For Medical Students & Trainees

1: Cramming the medical facts (basic or clinical) will not help you in the long run. Try to understand the reasons and concepts. Memorising a whole table or whole book will not be useful unless we actually grasp the logic. Knowing 20 causes of dyspbea is useless exercise unless we know why they cause dysonea and when to think of which cause.

2: Don’t run after medals or positions without conceptual knowledge.
3: If we cant apply our knowledge to treat a patient, it’s not beneficial. So learn the clinically applicable facts. Remembering every fact like a parrot doesn’t mean we are knowledgeable.

4: When seeing a patient, first gather hard facts (from history and examination) and then try to think what types of disease can cause those S/S. That will be your list of D/D. After that you differentiate b/w those causes based on the available clues.

5:Investigations helps to confirm your clinical impression. Without having a working diagnosis in mind, doing tests and more tests is just like fishing. Don’t make a habit of seeing a scan or lab results before you see the patient. My mentor told me to read Medicine keeping in mind that no lab is available and I have to make diagnosis on clinical grounds. This doesn’t mean that tests are not imp but it does highlight that working brain is more imp than tests.

6: Please don’t read any substandard books for any subject. I can’t name these so many substandard books here for many reasons. Foreign (UK,USA etc) books are often good (that gives the message). The least you should read in medical school are: Ganong Physiology, Katzung Pharmacology, Robbin Pathology, Cecil Essential, Hutchison’s clinical methods for medicine, Hamilton Bailey for surgical methods, Daniel for eye, Ten teachers for O&G. (Lang and ELBS series books are very good).

7: Make a habit of asking questions to those who are knowledgeable so that you learn more. Never assume or don’t go for cramming. Everything happens for a reason and there is logic behind 99% medical facts.

8: Don’t be a number crunchers. Focus on pathophysiology, clinical signs n symptoms and diagnosis more (as these are more imp than epidemiology n molecular details of any disease). Grabs the clinical facts more than molecular details. Those who are good at memorising molecular details often forget clinical facts as human brain has limits.

9: Research is imp but as a student / trainee focus on established medical facts more. Basic knowledge about research is imp if taught or you get an opportunity to learn but not at the cost of the core facts. Those who impress you by new research study they read last night or pharma people told them, look knowledgeable but are less useful at your level than those who teach you skills or medical facts even if they seem not very impressive at this stage.

Unfortunately some things I have to say in b/w the lines as people get offended. But at the same time, it’s our responsibility to tell / guide our juniors.