Week 3: Medical Prep Review
Hello Everyone,
Welcome to Week 3 of the Medical Prep Review - I’m half surprised that I am managing to commit to this, but if this helps anyone, then I am happy! You may have noticed i’ve mixed up the photo shoot location - but like I caveated on Week 1, I am no photographer (radiology was never going to be my speciality anyway!).
Podcast of the Week: Why is Inflammation a Dangerous Necessity - The Joy Of Why.
When I found this podcast, I was over the moon. Steven Strogatz interviews expert guests about the key science questions of our time. All of the episodes are informative and inspiring, however, as this is a medical themed blog, I’ll keep the recommendations medical! The content of this episode ties nicely with the Year 12 biology immunology, discussing not only the function of the immune system but also the surprising role of inflammation. This episode makes revolutionary links between Inflammation and many diseases (Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases etc.), inflammation and cell learning (after a bout of inflammation, certain genes can be activated in cells causing cells “to learn”), and inflammation and cancer (inflammation can increase the likelihood of mutation and tumour development). With these new speculative links, this gives scientists another risk factor for cancer (the biggest killer globally) and a potential target for treatment.
Book of the Week: Every Patient Tells a Story by Dr. Lisa Sanders
This book is written about General Practice in the US, similar to the book which I recommended last week. However, this book focuses more on forming a differential diagnosis (list of possible diagnoses) and deciding the actual diagnosis, rather than personal accounts. In this book, Dr Sanders likens a GP to a detective, stringing together the patient’s symptoms in order to determine their ailment. She also discusses in great depth diagnostic errors, listing the three types of diagnostic errors as:
No fault errors: (5%) These are errors which are not the fault of the hospital, e.g. patients providing incorrect information or the presentation of the illness being abnormal.
System related errors: (75%) These are errors caused by equipment failure or systematic failures, including systems being down, samples left for too long, or misinterpretation of scans/graphs.
Cognitive errors: (20%) Errors made completely by the doctor e.g. not gathering an adequate history, not linking the symptoms with the disease, and cognitive biases.
Dr. Sanders provides many reasons for these diagnostic errors, including shorter GP consultations, the death of the physical exam, and a very interesting phenomena called “inattention blindness”:
”We miss more by not seeing than not knowing” - William Osler.
Whereas studies now show that the “not knowing” can cause the not seeing (i.e. if a doctor doesn’t know a type of fracture, they are unlikely to acknowledge it on an x-ray.). Our brains actually “see” the information (e.g. the fracture on the X-ray), however, processing in the prefrontal cortex decides its not worthy of our attention.
Thats all for this week. If you have any comments, queries or questions please do not hesitate to get in touch: reubencordina@gmail.com or comment down below.
Enjoy your week!
