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Listen to this patient speaking about their ankle swelling problems. On examination, concentrate on the differential diagnosis and what investigations you would plan based on what the patient has told you.
In the login area we have over 20 audio guides, 40 video guides, tests, quizzes and mock exams. It’s a goldmine of resources to suit all learning styles, perfect for revising on exams. Give us a go for free today!
Berci, Hungarian medical student and Web 2.0 Entrepreneur
Berci Meskó is a Hungarian medical student, and a leading innovator when it comes to the web 2.0 and using new healthcare technologies. His medical blog is one of the most popular on the internet from a medical student. Here he is interviewed by one of the Medical Educator team.
Hi Berci, you’re a busy man, so thanks for doing the interview. We made your acquaintance socially on Twitter, and over the following few months have been quite amazed about the impact of your blogs Scienceroll and Webicinia. It’s fair to say they have received cult status in the healthcare community, and on Twitter.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your journey through medical training and how you got interested in the web?
James, thank you for the great opportunity! I’m a sixth year medical student in Hungary which means I will graduate this August. Then I plan to start PhD training in personalized genetics. So I should say health 2.0 is only my hobby, but it’s actually much more than that. From morning to the afternoon, I do a clinical rotation as this is what our 6th year is about. In the afternoon, I do research in a local prestigious lab and I live the rest of my life at night!
I started Scienceroll.com in November, 2006. It will reach the one million page-view milestone soon and has won 3 blog awards. Then I launched a Hungarian medical blog, and in October 2008 I founded Webicina.com, the first medical web guidance system. I believe e-patients and doctors need guidance online as we’re not really ready for the medicine 2.0 world. I try to help doctors by developing the easiest medical information tracking tool for them for free (PeRSSonalized Medicine), and I try to help patients with also free web 2.0 guidance packages focusing on medical conditions.The first one will focus on diabetes and will be published in a week.
Scienceroll, a leading medical blog founded by Berci
Tell us a bit about Scienceroll, what it is and how you got it started.
I started Scienceroll because I wanted to share and comment interesting medical and genetics-related news. Later it became a channel for my thoughts and projects. I cover two major topics there: personalized genetics and ‘medicine’ or ‘health 2.0‘. I was lucky to get numerous opportunities through my blog: to give a slide-show at Yale, School of Medicine, the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference, the Medicine 2.0 Congress at the WHO.
You’re still a medical student. Does any of this get in the way of your studies, or medical exams?
Berci has a popular Twitter page
Never! Even if my blog means a lot to me, my medical studies stand in the first position. Anyway, when I have to prepare for exams, it’s good to have a blog as I can have a rest while writing the posts after hours of hard work with my books. And I can ask medical questions in the Twitter community, health ‘tweople’ always help me. So you can find people around the world, medical students, who have the same problems and who can help you in your studies.
We understand most of your readers are in the USA, predominantly California, which is leading web development. Have you received any recognition from your own University about what you do?
I don’t think any of my professors would know what I’m working on. And that’s primarily a very good thing. I don’t want my online job/life to be an advantage or disadvantage in exams.
But after months of hard work and preparation, I could launch the first credit course focusing on medicine 2.0 at my university and I’m about to relaunch the course in English next week. So that is a great opportunity and I hope we can persuade professors to include it in the official medical curriculum so it could be the first medical university to cover such topics officially.
Would you recommend other medical students to get involved with blogs, and the web 2.0 as it stands?
Of course, and I tried to persuade students attending my course to start blogging as it can help them build an online reputation and can lead to unbelievable opportunities. I’m not saying all students should have a blog, but those who would like to build a successful online presence, a blog can be a perfect channel.
If students want to attend virtual courses, Second Life is ready for them. If they want to work together online, they can use Google Docs or a public wiki. If they need information, Wikipedia is a great first resource (but should never be the one you end your research with). There are many ways students can use the tools and services of web 2.0.
We were pleased to be in contact with you, I guess you must have made some other useful acquaintances through the web. I’ve enjoyed reading your interviews with other doctors. Can you tell us about a memorable interview?
I think the best interview you can do is with the doctor you consider your mentor. So I loved talking with Ves Dimov at Clinical Cases and Images because he was the one who got me into this health 2.0 field. He’s been very helpful and nice since even before I wrote my first post. And it felt really good to talk with Jay Parkinson, Steve Murphy or Dietrich Stephan.
Thanks Berci, good to talk to you and its an impressive, and inspiring story. We look forward to hearing great things about you in the future.
Medical Educator would like to thank Berci for the interview. Read more form Berci at Scienceroll and Webicinia.
In the lead up to finals time our latest podcast could be really useful for your practical sessions.
In it we discuss how you will get the best out of presenting findings to an examiner in a medical student final OSCE or VIVA situation.
These situations can be stressful and if you dont think about your presentation skills you won’t come across professionally or with confidence. Take a listen and help develop your presentation skills.
Remeber there are over 30 podcasts in the revision section of the site to help you with your medical student exam revision.
James the site has been development for some time: how do you feel the site has gone so far?
James Bateman, one of the founders of www.medicaleducator.co.uk
We’re really quite pleased about how the site has been used by medical students – we want to help people revise on exams – be it medical finals, an OSCE or an end of year assessment. We’ve resisted the temptation to use the site to market questions to lots of different users (e.g. doctors sitting their MRCP or General practitioners sitting entry examinations for interviews) – we stick just to medical student revision which makes things a lot simpler and our content much more focussed. We can remember what it was like doing those exams!
Have you enjoyed developing the content?
We’ve got MCQs, EMQs and short answer questions on examinations, and it’s been fun editing the questions whilst getting to know a new range of people associated in education. We tried to develop the revision site in the form that we would have wanted it when we were medical students. That’s why we’ve got the mix of videos, questions, MCQs, EMQs, even downloadable guides on exam technique etc. We really feel passionate about it: once you subscribe you get everything, and any new developments.
A lot of our users have made several great suggestions to improve the site. I like these ideas, it’s about the ethos that we’re looking to create, and we’re actively looking into them to improve things for the students.
People that know you tell us you just like to teach. Do you enjoy it?
I’ve played a part in a number of educational roles as a Specialist Registrar including work as a Royal College tutor, Clinical Teaching Fellow and Trust Medical Education representative. The people that help write for the site want to be involved in education: we do it for the fun of it. I like to teach – we regularly run morning sessions for doctors in training. Having regular contact with medical students on exams helps to keep things in perspective, and realise what a privilege teaching is.
What do you think the most common mistake made by medical students is?
It’s difficult to call it a mistake but when you consider how much pressure students are under its easy to understand why nerves can sometimes get the better of students when they are in an exam or an OSCE situation. Composure in this aspect is important. Helping students to prepare for this pressure cooker environment can be key. Consider the following:
“On examination there was a symmetrical peripheral inflammatory deforming polyarthropathy predominantly involving the metacarpophalangeal joints”
“On examination there was swelling over the metacarpophalangeal joints of both hands, which is warm to the touch”
“On examination there is disease affecting the hands, the metacarpophalangeal joints look red”
The findings may be identical, but calmness under pressure is important to learn as a skill. If you don’t present something you’ve seen, you don’t get marks for it.
What are your views on exam technique – is this just something you can learn?
Not really, its more complicated than that. The pressure from a medical exam, or medical finals and the revision leading up to that is intended to prepare medical students for the real world. In the United Kingdom, this is as a foundation year doctor, but students training anywhere from the US, Europe, Canada, United Arab Emirates, or India will be expected to perform under a difficult environment. So in part, preparing to present clearly in this stressful and high stakes environment is very important.
You scored 55/56 in the MRCP PACES exam, the second highest mark ever scored in the contemporary history of the exam. Is it just technique!?
The PACES exam is basically an OSCE style exam, and to pass any OSCE you need to adopt a sensible approach on examination and presentation. Knowledge is important, but any candidate needs to optimise their performance to get the best out of an examination/finals etc. I’ve taught many experienced junior doctors, and it is important to be able to demonstrate that you have good clinical skills.
Where do you See Medical Educator going in the future?
Medical educator isn’t just an exam revision site, or a multiple choice question site for medical finals: it’s a resource with videos, podcasts and more to help people get the most out of their medical training. We’re now on ITunes, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and a few other social networks. We want students to contribute to our content, we want to produce interactive OSCE stations, deliver more content from anaesthetics, emergency medicine and expand on exam content to date. We have lots of goals, but we’re young, flexible and highly adaptable. The team of contributors that we have assembled is willing to adapt. We’re willing to put educational theory into practice for the benefits of our own students.
What about the feedback from Medical Educator users?
Our feedback is encouraging: form our subscribers, over 95% would recommend us to a friend and the comments so far have been very kind. Our users understand what we’re trying to do, but I’d be the first to acknowledge problems with the site as it stands. We want to do more, and we’re not going to rest or let the site stagnate. We’ve not relied on exam sponsorship, large amounts of money, or support from the pharmaceutical industry. Whilst we would consider appropriate sponsorship, to date you won’t find any advertising on the site.
What about the mix of students using the site?
We try not to focus on the year of training; just on what constitutes good knowledge for a final year student. Our revision material is targeted at clinical problems that students will face in ‘real life’ along with what they will get in their medical finals. That goes for students from the UK, the US, Australia or anywhere else! We’ve had accesses from >100 countries and rising, so we have a good perspective on the international scene at the minute.
