HOW TO STUDY MEDICINE

Dr.T.V.Rao MD
With many years in the Medical Profession and seeing several students I was tempted to write a brief article on how to study medicine. As teachers we were taught how to teach to our students in several medical educational programmes, rarely we teach our students how to study medicine. Many of us just teach with the concept of our specialization majority think their specialization is the entire world. Let us think that we are making a raw student into a Doctor to take care of other humans. I was a keen observer of the events of my life for several years. My writing are not scientific but with interaction with several students and following their careers. The real problem in medicine is same as when I was a student 4 decades back. The biggest problem in medical education today is an old one: There is too much to know, and not enough time to learn it. The problem is more acute today than it has been in the past, because of the great increase in medical information and even the addition of new courses in medical colleges. The real question remains for the student how can one digest and remember so much information. I have just a question how much we have read Grays Anatomy, Robins pathology or Oxford Medicine and Harrisons text book of Medicine. Despite the importance of reference texts; it can be difficult to go through them in the short times allotted for medical-college courses. Also, the information can be so overwhelming that it becomes difficult to see the forest for the trees, and acquire an overall understanding. While it is important to have the reference text, the initial phase of acquiring understanding is best achieved through the small books which are plenty, written by our Indian authors which helps us to see the big picture to acquire

knowledge and competence. My great fascination to learn Community medicine which I think to be called Total Medicine, though, Parks community medicine made my thinking easier and made me realise Medicine is to understand the community that alone responsible for beginning of many diseases in both developed and developing countries, helps you to see the reality of many diseases we come across in real practice. Once youve managed that, you can delve into the reference texts or elsewhere in greater detail as time permits, and youll have greater success than just trying to memorize information. The stiff competition makes our students to start preparing for Post graduate entrance from 2nd MBBS and they rarely concentrate on assigned work during Horsemanship. Student time to study for entrance tests the post graduate entrance may be limited, especially since studying often needs to be done while other medical college courses are underway. However passing the University examinations is important, so is having the understanding necessary to be a good clinician. While one could review a book that contains isolated facts that may appear on the boards, you wont acquire an understanding this way. Ideally, you should have this before you review isolated facts for the internal assessments and university examination with time as constraint. Such understanding can be achieved through the small books that focuses on clinical relevance and overall understanding, ideally read at the time the course is taken, but later if needed. The focus of the entrance for PG courses is on basic sciences, clinically relevant topics, so that small books will likely contain the most relevant facts for passing it. Once youre on the wards, the question is how to make the most efficient use of your time in continuing your medical education. Not only is your time limited, but youll often find yourself fatigued from long periods on clinical duties. Trying to study a book like Harrisons Medicine from cover to cover is likely to be futile and may be

impossible. You need a more efficient method of learning. Reading journals can help you keep up on current information, but your primary focus in the medical-college years should be on acquiring the general broad information that is common basic knowledge. This in itself is a very large task, it has often been said, and I agree, that the best way to learn and retain medicine is through patient interaction. But to supplement this learning experience, it is important to do a certain amount of critical reading. Learning from your seniors or residents can be very useful, but the literature is more likely to be accurate. The most efficient way to do this reading relevant material, in my view, is to ask specific questions about the patient conditions youve seen during the day, and then seek out specific information in your reading and then only refer to the online resources. In this contest I wish to emphasize yet in my view there is no book like surgical methods by Dr.DAS. You should have specific questions to research, and then look for specific answers. In that way, over time, you will have learned the most important information related to the common diseases you are likely to encounter. I am late to realise my teachers advised me Medicine is in a patient and may not be accurate in Textbooks, now I realise many of my co students who concentrated on patients became very successful Physicians and Surgeons, at the same time many who attained many Medals were not able succeed in real-time practice due lack of understanding the realities of the Society. Today the Internet and online resources provides a much quicker and more efficient way of searching for information. By using a general or medical-specific search engine, it is now possible to find important current and practical information about virtually any medical condition. Many of us search through Google without fully understanding the full potentials, our search should be scientific in feeding words, and today Medicine is a specialization to the narrow possible extent. Perfect the art of

searching and you lose no time with internet. My few words may not solve all problems I still think learning is an art to be perfected. However learning medicine becomes easier if we practice learn from the patients. I wish to emphasize acquire a general understanding through the small, clinically relevant books that provides the overall picture, so you can see the forest rather than the trees. Humour and mnemonics can help, but understanding is key. Seek out particular points of information through the Internet. Keep a reference text at hand underline when you have to refer in future. Read journals as time allows, today we see few teachers utilize the Library resource, with loss of major investments in the Libraries. Journals teach diverse ways Medicine is understood, and motivate us as future researchers. Keep in mind reading Medicine alone can never make you perfect, read many times with understanding and try to correlate with clinical practice, or you are lost in the competitive world. Email doctortvrao@gmail.com