Learning Medicine #SmartNotes

What if I told you there’s a system that makes it easy to remember the things that you need to remember for exams, but also creates links that make it easy to study and understand the network of knowledge that you really need to learn to heal? 

And what if you could start using this system beginning on the first day of medical school…or at the beginning of your PGY2 year… or wherever you are on this journey now? 

Here’s how:

Step 1. Create a folder in Google Drive*

Step 2. Take notes. About everything.  

Step 3. Put the notes in your digital folder, filed by date and time, identified by hashtags and keywords. 

Step 4. Synthesize, summarize, and link. 

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Step 1: Create a folder in Google Drive*

Don’t panic. Yes… just one folder. 

Mine is labeled “card file”. You can always rename it. Maybe start with “My digital brain”?

If you just can’t stand it, you can create sub folders based on an anatomic filing system (e.g. Appendix, Colon, Heart, etc) but trust me – no sub-sub folders! 

*I like Google Drive because it’s very flexible and you can access it from any computer and your phone. There are other ways to store digital data that can work as well, like Evernote, OneNote, etc. 

Step 2: Take notes. About everything.  

Keep a notebook in your pocket, use paper out of the printer, use a white board, or dictate directly into Google drive… but just take notes! 

This practice is a leap for most of us, but it not only leads to phenomenal learning, it fundamentally transforms how you interact with your day. There is power in a practice that makes you more present in your day. Every encounter, every lecture, every article you read becomes a potential adventure, a source for new insight and growth. 

There are only two rules

Rule 1: One concept per note. 

Rule 2: Write the note only one time  – don’t rewrite or retype notes. (If its’ a paper note, take a photo, or create a pdf to file in your google drive.)

What kind of notes will go into this system? 

Lectures. You know how to do this from other classes! Just because we call it “Grand Rounds” or “Path-Rad conference” doesn’t mean it’s not a class. Take notes! 

Notes from Reading. Textbook chapters, articles, handouts… 

SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). This one is key if you are in a procedural specialty. Keep a single “note” for each procedure and update it with new information as you scrub with new attendings. Put in links to good videos, photos from textbooks and anatomy books. Anything that will help you review what you know and have learned before you do the procedure again. 

Milestones. The first time you….listened to a murmur, talked to a patient about their prognosis, did a Whipple.

Questions, thoughts… “Why isn’t there a way to diagnose malrotation that needs surgery (vs.nonrotation) with diagnostic imaging?” 

What you learned from patients. Make it your goal to learn something from every patient you take care of. Write it down. Make sure it’s HIPAA compliant – no patient identifiers that someone else could decipher. 

Sounds. Yes, you can digitally store recordings! 

Summary Notes. One page summaries of complex ideas

Unanswered questions. Ideas for possible publications, future investigations, etc.

Step 3. Put the notes in your digital folder, filed by date and time, identified by hashtags and keywords. 

File the notes by date and time + description e.g. 2022-07-18 1645 Creating a filing system for studying medicine.

Why?

Imagine… It’s the last year of your residency, it’s 2am, and you are admitting a patient with Hemophilia A who needs emergency surgery. 

You open your phone, go to your folder and search for #Hemophilia… and you find these notes: 

First year lecture on coagulation

Second year lecture on disorders of coagulation

Second year lecture on the pharmacology of factors given for the different types of hemophilia

Your summary notes on coagulation, coagulation disorders, and the meds used to treat them

Notes from a review article on caring for patients with hemophilia

Notes about that really cute 6 year old on your pediatric rotation who had hemarthrosis

Notes from Grand Rounds on your medicine rotation about disorders of coagulation

A lecture during your surgery rotation on pre-op preparation of patients with clotting disorders. 

Notes from Sabiston’s Textbook of surgery on patients with Hemophilia

What you learned taking care of the diabetic hemophiliac who needed an amputation when you were an intern

Last years’ conference with the visiting professor who was an expert on Hemophilia B 

Step 4. Synthesize, summarize, and link. 

There are so many details in medicine that we often lose track of the big picture. That takes thinking, creating one page summaries of complex topics, and noticing connections.

Maybe it would be easier to show you rather than tell you. Let’s say you are in a lecture about how to read a chest x-ray. In your notebook (or on your computer) you are taking notes… lots of notes… how to tell what’s a pneumonia vs atelectasis, what different lung tumors look like, how to tell if the mediastinum is too wide. As a result, 2 years from now when you see a patient with a lung mass, you will be able to search your drive for “lung cancer” and these specific notes will come up. 

But as you sit and think about this lecture, you’ll realize that in addition to the details, there were more general concepts that were important, too.  For example, how important it is to systematically review every diagnostic image so you don’t miss the lytic lesion in the bone that was behind the big mass in the chest. (Link to my favorite study describing how this happens)

So you create a digital note that describes, in your words, how important it is to have a system to look at images. Which makes you remember that this is very similar to how we always follow a system to do a history and physical. So you search in your drive for the card you made about how to do an H&P and you link them, using the “insert link” command.  And, as you look at your H&P card, you notice that you had already linked it to cards you made about Basic Life Support (BLS) and ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support), two certificates you were required to obtain, both based on a system to not miss important steps in resuscitating patients. And suddenly you are interested in why systems like this make it so much easier, so you do a quick search and find a fascinating article on memory and learning (as opposed to memorizing). 

This post represents a modification of the amazing Smart Notes system described by Sönke Ahrens in his book How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking. I highly recommend it, especially if you are considering an academic career!

Other things I’ve written about studying in medical school and residency: 

Studying for the In-Training Exam 2022-01-30

Study Tips for First Year Medical Students 2018-08-11

How to Succeed in Clinical Rotations (and residency, too) 2018-01-09 

Top Ten Tips on Starting Medical School 2022-06-18

How to Ace the NBME Shelf Exams, In-Training Exams and Your Boards 2017-04-14

#MedGradWishList

Revised March 6, 2022

Every year about this time, I try to put together a list for people trying to find the right gift for someone they know who is graduating from medical school.

If you haven’t heard of @medgradwishlist on Twitter, it’s an amazing grassroots effort to create Amazon wish lists for URM medical students with financial needs to help them get ready for their internship. This is a brilliant “pay it forward” initiative. I’ve been a Program Director and a Dean of Student Affairs and I know how many new grads finish medical school with enormous debt and empty bank accounts. The ~17,000 students graduating from medical school this year are about to start on the exciting – but stressful – path of becoming a physician. Not being able to afford the things that make that journey possible just isn’t acceptable. You can buy things on their list anonymously (or not). When you find the right thing for the right person, don’t forget to include some memories of your internship, advice, and words of encouragement!

If you are a student (or even a struggling resident) in need, please join this effort to get what you need. We are sure you will pay it forward to extend this support future classes! If you are a student who can afford to support others, please do. And regardless of whether you participate in #medgradwishlist or not, the following ideas will help with graduation presents.

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I spent quite a bit of time looking at all the #medgradwishlists on Amazon, and I’m happy to share what I learned. In addition to their great ideas, I have some suggestions to add…

@drmlb‘s Top Ten #medgradwishlist suggestions

Instant Pot. This was on a lot of the Amazon lists, and I agree!!! II had to suggest one item to make life as a resident easier, it would be this. Several people asked for air fryers on their Amazon lists. I love my air fryer and use it all the time so please put it on your list if you think it will help. Just as an FYI, you already (sort of) own an air fryer since your oven set on convection does close to the same thing!

Someone to help clean and do laundry. I know you can’t put this on an Amazon wish list, but if you have a family member who either can do this for you, or pay someone to do this for you, it’s one of the best gifts you will ever receive.

Digital gifts to make communicating and studying easier. The single most important tool for an intern is their phone. If they don’t have a new phone that can reliably work with WIFi and cellular, this should be at the top of the list. A computer that works, has the ability to do streaming well, and is reliable is also key since it’s how they will study, write, and watch educational videos. They’ll want the flexibility of studying in a coffee shop (once we get COVID19 under control) or on their couch so make sure it’s a laptop and not a desktop computer.

There were some great ideas on the Amazon lists for items that aren’t quite as expensive as computers that you might consider as well: ring light for Zoom meetings, LED study light, lap top desk for your lap, iPad Pro, Apple pencil.I should add that buying a large quantity of pens to be “borrowed” by attendings would be a big win, too.

The kitchen (other than the Instant Pot). It’s so important to eat well when you work as hard as interns work (and to stay well caffeinated). There were some great ideas from my new colleagues on their Amazon lists including single serve coffee makers, pot and pan sets, nonstick bakeware set (if they are a baker!), wine opener :-), food storage bags and containers. A box or two of Kind Bars (my favorite) or other meal replacement bars is a great gift, too. And for the times cooking is just one task too many – Door Dash, Uber Eats, and/or Grub Hub gift cards are a great gift. One other must have… a Yeti mug to keep coffee hot during rounds!

Clocks and watches. We all have phones that can serve as alarm clocks, but an alarm clock that gently lights up the room is a much better way to wake up than sudden noise. I wouldn’t say an Apple watch is essential (and if you do a lot of procedures it might be easy to lose) but it is worn by a good percentage of docs.

USMLE3 study book. If you are a family member who is thinking about getting this as a present, you might also want to include a check for $895 as a “bookmark” to cover the cost of registering for this exam.

Make your home a stress-free zone. If you are setting up a new home, this list can be really extensive. You’ll need to go home to a clean, happy space, so whatever you can do to make that happen is important. There were a lot of good ideas in the Amazon wish lists including self-cleaning cat boxes, pet hair removal brushes, furniture, shower curtains, towels, and a video doorbell. I’d add a Roomba vacuum cleaner to this list, too! BTW, a good TV is important, too. We all need to binge watch the Great British Baking Show as therapy sometimes.

Sleep. In this category I would include good quality pillows, a new mattress, light blocking curtains, white noise machines, and electric or weighted blankets.

Music. Most people fill their space at home with sound as well as light, so think about good WiFi speakers like Sonos and/or gift certificates for ad-free music services like Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora.

Health. Last but not least! The most important thing on this list in my opinion is a great water bottle since, particularly with masks on all day, none of us drink enough water. A new Sonicare toothbrush or WaterPik for dental health will be appreciated. Foot care is another important part of being a healthy resident, so consider gifting compression socks, new shoes for the hospital, work insoles and/or a foot massager. Anything that promotes or makes fitness easier is also a good gift – a new bicycle for commuting, workout gloves, free weights, resistance bands. You might also consider a meditation app like Headspace, or subscription to yoga classes on line.

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p.s. What NOT to buy or ask for

  • Scrubs. I noticed a lot of folx asking for scrubs. Nope – don’t do it! You will be required to wear the scrubs from the hospital since there are rules about them being washed in the hospital laundry. Ditto for things to wear under scrubs. You’ll get too hot, they get dirty, and they are against the rules in all operating rooms (and many hospitals)
  • Textbooks. You are pretty much guaranteed to have access to a library where these books will be in digital format and free. These books are heavy! You aren’t going to take them to work and when you get home, you may have other things to read that take priority.
  • Printers. Printers (and printer ink) are expensive and you just won’t use them. You are going to have to stay digital to really learn what you need to learn as a resident. Besides, if you do need to print out the return slip for Amazon, there will always be a printer at the hospital you can use!
  • Black bag. If you are a family member thinking of getting one of these… don’t.

And finally…

For my new colleagues matching this month and starting your internship in June …

May your journey through this liminal time be as stress free and as joyful as possible. May every day as an intern bring you hearts to heal and hands to hold, new learning, and a sense of wonder and awe.

We are so happy you are joining us in this noble and sacred work!

Happy New Year’s Resolutions!

Like most of you, my New Years resolutions in past years have been something like “Exercise every day” or “Eat fruits and vegetables with every meal.” And, I bet that you had the same experience I did… a few weeks of “success” and then they seemed to fade away. The problem with these kinds of goals are how they are structured. They end up being “either-or” goals … you are either able to do them or, more often, you miss a day (or two… or three) and feel like a failure.

I recently read a blog post by Ryder Carroll, the originator of the Bullet Journal which profoundly changed the way I think about goal setting and New Year’s Resolutions

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It’s a simple, but very powerful concept. Set your goal as a destination… as a “lighthouse” in the distance, and then head in that direction every day. As Ryder Carroll explains, “When goals are lighthouses, success is defined by simply showing up, by daily progress no matter how big or small…”

So instead of the usual New Year’s Resolutions, pick a few “lighthouse goals”. Write them down and keep track of how you are doing (every journey needs a map). This can be as simple as one piece of paper for each goal, but I am such a fan of the Bullet Journal, I hope you consider using it.

When you get up every morning think about how to move towards your goal(s). If you veer off course, that’s part of the journey…. look up, find your lighthouse, and correct your course.  Every once in a while (maybe monthly?), look at the progress you’ve made and celebrate it! If, on the other hand, the goals you originally chose don’t make sense for you any more, pick some new goals, draw a new map and start over.

Potential New Year “Lighthouse” goals

  • Learn more about compassion and practice it
  • Be a better friend
  • Write genuine thank you notes to people who have helped me
  • Become more fit
  • Eat real food for as many meals a week as I can
  • Find out more about who I really am through meditation
  • Keep a “stop doing” list
  • Be better at my work through deliberate practice (practicing and learning the things I don’t like and aren’t good at until I’m better)
  • Stay organized so I don’t waste time (and end up focusing on trivial things instead of what’s really important)
  • Read things that bring me joy
  • Learn about and use a Bullet Journal
  • Find a community to support me
  • Learn the names of as many people at work as I can
  • Take the stairs as often as I can
  • Make my living spaces enjoyable spaces
  • Keep a journal to remember milestones and work out struggles
  • Get good sleep as often as possible
  • Learn Spanish (or any new language)
  • Be on time
  • Remember people’s birthdays and send a card
  • Start the day with intention
  • Appropriately limit email and social media time

Study Tips for First Year Medical Students

Yesterday was my first embryology lecture of the year to the new MS1s at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as the PA, DNP and Genetic Counseling students. For years, I’ve been including a few slides at the end of each lecture to help with the transition to medical school. Yesterday’s lecture ended with tips on how to study. I promised the students I’d share these slides in a written formate. I realized sharing them here might be the most appropriate way to do that!

Medical school (or any high volume graduate school) involves a dramatic change from what students have previously experienced. As you know, if you read this blog, I believe there are a lot of “tools” that can help students “thrive, not just survive

The biggest change for many students is it really isn’t about the grades anymore. It’s about studying for the patients you will be caring for in the future. That means really learning the material, not just knowing it for a test.

Even though there is still a lot unknown about how the brain works to learn material, what is certain is that it is a physical process. You create new synapses when you experience or learn new things. As they are repeated, these synapses get stronger and stronger.

So, to organize the advice, I’ll share some basics, some specifics and then a little refinement.

Learning this volume of material at this level of complexity is about consistency. You can’t run a marathon by running 20 miles every weekend. This is no different. You need to study every day (except one). One of our great teachers at Baylor, Dr. Clay Goodman, tells our students that they have signed on for a 60 hour a week job. (which roughly means 1-2 hours of studying for every hour in the classroom). If you map out your week as a 60 hour job, it will work a lot better than ever trying to “catch up.”

The SQ3R system is the best system I know to learn what you need to know during the basic sciences. So, how do you translate the SQ3R system into practice?

The night before lectures, spend 30-40 minutes skimming the lectures. No “studying”. Be curious. What questions are going to be answered during the lecture? How is it organized?  (BTW “Mike” is a fictitious patient with muscular dystrophy that Dr. Goodman uses in an introductory lecture to show how everything you learn in medical school matters – from the DNA to the psychosocial context of the family)

This 30-40 minutes is basically the “S” and “Q” of the SQR3 system.

  • SURVEY to get the big picture
  • QUESTION = what questions are going to be answered during the lecture? What else do you want to know to really understand this? (write them down!). Do not try to look up anything now.

During the lecture stay ACTIVE. Don’t sit in the back row and look at FaceBook – even if the professor is reading the slides.* You’ll need to take notes for this to be really active. Put the questions you want answered on an outline you prepare the night before lecture and fill it in during the lecture. Use mind maps or other powerful visual aids to learn. Click here to get to my post on taking notes during basic sciences.

*(If you are a lecturer who does this, stop it! – otherwise you are guilty of “death by PowerPoint.” Find someone who is a good lecturer and ask them to coach you.)

After the lecture, you move on to the 3Rs. Now you get down to the real studying. Read through the printed notes (or slides). Did everything get answered? MAKE NOTES that synthesize what you learned.

Review. Review. Review. Here’s the deal. Medical school is a lot like learning a new language.  The first part of basic sciences (anatomy, physiology, embryology, etc) is learning the vocabulary. The second part of basic sciences (diseases, pharmacology, etc) is learning the grammar. When you get to the clinics, you are practicing the language until you are fluent. “Flash cards” such as Anki are great at learning “vocabulary”. They are terrible at synthesizing and learning connections and concepts.  That’s why you need a single page summary of every lecture. The summary is the “forest”, your notes (plus or minus flash cards) are the “trees”. If you really want to succeed, you need both. BTW, I made the class repeat (out loud) after me (twice) – “You cannot learn medicine from Anki alone.” (It’s on tape. I really did this.)

Here’s an example of a single page summary of the embryology lecture I gave the class yesterday. I spent time to make this really look nice – more time than you will want to spend. It doesn’t need to be typed, it doesn’t need to be particularly legible to anyone but you, but take the time to do these summaries!

Did I already mention that you need to review?

This is probably the single most important slide I show when explaining how to best study in medical school. It’s the basis of many apps in medical learning, including the NEJM Knowledge+ courses. There are two really important points in this graph.  First, it takes at least 5 repetitions to really learn something. Second, they have to be spread out in a logarithmic fashion over time.

Here’s how to do it. The first three repetitions should be same day, next day and 2-3 days later. The more times you review it, the better, but it should at least be 1 week later and 3 weeks later.  More is better.  Plan another review a month later and three months later, too. For the Type A folks in medical school (i.e. all of you), make a spread sheet!

 

Another thing about our brains and learning.  Pushing through for hours without rest is as stupid as thinking you can build up your biceps by doing an hour of uninterrupted reps. Speaking of reps… use “study reps”. Get an app if you think it will help. 50 minutes of studying.

Stop studying for 10 minutes (no matter how engrossed you are) when the alarm goes. Repeat.

People sitting next to you in your study areas are going to look like they have it more together than you do.  It might be true… but it probably isn’t.  If someone has a study technique that looks like it will work for you, by all means try it!  Just don’t change too often. I was a liberal arts major in college. If you come from a non-science background, the first 6 months are going to be a little tougher on you because you have more “vocabulary” to learn but don’t worry, after that you’ll be caught up,

Read this slide. Believe this slide. The most important point on this slide is the last line. You cannot make those physical synapses you need to really learn without 8 hours of sleep.

Keep notes about what works for you and what doesn’t. Everyone is a little different, but you will find a system that works best for you through conscious effort.

It’s like running. Some of this is just “time on feet”. Remember the 60 hours a week job concept and you’ll do fine.

I end with this slide to remind my students that there has to be balance for this to work. Most of what I tell my students about finding and keeping that balance is in this blog, so feel free to use the word cloud to the right or search for what you might need. Please contact me if you have a specific question I can answer or if you have an idea for a new blog post.

Welcome to the best career in the world! We are all happy you are here!

 

 

 

 

 

How to Succeed in Clinical Rotations (and residency, too)

Today I have the incredible joy of talking to the medical students on our rotation.  No agenda, just a conversation that they requested for some “advice”. They just started their surgery rotation last week and it’s their first rotation.  First rotation, beginner’s mind, unbridled enthusiasm… it is so wonderful!. I decided I would come up with what I wish someone had told me at the beginning of my rotations…

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Be mindful, deliberate and excited about learning.

This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give.  Clinical rotations are often a whirlwind of work and you can be swept away without realizing it. Residents can ignore you, people can be cranky, patients can be difficult… and in the midst of all this, you are expected to learn to be a doctor.  You have to stay in charge of that mission, no matter what is happening around you.

Take a little time to reflect on why you are doing this and what kind of person/doctor you want to become.  When times get tough (and they will) hold on to it.  If it helps you, come up with a slogan to repeat, keep on a piece of paper in your wallet or on your wrist

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Learn about the practice of mindfulness.  Mindfulness has been shown to be effective in decreasing stress and may help to prevent burnout.  It’s not hard to learn, but it’s hard to master … which is the point of a “practice”. (e.g. the practice of medicine)

Learn to keep a “beginner’s mind”.  When I was a student on core medicine I had a senior resident that showed me what beginner’s mind looks like.  It was 2am and I was tired.  We were seeing a gentleman at the VA hospital for his diabetes, hypertension and some electrolyte abnormalities.  I presented the patient to the resident and then we went to see him together.  He had a rash, which I thought was so insignificant that I didn’t even include it in my presentation.  But, instead of scolding me, this resident got excited.  Yes, you read that correctly, 2am and excited about a rash – because he didn’t know what it was. (This next part will date me, but it’s a great example to make us grateful for the access we have to information now).  He called security and had them open the library.  We spent a wonderful hour looking through books – like a treasure hunt when we were little kids – until we found the rash in one of the books.  We were laughing, excited and couldn’t wait to get back to start the appropriate therapy.

 

Understand what you are going to learn (the big picture)

On every rotation, you will be given a list of learning objectives.  By all means, know them, study the things listed and make sure you know them (they will be on the test).  BUT… please realize that diseases don’t stay conveniently siloed in a single specialty so this is not learning “surgery”, it’s learning about how surgeons approach a specific disease you will see elsewhere, too.   You also need to know that what is listed as learning objectives today may well be obsolete tomorrow  (if they aren’t already).

You have chosen a career that ethically demands life-long learning.  That means that one of the most important skills to learn is how to develop a system of learning that you can use in medical school, residency and later in practice.

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Develop a system for lifelong learning now

Learning is iterative.  You will learn broad concepts on each rotation along with a “fly over” of the entire terrain of the specialty  You will need the information you learn on your surgery rotation on your medicine rotation when you are consulted on a patient with an ischemic leg who needs surgical treatment, or on your pediatrics rotation when your patient with a pneumonia develops an empyema.  If you choose surgery at your career, you will read and learn the same topics throughout your residency (and after) but with increasing depth.

The practical points on how to develop a system to learn during your rotation are here: How to Ace the NBME Shelf Exams: How to Ace the NBME Shelf Exams, In-Training Exams and Your Boards, but the key points are summarized below:

  • Remember it’s school.
  • Make a list of all the topics in the textbook.
  • Breathe deeply. You are not going to read every page in the textbook in addition to your assigned reading.
  • Create a schedule to SKIM every chapter
  • TAKE NOTES. All the time.
  • Figure out how to store your notes so you can find them in the future
  • Go through your daily notes in the evening and then store them in your system
  • Review, review, review

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Take care of yourself.

Pay attention to ergonomics, diet, exercise and sleep.  Most importantly, take care of yourself emotionally and spiritually.  You can’t learn or serve others if your tank is empty.  Come up with what is important for you and make a list.  Seriously.  Make a list of what you find helps you stay on track and then check it off every day.  Look at it before you go to bed.  Celebrate the things you did and don’t be hard on yourself for the ones you didn’t get to.

Don’t forget to take a “Sabbath” every week.  True time off is critical for recovery from this stressful work.

If it gets too hard, seek help.  It’s a sign of strength, not weakness, and most (if not all) of the people around you have been there.

We have the most amazing job on earth.  When the administrative issues or political conflicts get to you (and they will), just remember – you get to take care of another human life with the goal of relieving their suffering.  What could be more important than that?

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Top Ten Tips on Starting Medical School

Starting medical school is one of the most exciting moments in a physicians career… but it can be a little daunting!  This talk is one I gave recently to the college students in the Baylor College of Medicine Summer Surgery Program.  In addition to talking about how medical school is different from college, I also included my top 10 tips for successfully making this important transition.

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Why is there a battle going on about MOC … and why should you care?

Everyone hates exams.  Most of us hate regulations.  But, exams and regulations in medicine came about because of abuses in the past that led to the public distrusting doctors.  It’s a fascinating, and somewhat terrifying history that starts with changing “medical schools” from for profit (and horrible!) businesses into what we know today.  As general doctors started doing ophthalmology, surgery, or obstetrics full time, it was became clear that defining what constituted a specialty, and demonstrating that practitioners were competent was important.

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What does it mean to be “board certified”?

Being “board certified” means that one of the 24 specialty boards in the United States attests that you have met all the requirements and have passed rigorous exams to show that you are qualified to practice in that specialty.

Does the board certification last forever?

Short answer, no. Family Medicine was the first specialty (in 1970) to realize that initial certification was not enough.  As the public continued to ask for evidence that physicians remained up to date, Surgery (1976), Emergency Medicine (1980) and Ob/Gyn (1986) added a recertification examination.  As of 1990, the remaining boards became “time-limited” which means board certification expires after 6-10 years, unless physicians take and pass the recertification examination. So, many internists who are now in their 60s and 70s didn’t have to do anything other than pass the initial examinations.  (This is referred to as being “grandfathered”).

 

Who makes up “the board” for the specialties?

The members of most boards are volunteer physicians in the specialty.  In surgery, which I know the best, the board members are called “directors”.  There are 41 directors of the American Board of Surgery who represent a variety of organizations and specialties in surgery.  These volunteer surgeons spend 20+ days a year away from their practices with no pay (although their expenses are paid) to give the oral examinations in surgery, and to design and validate the written examinations. They also have a variety of committees and projects which focused on one critical question: “What do we need to do to make sure we maintain the public trust in surgeons?”

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How do the specialty boards decide if specialists are up to date?

Since 1990, boards have to be “maintained”.  If you don’t maintain your board, you lose it.  Hence the term, Maintenance of Certification (MOC).  So what do you have to do for “MOC”?  In addition to having a license, most boards have requirements to document hospital privileges and provide letters of reference.  Here’s a summary of the other requirements for four of the largest boards:

 

Continuing Medical Education (CME) Recertification examination Practice Assessment Cost
Internal Medicine Must do some CME every 2 years.

Must get 100 MOC points every 5 yrs. (roughly 20-25 hrs/yr)

Recertification examination every 10 years (counts as 20 hrs MOC points) Nothing required.

Can earn MOC points by QI or by teaching.

$1940 ($194/yr) for General Medicine.

$2560 ($256/yr) for specialties.

Ob/Gyn Read at least 30 of the 45 articles provided by the board annually  and answer four questions/article (=25hrs CME credit) Exam every 6 years but may be exempt if excellence demonstrated by answers to articles. (pilot program) Completion of ABOG practice improvement modules

QI projects

Presentations/publications

$265/year.

Additional fee of $175 if exam is required.

Pediatrics 100 MOC points/5yrs. At least 40 in CME, 40 in practice assessment

“Question of the week” delivered by email.  20 questions = 10 MOC pts.

Recertification examination every 10 years (counts as 60 hrs of CME) Institutional or practice QI projects $1300/5yrs ($260/yr)
Surgery 90 hrs in 3 yrs. (30 hrs/yr) of CME (lectures or online)

60 hrs (20/yr) have to be Level 1(test questions involved)

Recertification examination every 10 years (counts as 60 hrs of CME) Participation in an outcome or quality improvement program $1600 ($160/yr)

 

What happens if doctors decide to not do MOC?

Being board certified is voluntary and so is maintaining a board.  But, if doctors choose not to do MOC, they will lose their board certification.

Here’s some of the possible implications if a doctor loses board certification:

  1. Hospital bylaws almost universally require staff members to be board certified. These bylaws will have to be rewritten for doctors who have lost their boards in order for them to work in these institutions.
  2. The ACGME requires that faculty that teach residents are board certified.
  3. The American College of Surgeons requires that all doctors are board certified who work in ACS accredited Trauma Centers or Children’s Surgery Centers. .
  4. The American Academy of Pediatrics requires that all doctors in the NICU are board certified in order for the NICU to be verified prior to accreditation.

My bottom line on MOC

Since the new MOC requirements went into place I have increased both the quantity and quality of the materials I use to stay up to date, which I strongly feel has made me a better surgeon.  I still don’t like taking exams, but every time I do (I have three boards, so I take a lot of them!) I learn so much that I find the experience invaluable. (Yes, that’s after the exam, not before or during… that hasn’t changed since medical school.)

MOC isn’t perfect, but it’s evolving, and the reason it exists is a good one.  Passing laws state by state to make MOC “optional” has the risk of hurting the public’s trust in physicians – and the risk of creating quite a bit of chaos for hospitals, training programs, and others. For what?  Saving $200 a year?  Not having to take the test every 10 years? Not having to log the CME that is required by almost all state medical boards?

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“Here’s what’s at stake: we physicians are granted an extraordinary amount of autonomy by the public and the government. We ask people to disrobe in our presence; we prescribe medications that can kill; we perform procedures that would be labeled as assault if done by the non-credentialed. If we prove ourselves incapable of self-governance, we are violating this trust, and society will – and should – step into the breach with standards and regulations that will be more onerous, more politically driven, and less informed by science. That is the road we may be headed down. It is why this fight matters.” Robert Wachter, MD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Ace the NBME Shelf Exams, In-Training Exams and Your Boards.

Ok, now that I have your attention, let me share something with you. I’m going to show you how to maximize what you learn from the “school” we call rotations in medical school and residency so you can be an awesome master clinician. And, yes, it’s going to help you with your exams, so stay with me.

Clinical rotations are a strange blend of learning and work. You learn from the work, but we all forget that the work is not the purpose of these clinical experiences. The purpose of rotations is to be able to “practice” medicine (as a student) and then master the art of your specialty (as a resident.)

There are six basic principles to learn medicine, and then learn your specialty …and on the way ace the exams:

  1. Remember it’s school.
  2. At the beginning of each rotation, decide what topics you need to learn during the rotation and make a list.
  3. Take notes. All the time.
  4. Figure out how you will store your notes so you can find them quickly and organize them for review.
  5. Go through the notes you make every day to review them and then store them in your system.
  6. You can’t learn medicine from a review book (yes, including UWorld)

Somewhere around the beginning of my third year of residency, I was sitting in the “dome” (the chief resident’s “office” above OR 1 in our County Hospital) when Fred, one of my fellow 3rd years, walked in. He sat down and started to look through a stack of 3×5 cards so I asked him what he was doing. We all knew that he had scored the highest in our class on the ABSITE (the surgery in-service exam) and I was about to find out why.

REMEMBER IT’S SCHOOL

Fred figured out from day one that there was no way he was going to be able to study like he did in college and during basic sciences. Instead of hours to sit and read, it had to be flexible “on the job” learning.

This mindset is probably the single more important thing to cultivate. It’s the thing that drives you to constantly ask questions about why things are done the way they are and then go look up the answers.

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AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH ROTATION, DECIDE WHAT TOPICS YOU NEED TO LEARN DURING THE ROTATION AND MAKE A LIST. 

Your list can be pretty simple, or more complex, but it needs to be enough.

First hint – There is a curriculum that has been defined for your rotations. Everything your professors have decided should be taught should absolutely be on your list.   (By the way….If it’s in the curriculum, it has to be part of an objective. If there is an objective, it has to be linked to a test question)

Second hint – There is no way in medical school that “surgery” (or any specialty) can be covered in 8-12 lectures. The same is true for your rotations in residency. You have to do more.

This is one time that an example may be better than a formula. Let’s say I’m a brand new clinical student on my core surgery rotation….

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 Step 1. Find a textbook of Surgery and make a list of the topics from the chapters. A spreadsheet may be best for this, but any kind of list will do. 

For example, our library has Sabiston’s Textbook of Surgery (20th edition, 2017) on line:

 

 Step 2. Breathe deeply. There are 72 chapters and no, you are not going to read all these pages.

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Step 3. Create a schedule to SKIM every chapter during the rotation. Look only at the “big picture” i.e. headings, section titles, diagrams, tables. Your schedule should leave the last week or two free. So, for example, if your rotation is 2 months long, plan to SKIM 12 chapters a week to get them done in 6 weeks.

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 Step 4 – Now we get to the real deal (remember, this is graduate school and/or specialty training).

List the sections on your spreadsheet.

As a student, you won’t read every section – unless they are very general (Acute Abdomen, for example) or if you have a patient with that particular problem. Here’s what it might look like:

 

TAKE NOTES. ALL THE TIME.

After I learned Fred’s system, I always kept a stack of blank 3×5 cards in my pocket. Like him, for the last 3 years of my residency, I made notes ALL the time.  Here’s the kind of notes we are talking about:

  1. Reading textbooks or other curricular readings. Take the time to make the notes and make them well so you never have to go back to the chapter to review it.
  2. On rounds when someone teaches an important point (e.g. the 7 things that keep a fistula from closing)
  3. During Grand Rounds
  4. During conferences
  5. When you look up a paper to read about a patient
  6. And – most important – what you learn from specific patients. Do NOT put the name of the patient or their MRN (HIPPA). But, do put specifics that help you remember the patient (e.g. pt that always wore a red baseball cap and had a tattoo of a dragon)

As you can imagine, once I started this system, I was making 10-20 notes a day. It is remarkable how much you learn in a given day… and how it’s almost instantly gone if you don’t write it down.  In three years I filled up two boxes with cards. These cards were the only thing I reviewed for my Board exams.

 

FIGURE OUT HOW YOU WILL STORE YOUR NOTES SO YOU CAN FIND THEM QUICKLY AND ORGANIZE THEM FOR REVIEW

This is why using a notebook isn’t the best way to keep notes on rotations. You’ll take them chronologically and, unless you have an amazing index at the back with all the key words and pages listed, you’ll never be able to find a specific note.

The key is being able to “file” the notes so you can find them.  For the 3×5 system, leave a blank square at the top to put the topic you’ll use to file them.

I used anatomy as the basis for my filing system. So I would use a pencil (so I could change it later if I needed to) to put the topic in the box.  For example

Pancreas, pancreatitis

Appendix, neoplasms, carcinoid

This is very old-fashioned (but very effective) system.. I personally think there are better ways to do this now using scanning, cloud storage, key words and tags.  For some ideas, check out this post.

What doesn’t work well is to try to type notes on your phone.  What REALLY doesn’t work is to make notes and then decide to copy them, type them or somehow redo them later. (It never happens).

 

GO THROUGH THE NOTES YOU MAKE EVERY DAY TO REVIEW THEM AND THEN STORE THEM IN YOUR SYSTEM

The key to learning (as opposed to memorizing for a test) is review. Simply filing the cards means you are reviewing them. Plan to pull them out to look at them (and all the work you accomplished!) every week or two.

More importantly, when you see a patient with pancreatitis 5 months from now on a different rotation, pull the cards you made on this rotation. You’ll find you have 20 or so cards (or card equivalents) on pancreatitis … a review of the Surgery textbook, notes from Grand Rounds, the 3 patients you saw with pancreatitis that taught you about the disease and a few pearls you learned on rounds from your chief resident.

 

YOU CAN’T LEARN MEDICINE FROM A REVIEW BOOK (YES, INCLUDING UWORLD) 

I’m really serious. Not only will you suffer when you are taking care of patients, you won’t do as well on the tests (despite what the upper level students or residents tell you).

Remember the last two weeks of the rotation that you saved?  Now’s the time to pull out the review books.  It’s a wonderful way to review what you have learned from your skimming and patient oriented reading.  It’s also a great way to identify gaps and look up information.

p.s. Take more notes while you are doing this.

p.p.s Review all your notes, including the ones you make from the review books.

p.p.p.s Review them again.

Link to the Wikipedia article about the forgetting curve

How To Study in Medical School

Congratulations to all the first year medical students who are starting or getting ready to start medical school.  As you will soon seen, from day one there will be an overwhelming amount of information to process and learn … much more than any you have seen during college. It’s going to take a new strategy!

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Unlike college, the information you learn during your preclinical studies will be important when you take the first part of your licensure examination (Step 1) and when you start your clinical rotations in 2 years or so, and when you start your residency.

It’s not just about learning this information for your exams, it’s also about creating a system to organize this information for the future.

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What should an ideal system let you do?

  1. Hand write or type your notes
  2. Highlight and annotate notes to make them more easy to remember
  3. Import images, pdfs, powerpoint presentations or other digital information
  4. Review the notes on your phone or iPad as well as your computer
  5. Revise or reclassify notes as you learn more
  6. Make sure your notes can’t ever be lost or destroyed

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What “notes” should you use to study?

  1. Use the notes provided by your professors, usually in the form of a powerpoint presentation or pdf of the presentation. Many students download the presentations into OneNote and annotate the slides during the lecture. If you use this system, it will be very important to make a one page summary of the key points. Going back to review each slide is very time consuming and not a good “juice to squeeze ratio”. (the effort you put into it is not worth what you get out of it).
  1. Take notes in class or to review like you did in college (highlighters and all!). If you choose to do this, use the SQR3 method or the Cornell note taking method to prepare i.e. don’t come in cold to class. Write down the big topics to be covered, and come up with questions you expect to be answered in class. The key is active listening!
  1. Try mindmaps. Your brain doesn’t organize things into bullet points. If you use colors, images and this more “organic” organization, it’s amazing how much you can remember. Like mnemonics, the more outlandish the images and colors, the easier it is to remember.   You’ll find an example of a mindmap to learn about pilonidal disease below. Note, for example, that the image for obesity is a stick of butter surrounded by fat globules. It’s creating your own images that makes this so powerful. Even though you can share mindmaps, or use software to create them, it’s more effective to draw your own.
  1. Handwritten may lead to better learning…. Worth thinking about!

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How should you organize your notes?

Here’s where it gets fun. Organizing notes with Evernote is the best way I’ve found (ever) to do this.  Evernote is an app for your computer and phone/iPad that allows you to store “notes”. But, the notes can be a lot of different formats:

  1. New notes, typed directly into the software
  2. Imported notes from OneNote or a powerpoint presentation
  3. Scanned notes. Evernote has an amazing free app called Scannable that converts any document into a pdf using your phone. So. if you draw a mindmap, doodle about the anatomy of the rotator cuff or have a typed handout from someone, you can scan it into EverNote.
  4. Photos of whiteboards, paper notes, images.
  5. Videos, like your professor showing you how to examine the knee for instability.
  6. There is an Evernote “web clipper” that can be used on your computer to download any webpage.
  7. Audio notes. You can record a review for yourself and save it as a note.

 

Other advantages to using Evernote

  1. You can share notes with others
  2. You can find information by searching. Both typed and handwritten words will be recognized.
  3. When you store a link to a video it’s active, so you can click and go directly to the site.

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What should I do before I set up this system?

  • Start the notes now – even though you don’t have the system in place.  Listen actively and take notes actively. Make sure you create one page summaries of every lecture. Keep these to scan in when you start your account.
  • Download Evernote for your Life | A Practical Guide for the Use of Evernote in Your Everyday Life by Brandon Collins and read it before you create your system. This ebook is concise, easy to read and will explain why you can’t think about EverNote as a “filing” system in the usual sense.

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A few other words of advice

  • Create your Evernote account with an email address that will follow you through your training. (By the way, if your personal email now is sexyguyfromthecity@gmail.com, it’s time to get a new and more professional address!)
  • I’d create one huge notebook called “Everything I need to know to be a doctor” (just kidding.. but don’t fall into the trap of creating a lot of different notebooks, either.)
  • When you start, be very deliberate about your tags. You don’t want to end up with “Penicillin”, “penicillin” and “penicillinV” as three tags for penicillin… Decide how to standardize your tags before you start i.e. when to capitalize, generic names of drugs only, etc.
  • Evernote is not HIPPA compliant.  Don’t EVER put any patient information (including photos) that could be identified.
  • Go ahead and spend the money for Evernote premium. You’ll be using all the storage and the bells and whistles.