Thanks for the tips, LuoHua. Wow! You can check patients' vital from your PDA! I don't think we can do that here. Another difference between Canada and USA, we are not nearly as high tech here.
Internal medicine, that sounds very interesting. I used to think that's what I want to do, but I'm very much put off by all the overnight calls that's required. So, now, it's more like my choice #2 or #3.
落花飘零 发表评论于
Appleflower, thank you very much for the detailed answer.
The gap between US/Canada and Chinese medical education does exist, I clearly feel it even if i didn't attend the medical school here.
Just like you mentioned, evident based practice is a major focus of medical education here while in China we still lack a efficient system to build up reasonable data base.
I am currently in internal medicine residency, I love it because internal medicine is a broad spectrum practice and therefore very challenging. I feel like working as a detective to search for the clues and find out the hidden criminal. Lots of fun.
The program I am working now offers free PDA with epocrates installed. I don't think medical student needs this software yet because it's more for practicing physician.
Uptodate is an excellent reference website, hospital has full access to it and my pda can connect to hospital system. Also I use PDA to check my patient's vitals, labs and other stuff when I am in conference.
Thomson MicroMedex is a pharmacy PDA software that very useful for drug interaction check, epocrates is not as complete and efficient as this one. but again, i don't think as med students, you will really need it.
I also have the account of MD consult, which I don't appreciate it too much because it's inconvinience.
AppleFlower 发表评论于
Luo Hua,
I think PDAs become necessary for med students partly because there's a big push in Canada towards evidence based practice. In one of the teaching clinics at the university I'm in, the residents are required to read up about their patient's condition before reporting to the attending. UpToDate is the program that clinic has on their computer. The PDAs aren't required by the schools, but if all your classmates have one and you don't, you're definitely at a disadvantage. The culture of the medical profession here is very different from China, everyone here is extremely competitive. I was on an exchange program a year ago and spent a month in Fudan Medical School, everyone there is so much more relaxed than here.
The program everyone has on their PDAs in my school is UpToDate, in fact, we had a class order of that too. :) I also have the free version of Epocrates on mine. One of my preceptors has also recommended the 5 minutes consult and the Washington Manual. Any programs you recommend?
I'm currently a 医学生 in Canada. :) As for what specialty, that's the thing that's giving me the biggest headache right now. I sort of need to decide by next March, but I really can't decide. What about you? What residency program are you in?
Hope you're having a good Sunday.
落花飘零 发表评论于
thank you appleflower.;) I didn't know that. hehe.
why do you think PDA is mandatory for med student? just curious, what kind of software you usually use?
so you are in medical school now? cool! have you thought about what specialty to go yet?
AppleFlower 发表评论于
Luo Hua,
I think PDAs are almost mandatory for med students in North America. I don't even know any med students who still don't have a PDA in their 3rd and 4th year. My class actually made a class order when we were in 2nd year.