Medical Trivia to Impress Your Internal Medicine Residency Cohorts

By: Theanna Lynn

When you’re in an internal medical residency program, you’re keeping a lot of balls in the air. Learning new skills, meeting new people, and practicing medicine to prepare for your future professional goals. It’s important to remember to have fun and take a break every once in a while. Here's some medical trivia on something everyone in the medical field is familiar with: the white coat.

The history of the white coat began in the nineteenth century as physicians tried to differentiate themselves from mystics and quacks. This was easy to do with something long associated with scientists: the lab coat. Since then it has become a commonplace garb for doctors of every specialty.

Although it has only been around since 2006, the white coat ceremony has become a very popular rite marking a medical student’s transition from studying preclinical to clinical health sciences. The timing of the white coat ceremony can differ depending on the school, but it often signifies a level of knowledge and ability to start working with patients.

A longer tradition than the white coat ceremony, the length of the coat has long been symbolic. While this rule is not absolute, and does not apply to all health professionals, the tradition is that the shorter the coat, the less training an individual has received. For instance, medical students wear the shortest coats. They are not yet physicians and cannot practice medicine without supervision. Interns, who have more experience than medical students, have slightly longer coats.

Residency follows the intern year, and residents typically wear longer coats than interns. Once the internship has been completed, individuals pass an exam to be able to practice independently. Some physicians will then opt to pursue additional training through a residency program. The time commitment of a residency depends on the specialty selected. The Georgetown internal medicine residency program, for example, would typically last for three years. Attendings have more training than residents and wear a full-length coat.

While the white coat length can be indicative of training, it does not hold true for all physicians. The length ultimately comes down to a physician’s preference, if they choose to wear one at all. Regardless of the choice, the white coat has a long history in medicine and continues to change in tradition and use.

What Is a Cardiology Fellowship?

Written By: Rachael Kaine

Though if you’ve made it to the point where you’re researching places to go for this opportunity and you’re knowledgeable on the subject, many people still don’t realize how many different options are available for cardiology fellowship programs. Not only are there differently structured programs at many different places across the world, but there are multiple different specialty tracks that can be taken, each providing different opportunities, areas of focus and facilities to work in.

Cardiology Fellowship Basics

Becoming a cardiologist requires a great deal of schooling and hands on experience. A fellowship is a combination of research work and clinical experience, which typically takes three years but can rise up to as many as 6, depending on your chosen specialty focus. The fellowships are completed in hospitals and medical centers, and require that students have completed an internal medicine residency before even being considered for a cardiovascular fellowship Washington DC. This ensures that there is adequate experience before even stepping foot into this type of program, and that students and participants are ready. As progress is made, the training and material becomes more advanced and challenging, mirroring real life experiences and situations that you’ll encounter on your own after graduation.

What to Expect from a Cardiology Fellowship

A Georgetown cardiology fellowship is hardly different than others - fiercely competitive, highly structured and designed to be completed in state of the art facilities, this program sets you up for success. In order to get the most out of a fellowship program like this, you’ll need to go into it ready for success, and willing to work hard. The way that a cardiology fellowship like this is designed is to give you every chance to succeed from one on one interactions and instruction by staff and educators to technologically advanced labs and equipment. Every aspect of things has been carefully planned, is highly active and well established; the only thing missing is you and your abilities.

From general cardiology practice to adult congenital heart disease training, you’ll have many different choices and options throughout your time in the fellowship, each depending on where you’d like to go with your medical career. There have been many exceptional cardiologists to come from this program, leaving their mark on the medical field as well as all of the patients that they have treated throughout the years - why not add your name to the roster by completing a fellowship such as this?

The Amazing Heart and a Cardiology Fellowship

Written By: Julia Travers

As you may know, the heart is truly an amazing organ. As the leader and powerhouse of the entire cardiovascular system, its importance to the body’s health and overall well-being is definitely hard to overstate. Read on to learn more about the impressive capabilities of the heart and the highly skilled doctors that care for it: cardiologists.

The Heart, Cardiologists, and a Cardiology Fellowship

Did you know that on average, the adult heart beats around 100,000 times every single day? That means that every second of your life is accompanied by at least one heartbeat. The heart beats 60-100 times each minute. The blood that the heart pumps out has a variety of important functions, including transporting oxygen throughout the body and working as a vital part of the body’s immune system. The heart works hard to pump the body’s blood along about 60,000 miles of blood vessels. The amazing heart, which usually only weighs about 11 ounces, creates enough energy each day to drive a truck about 20 miles! The four valves of the heart open and close as they pump blood, and when they close, that makes the familiar thumping heart beat sound.

Men’s and Women’s hearts are different in some aspects. WebMD shares that “when it comes to matters of the heart, men and women definitely aren’t created equal. For instance, a man’s heart weighs about 10 ounces, while a woman’s heart weighs approximately 8 ounces.” Also, men and women often experience different signs of a heart attack. Heart attacks or cases of angina are very serious health issues which require the treatment of trained and specialized medical professionals like cardiologists.

To keep your heart healthy and well, be sure to eat heart-healthy foods and keep up your cardiovascular exercise routine. If you are a medical student who loves to learn about the heart, you may want to specialize in the branch of medicine called cardiology. In order to become a cardiologist, as a medical student you will have to enroll in and complete a challenging and rewarding cardiovascular fellowship, such as the Georgetown cardiology fellowship.

What Will a Family Medicine Residency Accomplish?

Written By: Rachael Kaine

Understanding a Family Medicine Residency

Unlike doctors and surgeons who specialize in specific diseases or conditions, a family medicine practitioner will be trained to recognize, diagnose and treat the different basic health situations that can impact the lives of all family members from children to the elderly. Choosing a residency in this field will not prepare you to be a brain surgeon, but it will enable you to deliver comprehensive, quality care when people need it most. This makes the field seem basic, but it is in fact quite complex - a family medicine residency program will prepare participants for different medical situations that every individual may face throughout their lives.

Though there is a standard educational plan, a Franklin family medicine residency allows for focus on specialty areas like women’s health, pediatrics and public health through the course selection of relevant electives. These differences allow people to explore the areas of family medicine that truly interest them, and give them a chance to branch out if they choose. During the time spent in the residency, participants will learn a variety of real life skills that will make them valuable assets to any facility after graduation.

What Happens After Completing a Family Medicine Residency?

After completion, many participants find it easy to obtain jobs in the field, especially if they have chosen a specialty focus with their electives. After a family medicine residency has been completed, hospital employees are able to diagnose, treat, provide preventative care, manage conditions, and even work with specialists to help patients truly do what is best for themselves. A family medicine practitioner is the one tasked with caring for people as they age and find new health issues to concern themselves with; they are seen through the years and on a routine basis. Essentially, this type of practitioner is the “face” of their respective facility, and the one that patients will come to associate their visits with.

Though it takes time and effort to complete a family medicine residency program, the time spent doing so will be worthwhile to many more people than the students themselves. People need medical care for things like general aches and pains, chronic conditions and for things like physicals, health screenings and immunizations; it is not just for emergencies or severe conditions, and a family medicine practitioner is just the right person to provide it, no matter what the case may be. Long after leaving the program, people will find that they continue to learn each day, increasing their knowledge and skills to better provide care for those who depend on and trust in them.