Awkward Christmas Sweater Party

Med Ball 2008

Congratulations Nathan!

On behalf of the class, congratulations Nathan on your engagement with Katie!

Anatomy Exam December 17th 2008

Wedding December 19th 2008.

you must be insane....ly in love.

;)

Class Officer Meeting Minutes

M1 Class Officers Meeting
10/27/08 3-4pm, Sanger 1-038

In attendance: Andrew Junkin, Charley Nottingham, Nana Ohene-Baah, Kate Zedler, Parth Modi, Nijhu Bhowmik, Craig Anthony, Michael Joyce, Beth Morehouse, Luke Sponholz, Sarah Shafer, Ran Lee, Ashton Goldman, Kate DiPasquale, Mai Grant

Not present: JT Stranix, Maravet Baig, Alex Janovski, Steve Spivey, Travis Wilson, Neha Chande, Aditi Hendi

Agenda
I. President (Andrew Junkin)
A. Looking for volunteer opportunities with local senior centers, focusing on blood pressure and blood glucose screenings
B. Conrad Center, sponsored by the MSG, is a good monthly venue for BP screenings
C. Halloween Pumpkin Carving was well pitched and generated interest, but turnout was low; only 5 people in attendance, but there were other things going on like HOMBRE ropes course

II. Vice-Presidents (Sarah Shafer and JT Stranix)
A. JT delivered his messages by phone; M2s backed out of a joint Halloween party
B. Nothing official will be planned for Halloween
C. T-shirt orders are being worked on
D. Class pictures are selling slowly
E. Upcoming event: Saturday, 11/08/08, Bandito’s @ 8pm: Mixer with D1s
F. Upcoming event: Sunday, 11/09/08, Byrd Park, 12pm: Powder Puff game vs. M2 girls
1) Spirit award and Trophy for the winning team
2) Hopefully it can be a yearly event
3) As of the meeting, 13 girls were signed up for M1 team, with Ashton, Charley, and a few others cheerleading
G. Sarah is in contact with Nursing school students (3rd and 4th year undergrads) for an event

III. Secretary (Ran Lee)
A. Sorry for the delay getting into the room; unsure why there was a scheduling conflict
B. Any concerns regarding meeting times and places, let him know
C. MED BALL: exec board needs to deliver to faculty; email to set up a meeting time/place if you cannot get a hold of a professor
D. MED BALL: Saturday, 11/15/08 at the Bull and Bear Club, 901 E. Cary St, 21st floor, 7pm

IV. Treasurer (Ashton Goldman)
A. Difficult to write checks to people who need money for activities, since we have a lack of funding right now
B. Lack of interest in the class photo is leading to deficit in funds
C. We need to broaden fundraising, so others in the hospital, in other years, will be apt to purchase MCV material; we need to make our merchandise amenable to all groups, not just M1s

V. Curriculum Reps (Nijhu Bhowmik, Nana Ohene-Baah, Kate Zedler)
A. Kate: Genetics and Biochem grades were finalized on Friday 10/24/08, and posted on Tuesday 10/28/08
B. Meeting with Dr. Masho went well
C. Course review for Genetics being held on Friday 10/31/08, for Biochem being held on Monday 11/03/08
D. Nijhu: meeting on Friday 10/31/08 with Angie Wetzel to get more information on electives
E. USMLE-type test at the end of this year is being met with skepticism, because in M1 year, we have no idea about the structure of USMLE questions, and the level of integration needed to answer these questions; We do not yet have the knowledge base; Also, professors will not write or not know how to write questions for us in specific courses at this time; Recommended that we look individually at USMLE questions/reviews that are readily available; Joyce: www.examninja.com is a good site
F. Nana: Electives will be decided via a lottery-based system, with the deadline being in early December; there is a lack of physicians who are available/willing to hold electives; M1 electives are P/F; not many are aware of how electives work

VI. Community Service (Kate DiPasquale)
A. Kate Zedler: Working with Kate D on community service; big activities like Habitat for Humanity will start being available on 12/06/08, but ongoing throughout the winter
B. Looking into food banks as well
C. Caritas: memorial garden being built for deceased members of the Richmond CARITAS community; Saturday 11/08/08 from 9am-4pm at 1532 High St.; great community service opportunity for anyone interested
D. Kate D: a lot of people attended the community service brainstorming meeting
E. In contact with Katie from The Well; workshops can be done to train for service in senior centers, to work in the community; 1-to-1 wellness and counseling is what we want

VII. Wellness Committee (Beth Morehouse)
A. Supporting Kate with community service
B. Trying to develop once/month or once/year projects, leaving behind a legacy for our class
C. Valentine’s Day event is being brainstormed: different projects on different floors of the hospital so everyone can get involved
D. Let Beth know if you have ideas

VIII. WIMSO (Mai Grant)
A. WIMSO week was 10/27/08 to 10/31/08
B. Lunch lectures were held every day; Mon. 10/27/08 was about stress, 10/28/08 was about breast feeding (with free Sticky Rice), Thursday 10/30/08 Dean Strauss spoke
C. All were held in Sanger 3-016

IX. Honor Council Reps (Charley Nottingham, Luke Sponholz)
A. Honor training underway
B. Reps are limited in their duties; they function more in appeals than anything else
C. Charley is helping Kate D. with community service
D. Luke: two duties for honor reps; first is to serve on the council when someone challenges a charge; second is to act as an advisor

X. SGA Reps (Craig Anthony)
A. SGA is holding free pizza days: 12/03/08 (Hunton) and 12/04/08 (Tompkins-McCaw Library) from 12-1pm
B. Halloween Party was Thursday 10/30/08 at Blackfinn, from 8pm-12pm
C. SGA Food bank drive: bags are in the front of the room for donations
1) Best to donate canned protein, veggies, or fruit
2) Try not to donate anything high in sugar or salt, e.g. Ramen
3) If we win: pizza party for the class
D. Health Fair Committee meeting the week of 11/03/08 to determine a date

XI. Historian (Parth Modi)
A. MCV 2012 Blog: http://mcv2012.blogspot.com; contact Parth to become an author and contribute
B. Photo album: most importantly, give pics to Parth so he can put them in a central photo album on the site

XII. Webmaster (Michael Joyce)
A. Developing a template for student organizations to quickly put their information in a webpage; good idea to have a central database
B. Survival guides: trying to turn them into accessible Wiki’s
C. Possibly looking into changing the Eboard organization
D. Lab videos: still a streaming option now, which can be frustrating; Idea was pitched to put them onto a CD for next time to distribute

Lucky Buddha - Post Anatomy Exam 1 Party

The Presidential Candidate’s Health IT Platforms

The Presidential Candidate’s Health IT PlatformsBoth presidential candidates acknowledge the serious problems in this nation’s health care system and promise to address them. Health IT needs to be a central focus in any plan to reshape this country’s health care system. Any health care ‘fix’ that does not utilize health IT will not adequately prepare us for the future. Both candidates invoke the importance of health IT to reduce health care costs and provide quality health care, but how are they different?

According to a side-by-side analysis of the two candidates’ health care reform positions posted by the Kaiser Family Foundation on its Web site in July 2008, both Barack Obama and John McCain support the expansion of health IT, but their plans differ somewhat in emphasis and detail.

John McCain promotes using health IT to allow doctors to practice across state lines, to better control chronic diseases, and to serve as a tool for telemedicine. He focuses on using health IT to improve quality of care. Senator McCain’s plan, as yet, includes no specifics, timelines or cost estimates.

Barack Obama states on his website, "Most medical records are still stored on paper, which makes them difficult to use to coordinate care, measure quality, or reduce medical errors." His focus is on using health IT to contain costs as well as to promote quality measures. He also lays out a plan to implement a national health IT plan in 5 years, spending $10 billion/year.

Our next president will need to be an unflagging supporter of health IT as a critical tool for instituting reform of our health care system. It is urgent that the spiraling costs of medical care be brought under control. Although their approaches differ somewhat, both candidates acknowledge that health IT is a critical part of the health care reform effort.

By: Hannah Rose

Originially written for the Ambulatory Health Information Technology work group of HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) monthly newsletter.

What will anatomy be like?

Nervous about your reaction to the body?
Worried about keeping up with all the studying?
Have you bought all your supplies?
Do you like your group?
Think it will be the best time of your life?
Hoping to get the first cut?
Hoping to never have to dissect?

Please share your thoughts and/or rhetorical questions.

To leave your response, just click on the link below the post that says: # comments

Certain ones will be posted on the main page.

I need Pictures!

If you have pictures that you think should go into our class album then please pass them on.

-- You can e-mail them (parthcmodi@gmail.com)
-- You can upload them to our web album directly (see below)
-- You can give them to me on a CD/Thumb drive

How to upload to our class picture album:
1. Go to picasaweb.google.com
2. Login: mcv2012album pw: class2012
3. Upload pics

<--- You can designate which pics will show up on the slideshow.

The more people that upload pictures, the more representative the album will be of our class.


Thanks!

Egyptian vending machine – 2; Stranix – Goose Egg

It’s 10:30 on Monday morning in the Egyptian Building. You’ve managed to make it through the first two and a half hours of class without falling into the sweet arms of sleep and have managed to fit a surprising amount of borderline legible notes among your collage of doodles in the margins of your syllabus. You can’t keep your eyes open for much longer, though, and have already caught your head mid-nod twice only to awkwardly jerk yourself back awake and creep out your neighbors. In an effort to stave off a third lapse of consciousness (also because your neighbor has just noticeably shifted as far away from you as their chair allows and you want to get out of there before things get too weird) you walk up the incline to the lobby to grab a Pepsi. It’s one of those new looking machines with the giant hand-sized buttons you can punch that makes you feel like this soda is going to taste better than the ones that come out of the older, inferior Pepsi machines with the buttons that only fit a few finger tips. You put in your dollar and dig up a quarter from your pocket (good thing you wore the same pants from yesterday) and try to decide which of the two diet Pepsi buttons will give you the better beverage. After some mental coin-flipping, you give a right-hook to the left button and two seconds later your 20oz’s of academic fuel drops into view. Man this is going to be one of those sodas that produces the completely satisfied AHHH… after that first delicious sip... What!? Hold the phone… This bottle feels like it’s just come out of the devil’s own oven. When did we start microwaving cola around here? This is a farce wrapped in lies and deceit and surrounded by conundrums of all shapes and sizes. You refuse to trust your sense of touch and take that first sip anyways only to have the most unsatisfying mouthful of warm soda in your entire life. You force yourself to swallow so no one else in the lobby will see you make a scene and then discretely check the machine… yep… it’s definitely on. As your confusion slowly fades to frustration you drag yourself back to your seat with a plastic bottle filled with hot soda and pure disappointment. You sit through the rest of class, but you’re not listening. Oh no sir’ee… you’re thinking about the best ways to get back at a vending machine….

Two weeks later you try it again thinking “There’s no gosh darn way in heck this thing can’t be fixed yet…”

Scoreboard: Egyptian vending machine – 2; Stranix – Goose Egg

BLOG Entry by Pooya

Hello everybody. I wanted to write about Monday's Exams.

Having tests especially on Monday can't ever really be fun. Neither can the weekend before the test. But playing soccer, going to the botanical garden, going on picnics in great weather, and getting drunk with friends after the test can be! Everyone I talked to said their rest of the day was a complete DAZE and really fun. So that's good.

I thought the exam was straight hard. Not unfair or anything, just hard. By the way, do you all realize it's been about two MONTHS you've been living in your new apartment/house/with your new roommate/living your new life as a student of medicine? u've already digested ~80 entire lectures worth of material. 10 months to the school year, 2 of em are already done. try to savior what you can.

BTW, we have an anatomy exam on ELECTION DAY???? how, whyyy?

haha alright yall, PEACE

Community Service Brainstorm

Written by Kate DiPasquale:

On Thursday, September 25th, Parth Modi, Charley Nottingham, Andrew Junkin and Mai Grant came over to my place to eat chili and brainstorm about ways in which the class of 2012 can get involved in the Richmond community. While it stormed outside, we sat on the carpet of my living room/bedroom/ office/ dining room, and fired off ideas for projects that we imagined primarily being useful in the Greater Richmond area,but that also speaks to the part of us that led us to study medicinein the first place. We talked about looking for ways to join the social support network that already exists in Richmond. We thought hard about ways in which medical students can and cannot contribute in
a realistic manner.

We had some interesting ideas - some of which were not quite feasible, i.e. lending a hand to harvest olives and donate the oil - that would be Mai's, yes she's from California. Others were easy to imagine - holding several events thoughout the year, coat or food drives, that we could organize and contribute to as a class over a relatively short period of time. We talked about being a resource to connect students to service and volunteer agencies on an individual basis. Yet the idea that inspired us was that of having one or more long-term projects that we could work on during our time in Richmond, and pass on to the incoming class when we leave.

We divvied up the project scouting, ate some ice cream, and returned to studying feeling like we had come to the best place in the world to be studying medicine. Then we looked at Beckman's syllabus, which really appears to have been cut and pasted out of five different textbooks, and...no, wait, this was just me.

Anyhow, I DO feel inspired, and really excited to continue working with a group of such engaged, perceptive, intelligent, neat people, and seeing what happens as more people get involved. Actually, the studying feels positively peripheral at this point. But, as the body must continue to send beta-hydroxybutyrate to the peripheral tissue so that fatty acid metabolism can provide energy in the absence of incoming glucose, I trudge on.

Looking Forward,
Kate DiPasquale, Community Service Chair

Welcome to the Medical College of Virginia Class of 2012

The MCV class of 2012 is off to a great start. For posterity's sake I am creating this blog and hope that people post to it often. Eventually we will be able to look back and see who we were in the begining of this journey and I am sure it will help us slow down and appreciate what we are going through. Eventually it may even become a resource for future MCV students hoping to gain insight into MCV.

It has been about 5 weeks since classes started (6 if you count orientation) and I think most people have found their grove.

Events that have happened:
--Liver Rounds
--Kayaking Trip
--Birthday Parties
--1st Annual MCV classic
--M1's take out the M2's

I think thats all?

Things I have noticed about our class that is unique I think:
--Most of the class still shows up to lecture. I was told many times that after the first test, about 50% of the class doesn't show. From my eyeballed estimate I think I still see at least 80% of the class.

--We are the biggest and the best class of all time... at least until the next bigger and better class comes next year.


Parth Modi
Historian