Uncover Australia Photo Competition

hey guys. if you are free, why not check this out 🙂

since we’ve probably took quite a fair bit of photographs throughout the year. pick a nice one and submit then. who knows, you may catch the eyes of the judges.

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New online medical community: Tiromed

If you’re a physician, a medical student or a resident, then join Tiromed! You can search by groups, read articles created by the members, interviews, Member Spotlight, etc.

Come join this new online medical community !

Examples of articles for medical students:

N.B. You have to sign up first before you can take a look at the articles.

Surgery: Salaries, Jobs, and Prospects for Surgeons

General Surgery is a rigorous medical specialty that can overwhelm the unprepared. Because it is the ultimate option in curative therapy, surgical residents find their specialty to be among the most physical and psychologically demanding. Yet it is also one of the most gratifying and fulfilling paths a physician can take on the road to healing others. The route toward becoming a surgeon is lengthy and filled with a plethora of choices, from the initial decision to go into general surgery to choosing a residency program to opting for a subspecialty fellowship to establishing a career as a practicing surgeon. Each decision has far-reaching, life-changing implications.

Obstetrics & Gynecology: Jobs and salary information for ObGyn physicians

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, slightly more than half of the United States is female. Additionally, the country’s population is expected to increase by over 100,000,000 over the next 40 years. Based on these statistics, one can conclude that the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynecology is a field that will be in high demand for the long term. This fact, combined with the extremely rewarding nature of the specialty, makes OB/GYN an attractive option for new MD’s.

Resources for physicians / residents / fellows are numerous as well:

Finding Physician Jobs

Acquiring AIDS

Starting a practice: First steps and marketting strategies

I hope this preview of Tiromed has got you all excited and the only logical thing next for you would be to sign up!

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World AIDS Day

Yes that’s right! AIDS is the disease alot of us will inevitably see as practitioners one day.

Let’s revise abit of microbiology here. HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) is a retrovirus with 2 serotypes – HIV1 & HIV2. It infects CD4+ cells of our immune system such as T lymphocytes and macrophages. This renders the immune system less effective and the body less protected against invading microbes.

A vaccine or cure has yet to be discovered. I’ve had conversations with some of our own friends who strongly oppose the development of this vaccine. Their ‘Christian’ views see it as a deserved punishment and that God introduced this disease into our species to punish us for sexual immorality.

What about those people who were born with HIV? What about the people who did not know their spouses had the disease? Think of the medical professionals that got the disease from other patients? How about the few blood transfusions that go through undetected?

My stand on finding a vaccine is clear: we must push all out to find a cure or a vaccine for this devastating killer virus. We are slowly running out of antiretroviral drugs used to prolong the life of those suffering from it.

As with polio myelitis, HIV, as the name suggests, only has a human reservoir. We can vaccinate and eradicate this disease from the face of this earth. Learning from previous mistakes, mankind should not be stupid enough to ‘create’ another sexually transmitted disease that kills one another. (HIV was mutated from the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus 1 initially infecting only certain primates)

Also, let us not look at those HIV+ fellow humans with disdain. They are not neccessarily sexually deviant or immoral. Even if so, we should not judge them because everybody makes mistakes. 

To you prudes who have not witnessed the real world for all the evil it yields; not everyone is brought up in as controlled and protected household as yours. As the world westernizes and sexual freedom is ‘promoted’ we must not assume Asian values to be superior. We are not! No one is actually superior. We are all comrades in the never ending war against those we can’t see and can’t beat – microbes. (And some of you feel like you’re in some spiritual battle – good for you.) 

We must not allow Asian stigmatization of sexually transmitted diseases to inhibit a very well westernizing society like ours. Enacted stigma of HIV+ individuals is on the rise; as medical professionals actively taking part in this stigma is disgraceful.

We do not advocate irresponsible sexual behaviour but we MUST NOT commit the err of allowing our values to marginalize any sufferers of AIDS. We MUST NOT shun the very people we will take an oath to help.

Join me comrades, this World AIDS Day, to spread the knowledge of safe sex and discourage the negative labelling of HIV+ friends. Peace out.

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Hello world!

Welcome to the blog of Class of 2010, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA!!

After 2 semesters (26 academic weeks) at Monash, we have indeed grown much more closely knitted. The Singaporeans were initially very cliquish, given the all-new experience – living in a foreign environment for an extended period of time. (bad excuse?) We hope that we are able to be much more inclusive in the future, and may the “Class of 2010 Monash Med” be a truly connected bunch of happenin’ future doctors.

Do invite the rest of our classmates into this blog – provided you know they are the kind who don’t post rubbish up like on our “General Discussion” boards on MUSO.

Happy Holidays!

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