) was filled with microbiology. I managed to breeze through it because I had studied the microbiology lectures thoroughly (up to the minute boring details). Others were not so fortunate because they thought microbiology was a joke - wasn't so funny in the finals though. 

Refer to the microbiology post for the books I used: 
http://taleoftwoidentities.blogspot.ae/2014/06/best-medical-microbiology-books-for-med.html

Neuroscience is all about understanding. If you memorize, you are doomed to find it difficult to answer the exam. It is also the most enjoyable of units. So enjoy it. Do not wait for day by day to pass so you can "get over with it" and enjoy the holidays. Enjoy each day as it comes. 
Life is passing too as your medical years pass. Young years of life. Keep in mind that you are studying to try to cure others and thus bring back hope and happiness into their lives so don't forget to bring the optimism and pleasure to your life as well.

Next post will be about how to spend summer as a medical student.

Year 3: Continuing Community Based Research (CBR)

You have 2 options:
1. Finish the poster and the abstract during summer so you can add extra time you would have used preparing them during the semester to your entertainment time or studying hours.

2. Use your summer for enjoyment because you deserve it after The Great Battle of Year 2. Then start the abstract and poster when school starts. This leaves you with less time for leisure or studying - depending on which you shall sacrifice - during the semester.

Note: many people cannot do Option 2 because most of the group members are off traveling during summer or in different cities. What many groups believe is that group work means "All members being present in the same vicinity to complete a work". Wrong. And inefficient. Divide the work. Each person takes a part. For example, Person A takes the methods. Person B takes the results. And so on. Then assign one editor, preferably the group leader. This person will collect all parts, assemble them and edit them. The finished document is to be sent to the entire group for agreement. For this to work, group members must be in harmony and the editor must be competent at work. If you do not think any member of your group can pull off editing, do not take to this.

My advice: OPTION 1. Take a week off your summer vacation (preferably right after exams are done) to finish the assignment. This leaves you free time in winter to enjoy the weather (trust me, being imprisoned at home during winter in Dubai to produce a well kempt poster is not the way to go).

How to go about the assignment:
Option A: Started with the poster, then concluded with the abstract.

Option B: Fished out our important results and put them in a document as a graph with an explanatory sentence for each point or just stand-alone sentences with no graphs. 

Then we started the abstract by taking out the most important of the important results. 

Lastly we did the poster and included all the important results we had put in the document.

Abstract: Your introduction and aims should be ready from your research proposal.

Methods are unique to each group and how they dealt with their data. Include the research design, instrument used, how data was analyzed and your sample size.

At this point you have reached the results. This is where it will be easier if you had a document to review your important results and pick THE most important (or if you start with your poster you can refer to the results from there to pick what's imperative).
Summarize the bullet points. Include only percentages (unless it is vital that you include a frequency).

Your conclusion should be 1 or 2 concise sentences giving a clear idea of your research and its results.

Poster: Start by preparing a document of all that will be included. Leave the design till last.
Here you elaborate integral findings on your abstract.
Include your study limitations after your discussion.
Lastly, your design. Don't go wild on it. They don't want something that looks like an advertisement. 
Something that looks nice + not distracting to the reader = the perfect poster.

Always have the reader/audience in mind while working. What would they want to know? What are the questions in their mind while reading the introduction and aims that are imperative I answer? Has the conclusion answered the reader's peaked interest and questions? Does it summarize the research with integrity, not missing out enormously important conclusions?

And remember: To Each His Own. (I think I'll adopt that as a moto for my blog just to emphasize the importance of each person's unique experience. I feel the need to re-emphasize this: What I go through may not be the same for you. I am only providing MY experience and advice. I obviously don't need to tell you to feel free to take your own path through experiences.)

At the end of the day, this is all for your own sake. Don't worry about the marks. (I don't think the poster and abstract are graded to be honest with you. CBR marks depend on the CBR exam papers.) You want your work to be neat and perfect for presenting in case you would like to share it with the world in a conference.

Next post will be about the first semester of Year 3.

And may the odds be ever in your poster's favor!

Trochlear Nerve – Cranial Nerve IV/4 (Easiest Cranial Nerve)

Introduction

• Its only job is to supply one eye muscle. Therefore it has only motor fibers.
• Before it synapses in the midbrain, the neurons are UMN*. After it synapses in its nucleus in the midbrain, the fibers carried to the muscles are LMN**.

* UMN = Upper Motor Neuron

**LMN = Lower Motor Neuron

Functions in General:

• GSE (general somatic efferent AKA general somatic motor): innervates superior oblique muscle

Nucleus of Trochlear Nerve in Brainstem

• Lies at level of inferior colliculus of the midbrain.
• In anterior part of gray matter.
• Near the cerebral aqueduct.
• Nerve fiber leaving the nucleus pass posteriorly to reach posterior surface of midbrain.
• The nucleus receives corticonuclear fibers from both cerebral hemispheres.
• It receives the tectobulbar tract from the superior colliculus (to connect the trochlear nucleus with the visual cortex)
• Receives fibers from medial longitudinal fasciculus by which it is connected to the nuclei of 3^rd (oculomotor), 6^th (abducent) and 8^th (vestibulocochlear) cranial nerves

Figure 1: Cross section of midbrain at level of inferior colliculus showing the nucleus of trochlear nerve. Also showing is the decussation of both trochlear nerves and their exit from the nuclei and brainstem

Figure 2: Posterior aspect of brainstem showing the trochlear nucleus at the level of the inferior colliculus

Figure 3: Anterior aspect of brainstem showing the
appearance of the trochlear nerve anteriorly

Emerges from brainstem

• Emerges from the posterior surface of the midbrain and immediately decussates with the nerve of the opposite side.

Figure 4: Posterolateral aspect of the brainstem showing the origin of the trochlear nerve.
Red line shows the level of the section of Figure 1

Figure 5: Interior aspect of the skull showing the position of 
the cavernous sinuses

Route

• After emerging from the midbrain it continues into the middle cranial fossa.
• It passes into the edge of the tentorium cerebelli and then enters into the lateral wall of the cavernous sinus below the oculomotor nerve.

Figure 6: Coronal section of the skull showing the cavernous sinuses 
on both sides of the pituitary

Exit from skull

Nerve	Exits	Enters
Trochlear nerve (CN IV)	Superior orbital fissure	Orbit

Figure 7: Interior aspect of the skull showing the brainstem from a postero-superolateral
view and the emergence of the trochlear nerve and its exit from the skull through
the superior orbital fissure

Figure 8: Nerves passing through the superior orbital
fissure

Figure 9: Superior orbital fissure

Branches
It only supplies the Superior Oblique muscle of the eye. No other branches.

Lesions

• LMNL of the trochlear nerve causes paralysis of the contralateral eye’s superior oblique muscle.
• Trochlear nerve palsy and resulting contralateral superior oblique paralysis has varying causes and presentations. 
• The most common presentation required in medical school exams is:
• Normally the superior oblique muscle causes intorsion of the eye. Its paralysis results in extorsion of the affected eyeball.
• This leads to vertical diplopia. The diplopia increases when looking down. Why? Recall that the superior oblique has a role in downward movements of the eyeball. Therefore not only will the affected eyeball be extorted but also can't look downward properly.
• Therefore, the patient will tilt his head to compensate for the diplopia.

Figure 10

References

Drake, R., Vogl, A., & Mitchell, A. (2010). Chapter 8: Head and neck - orbit. Gray's anatomy for students (2nd ed., pp. 878-902). Philadelphia: Elsevier.
Fix, J. (2008). Chapter 11: Cranial Nerves. High-Yield Neuroanatomy (4th ed., pp. 74-87). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Snell, R. (2010). The cranial nerve nuclei and their central connections and distribution. Clinical neuroanatomy (7th ed., pp. 331-370). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Snell, R. (2007). Chapter 18: The eye and the ear. Clinical anatomy by systems (pp. 657-685). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Picture references

1. Done by me
2. By Gray696.png: User:mcstrother derivative work: Mcstrother (Gray696.png) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons / retouched from original
3. Done by me
4. "Posterolateral view of brainstem" from Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy 5e / retouched from original
5. By Anatomist90 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons  / retouched from original
6. Drake: Gray's Anatomy for Students 2e
7. Unknown (if you know source please message me so I can mention it)
8. "Innervation of orbit and eyeball, anterior view" Drake: Gray's Anatomy for Students 2e
9. "Formation of the lacrimal sac" by Drake: Gray's Anatomy for Students 2e
10. "Figure 11-2" by High-Yield Neuroanatomy series

Olfactory Nerve – Cranial Nerve I/1

Introduction

• Function like indicated by name: olfaction i.e. smell.
• One of the 2 cranial nerves that do not have nuclei in the brainstem and do not enter it (the other is the Optic nerve-cranial nerve 2).

Functions in General:

• SVA (special visceral afferent): it carries the sense of smell (also called olfaction)

Route

• Nerves arise from the olfactory receptors in the olfactory mucous of the upper part of the nasal cavity (above superior concha).

Figure 1: Origin of the olfactory nerve - sagittal view

• Nerve fibers pass through openings of the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone to enter the skull.
• The nerve fibers now synapse with secondary neurons in the olfactory bulb.
•  The secondary nerve fibers then continue in olfactory tract, which runs at the base of the frontal lobe of the cerebrum.

Figure 2: Real brain specimen showing the base of the brain with the olfactory nerves

• The olfactory tract splits into two tracts called the medial and lateral olfactory striae.
• Lateral stria: axons to olfactory area of cerebral cortex. Olfactory areas of cerebral cortex collectively called rhinencephalon.
• Medial stria: carries fibers to the olfactory bulb of the opposite side.

Figure 3: Base of the brain showing the path of the olfactory nerves

The primary olfactory cortex sends nerve fibers to other brain centres to establish emotional connections to olfactory sensations.

Entry into skull

Figure 4: Closeup of the inside of the cranial cavity showing the entry of the olfactory nerve into the skull through the cribriform plate 

Nerve	Entry	Enters
Olfactory (CN I)	Openings in cribriform plate of ethmoid bone	Anterior cranial cavity

Testing for Nerve Lesion

• Close one nostril and let the patient try to identify a familiar smell (e.g. vanilla) with the other nostril. Repeat for both nostrils.
• If patient cannot identify smell then he has anosmia.
• Cause: could be an ethmoid bone fracture. 

References

Drake, R., Vogl, A., & Mitchell, A. (2010). Chapter 8: Head and neck – Cranial Nerves. Gray's anatomy for students (2nd ed., pp. 848-957). Philadelphia: Elsevier: 

Snell, R. (2007). Chapter 15: The Cranial Nerves and Trigeminal Nerve Blocks. Clinical anatomy by systems (pp. 555-575). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Snell, R. (2010). The cranial nerve nuclei and their central connections and distribution. Clinical neuroanatomy (7th ed., pp. 331-370). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Picture references

1. Derived from: By Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator. (labeled by was_a_bee) [CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
2. Derived from: By Neuropathologyblog (Took Picture) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
3. Gray's Anatomy via Wikimedia Commons
4. Unknown (if you know source please message me so I can mention it)

Intro to Med School (5 Things You Need to Know At The Start) - Part 1

So you've made it to foundation year. Let me put it this way: you will be utterly lost at first. And not just directionally, the hey-I-thought-this-was-M27-not-the-cafeteria kind. I mean mentally lost. Unless you have a close upperclassman as a friend, relative or sibling, or a faculty parent who will guide you step by step, then you my friend will be slower than a ticking clock in a boring lecture to figuring things out.

I decided I didn't want loners (like yours truly) or any other student suffering the way I had. Hence, the blog and these specific posts. 


(Yes I realize I could have joined the student advisory committee and helped through the easier way instead of creating an entire blog and showering my oh-so scarce time on it. But with writing, everything is documented so students can revisit things time and time again when they feel lost and future generations also have the benefit; as opposed to a conversation or oral presentation that is said once and dissipates into thin air sooner. Also, I have full-on Sheldon-Cooper-style control over my blog.)

Before I proceed, if you have the following symptoms at any point while reading complicated words that seem foreign to you then you may be panicking pointlessly: racing heart - sweating - anxiety - restlessness.

It may seem daunting, but everything you will go through will be tremendously more exciting than it sounds. I promise. Save for tests. Tests are never fun.

Here're the basics that you need to know and might take you time to figure out on your own:

1. It's not 7 years!

When you first register in medicine, they tell you that it is 7 years. But it's not. Let me break it down to you as it really is:

• Foundation Year: The first year is called "Foundation Year". Since the University of Sharjah's Medical College follows an Australian system, you could say that Foundation year is equivalent to Grade 13 in Australia. It is nearly a continuation of high school therefore making it a semi-medicine year. The subjects are not yet basic medical sciences. 

• Here you will have a course called Introduction to Medical Education which introduces you to how you will study medicine in the following years to come. It introduces you to the PBL system, concept-maps, PBL-based presentations and report-writing in APA style.      
• Pre-clerkship phase: The second year is called "Year 1". Third year is called "Year 2". Fourth year is called "Year 3" (this is the year when most of your classmates from high school are posting Facebook pictures of their graduation projects and gowns and you're still stuck...well in year 3). These years are your basic medical sciences years.
• Clerkship phase: Fifth year is called Year 4. And last but not least sixth year is called Year 5. Year 5 is the year you graduate. In these final 2 years, you will spend your entire week (save for one day) in the hospital. That one day will be spent at the university for lectures.

Now most of you are thinking "But we were told medicine is 7 years and this only adds up to 6". While the rest of you are not heeding any attention to what they are reading. 

•      Internship: The 7th year, my lone-wolfs, is the internship year. In actuality, this year happens after you graduate. Hence, you can do it anywhere in any country your heart desires (given the place you apply to reciprocates this desire). In a lot of places, internship is counted as part of the residency program.

(But I'll leave the internship post for another time; the time when yours truly will go through it, mess up a few things, hit a few road bumps, find the signs to the road bumps after hitting the bump hard and hence transferring the newfound discoveries and knowledge to you chicklings.)

C'est moi apres the hurdles of internship

2. GPA, CGPA.....What's the difference?!

- GPA = the GPA of one semester only
- CGPA = cumulative GPA = the average of all semesters' GPA's put together, so the GPA of each semester you take will be factored in to the CGPA

3. Discounts are weird...

The discounts in the first year are easy: you got high marks in high school, so you'll get a discounted fee for foundation year.
The first year after foundation year: the CGPA you get in foundation year will get you a discount on your Year 1 fee.

BUT, but...but, in Year 1, medical students no longer deal with GPAs and CGPAs like other colleges. For the rest of your Sharjah University medical journey, you will deal with percentages. You must attain an average above 85% by the end of an academic year to qualify for a discount. Discounts vary. Above 85% gets you a 25% discount off your subsequent year fee. Achieve above 90% and you will receive a 35% discount.


4. A trip around medical campus in 80 seconds (guesstimation...)

Smurfs. That's what a lot of older students call foundation-ers. And do you know what happens to "Smurfs"? What your mom warned you of. Never talk to strangers she said. But you grew up and thought her advice didn't matter anymore. Wrong. Pranks. That's what happens to naive smurfs. Not the full-fledge must-post-this-on-youtube pranks, but direction pranks. You ask for M25 and they point you to the cafeteria. I thought students just didn't know the directions themselves when they sent me to wrong places in foundation year. Oh how naive younghood was.

Keeping in mind my map drawing skills are on the lower percentiles of the scale of map-drawing, here is your guide to campus (our medical campus, not the entire university campus. I do not feel like wasting my summer drawing a map to an entire city.). 

I suggest you print this and take it with you on your first few days. 

5. Bus stops

Bus stop labelled "Bus stop (1) benches" is the bus stop for public University City buses. These only transport to certain areas in Sharjah. So if you live in Dubai you may need to use the private buses for money.

Bus stops labelled "Medical bus stop bench" and "Pharmacy bus stop bench" are bus stops that transport you between our campus and the Women's and Men's Colleges and Fine Arts College. They are also the bus stops for buses headed to/from the medical dorms. To know which bus is which ask the driver or read the sign on the bus.

Best Medical Microbiology Books (for Med School & USMLE)

If you ever feel lost as to which book you should read for understanding a particular subject, chances are your fellow students will be of better help than teachers. Why? Simply because we have already tried several sources and will be able to give you a student-oriented view on which books works best (teachers specialize in their particular fields and they usually recommend books that are crowded with information that is redundant for students but necessary for specialists).

Note: Keep in mind what works for others may not work for you. Everyone has their own studying style. The books I recommend on my blog are what I and several of my colleagues found tremendously useful.

Forget Patrick Murray, Cedric Mims or whatever overly detailed book your microbiology teacher has recommended (unless you found it awesome in which case please write your recommendation in the comment section below so as other students may also benefit). After going through quite a few excessively elaborate books which you wouldn't need unless you were planning to be a microbiologist, here are the best ones we found:

1. Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple:

This book is a goldmine for us! Humor, mnemonics and student-friendly explanations, it made memorizing those horrifying critter names so much easier. (It goes into too much information for USMLE purposes but the mnemonics and tables were great for quick memorizing.)

2. The Big Picture: Medical Micobiology

It has great pictures and is perfect for clinical aspects of infections. It does not talk much about the organisms. BUT I have happened to very luckily stumble upon its appendix. If you were ever lost in microbiology like I was then you've just hit the jackpot! (And by lost I mean stumbling half-blind half-drunk into a dark crowded kingdom where critters walk headstrong and proud ready to eat out your cerebral cortex cell by cell if they see the tweensiest hint of surrender. I hope that painted a picture as to how lost I was in microbiology. Pharmacology has now taken its place. I will not only make a post but host a nation-wide party if I manage to find a pharmacology summary as awesome as this one.)

It's a great summary that you will regret not reading. When you are in the middle of your exams sweating, heart-racing, going through mind-block, you will thank whoever wrote that book (Neal Chamberlain) for that summary which gives you just the right hints and points to remember the tricky infesters. 

3. USMLE Step 1 Lecture Notes: Immunology and Microbiology by Kaplan

This is also a great book to sum things up once you come to revise. I used this book in my comprehensive end-of-pre-clinical phase exam for revising. What I did was this: I read the other 2 books above and added important notes that were missing in Kaplan where due. By the time I came to revising, it was easy peasy (not the memorizing but the studying process). Whilst everyone found difficulty in the microbiology questions (which had an entire exam booklet on its own), I breezed through them (and saved time on the laborious pharmacology questions. Yes laborious. I would rather have built a castle than answered those questions.)

On its own, this book is great for the USMLE but not so much for university exams.

The Real Definition of Hypersensitivity

I share this in the spirit of making your life easier for the rest of your medical/scientific education/career, because sometimes teachers complicate life by giving out wrong definitions here and there.

Wrong Defintion:

Our teachers' definitions of hypersensitivity lie along the lines of:

"Hypersensitivity is the aberrant reaction of the immune system to an innocuous antigen." 

This is the definition of allergies. Surprisingly (not), this is not the definition of hypersensitivities. Allergies and hypersensitivities are NOT synonymous. Allergies are only one type of hypersensitivity. 

Building on this, the entire 3 years of my medical education I have been struggling with hypersensitivities because they do not match up with this definition. 

Until yesterday. I searched up the definition in a book I recently acquired (and wished to God I'd found it 2 years ago).

Definition of hypersensitivity:

"Hypersensitivity is a process of reactions of antigen with antibodies or sensitized lymphocytes that are harmful to the host. Hypersensitivity refers to processes in which the immune response itself is primarily responsible for the induction and/or exacerbation of disease." (Dunn and Hawley, 2002)

In the newer edition of Kaplan's Immunology and Microbiology Notes:
"Hypersensitivity diseases are conditions in which tissue damage is caused by immune responses. They may result from uncontrolled or excessive responses against foreign antigens or from a failure of self-tolerance, in which case they are called autoimmune diseases." (Hawley and Ruebush, 2009)

Reference:

Dunn, D., Hawley, L. (2002). Failures of the ImmuneSystem: Hypersensitivity. USMLE Step 1: Immunology and Microbiology Notes. (pp. 401-418). Kaplan: Medical

Hawley, L., Ruebush, M. (2009). Diseases Caused by Immune Responses: Hypersensitivity and Autoimmunity. USMLE Step 1: Immunology and Microbiology Notes. (pp. 149-168). Kaplan: Medical