First Term

ANATOMY and EMBRYO (8cr)

            If there is any course that signifies medical school to the undergrad, it is Human Anatomy.  After this, you should know every bone in the body, every muscle that moves them, and every nerve that orders them around.  And I am kidding.  You will cover a fair bit of it, know some interesting clinical presentations, and be able to explain to your friends back home what “fight or flight” is all about.  And is that not the goal?  To sound impressive?

This course has changed a bit since I took it.  Instead of having every student slave away in the lab cleaning fat for a grade, the department now pro-sects (a professional dissection) every structure of interest and then takes you through ID, relationships to neighboring structures, and pop quiz.  I think you get to dissect the first day on a space that is impossible to screw up too bad: the superficial back.  Of course, this did not stop me from cutting all the way to the ribs on that day; an announcement was made to the class that I was an idiot.

If you have taken the course already and want to freshen up or are taking it for the first time and want a heads up, this site is great.  It shows the dissection of the entire human body in easy-to-download QuickTime movies.  The University of Michigan hosts a great anatomy website.  Several classes have lived and died by their practice quizzes.  Get a wrong answer: it tells you why you are wrong.  Most students click all the wrong answers anyway just to see what they might be missing.  And for those of you with the free time to dream of overachieving, they have surgical videos as well.

Now for the books.  The school gives you the combined oil paintings of Frank H. Netter, may he rest in peace, and a Clinical Anatomy book.  Both are very useful.  I carried Netter around in my backpack everyday.  For a book with a more gross approach to anatomy, the Color Atlas of Anatomy by Rohen is clutch.  Some students go so far as to buy Clemente’s but between you and me: that is overkill.  For those out there who like coloring books, they have those too.  How do you condense all of this information in time for the test?  The anatomy BRS by Chung has been used by many students for many years and the Rapid Review Anatomy is also well-written.  The school bookstore may not carry these review books, so the smart money is on buying them before you arrive.

Embryology operates from a single textbook and a course companion.  Some students complain that the course companion is hard to follow, poorly written, and outdated.  Others say they study nothing but the companion.  In addition to the course textbook, the Embryology BRS book does a fair job of making the course manageable.  Once again, the school bookstore may not carry this title, and I would suggest bringing it with you to the island. 

Strategy for covering all of this material?  No idea.  The first week or two of classes is light, giving you every opportunity to study like an idiot and learn everything incorrectly.  It happens; do not sweat it.  Another thing you will probably due is attend too many DES sessions (tutored by students that are four months ahead of you), artificially boosting the confidence of said tutors until you cut back and find your rhythm.  Best advice I received was to 1) draw everything and 2) study with people smarter than you.

BIOCHEMISTRY (6cr)

            To date, the biochemistry department gives lecture handouts to the class two to three days before each specific lecture.  These handouts reflect the stress and focus that each professor will give to the material.  To fill in any gaps and round out your understanding, two textbooks are given.  Lippincott’s Illustrated Biochemistry is an excellent textbook that closely follows the scope of the class.  The other text, Mark’s Basic Medical Biochemistry, aims to tie everything that you will earn into clinical vignettes with patients like Al Martini the alcoholic.

You will kick yourself if you do not also purchase the Biochemistry BRS book.  It is written by (get this) Dr. Mark’s wife: Dr. Mark.  She goes through her husband’s text, pulls the pertinent illustrations, and puts all of the information into a bare-bones linear style that makes learning the material laughably simple.  Because of this, you could make the case that you do not need the full Marks text if you are going to buy the BRS book.  Once again, the school bookstore does not always carry this title, so I suggest bringing it to the island.

HISTOLOGY (4cr)

            The Histology faculty has the best companion of all of your classes.  It is so comprehensive as to be considered its own textbook.  You will also have access to a free program called HistoTime.  HistoTime consists of short histology lessons followed by hundreds of slides to help you recognize each specific tissue type.  This program along with the companion is all that you need to do well in the course and walk away with an understanding of histology.  That said, some students found the two textbooks required for the class (Color Atlas of Histology by Gartner and Basic Histology by Junqueira) to be helpful.  The Library computers also carry a program called Histo Quiz Bank.  The questions in this program are very close to the detail and difficulty of those you will answer on the midterm and final. 

CLINICAL SKILLS (2cr)

            With a group of students, you will sit in a room as an actress enters and it is up to you to uncover her story.  There are sometimes nine people to a group and each of you will take a turn sitting in front of the “patient” asking questions.  If you want to become good at this and comfortable asking about someone’s sex life and last menstrual period, make sure you are the first person up to bat.  If you do your job well, you will become much better at relating to strangers and if you wait until the end for your turn, you will have little left to ask and will be rewarded with awkward silence.

            The actors and actresses are very good and I will admit to having been fooled more than once.  “I really hope that woman does better.  It must be so hard to have debilitating arthritis like that.”  Then you see her in the library three days later on a keyboard, smiling and you feel like a chump.  Happens to everyone.  This course is great practice for Advanced Clinical Skills beginning in the Fourth term and ending in the Sixth.  You may even see the same “patients” again.  They do not tell you about it until a year later, but if you want to feel much more comfortable in these setting armed with the right questions in the right order, pick up Dr. Rooney’s book, CS Essentials: A complete guide to the USMLE CS.