Module 1
EBM paradigm:
As a third year medical student, Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is often that “buzzword” I hear associated with the clinical decision making process. It has seemed as though attending physicians are often asking me or the MS 4s on service about the pathophysiology and maybe the first and second line treatments of a particular disease process. Meanwhile any EBM guided treatment seems to be discussed between upper level trainees or among attending physicians. EBM represented that “next level” understanding of disease management and was thus at least partially reserved for the experts within their given field. Thus, my initial concept of EBM can best be described as when the treatment plan for a given patient made no sense to me (based on my first two years of medical school), the rationale of their treatment was often evidence based.
As I’ve continued into my clinical education I have come to realize that part of the difficulty in marrying my pre-clinical education with my clinical education is that what is found to be true within the basic science laboratory is often not so clearly reiterated on the wards. It is at least partially reassuring to know that this a struggle that all clinicians face in one way or another. As the body of EBM literature continues to expand at a rate rivaling the expansion of the universe, clinicians are going to have to rely more and more on their expertise to discern the best treatment options for their patients. It can also be cognitively vexing to know that the number needed to treat when, for example, treating a patient with one anticoagulant over another can be in the order of hundreds to thousands in some patient populations.
Social media and learning:
As the dust settled from the explosion of my previous life (as I reprioritized my life during my MS1 year) I sacrificed my social media accounts in an effort to focus on my studies. I believe that social media is a very good thing for most people. I really enjoyed having it and look forward to having it again. However, the hypothetical cost-benefit analysis during my first year of medical school resulted in me suspending my accounts. Though I really enjoyed seeing how everyone was doing, it exacerbated my chronic FOMO (fear of missing out). I think that social media can be an effective learning tool but I have yet to incorporate it into my everyday learning.
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Evidence Blaked Medicine 