By Neha Anand On Friday, my classmates and I completed our last preclinical unit of medical school. After a year and a half of lecture learning and small groups about the intricate physiology of the kidneys, detailed pathways of the brain and so much more, we finally came to one of the most immersive classes(...)
Underrepresented minority biomedical researchers: numbers, challenges and initiatives for change
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchIn 2012, the Advisory Committee to the Director Working Group on Diversity (ACDWGD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) produced its first report. The committee stated plainly that diversity increases core scientific principles — creativity, innovation and rigor — and that the NIH had a responsibility as a publicly funded body to maintain the(...)
On Kindness
Posted by | A Day in the Life“Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.” This is one of my favorite quotes from Captain America because it reminds me that at the end of the day, no matter how superhuman people think we are — whether(...)
Drifting Through the Dark
Posted by | A Day in the LifeI have never wanted to be an astronaut. The idea of hurtling upward in a rocket ship, crashing through the Earth’s atmosphere, and launching into the weightless, densely black sky with the knowledge that you might never return makes me feel a certain loneliness. Yet when friends and family ask what it’s like to do(...)
Medicine in the Library
Posted by | A Day in the LifeAbove: Kristin's carrel at Welch Library Mid-November 2018: I sit in my carrel watching the snow fall outside, a café au lait cupped in my hands and my elbows resting on the wooden barrier that protects me from falling eight floors to the bottom of the library. Historian Julie Livingstone’s book on debility and the(...)
Rowing Through Internship
Posted by | A Day in the LifeHalloween in the MICU: I was on call overnight, wearing a headband with droopy bumblebee ears, black and yellow clashing with the somber gray haze of the team room. Thus far, my call nights had torn 10,000 holes through my soul. Each was a devastating routine during which people of great medical mystery would rush(...)
Are Physician Salaries Appropriate?
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchOver the holiday season, I was fortunate to spend time with family in northern California where I grew up. There I had the opportunity to catch up with some friends from high school. We talked about many things, but eventually the conversation turned to work, salaries and other practicalities of adult life we would have(...)
Things My Brother Sam Can’t Talk About
Posted by | A Day in the LifePhoto credit: Kelly Valeri When my younger brother, Sam, was 14 years old, he went outside, stripped to his white, Fruit of the Loom underwear, tipped over a plastic wagon and yelled, “Uh-oh!” He was re-enacting a scene from the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, though no one in my family knew it(...)
Student Perspectives: All About Grad School
Posted by | A Day in the Life, Perspectives in ResearchCurious about graduate school? Below are recent posts from our students sharing advice, accomplishments and the latest goings-on in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine graduate programs. The Future of Biomedical Education: A Conversation with Dr. Ziegelstein A Ph.D. candidate sits down with Dr. Ziegelstein, vice dean for education at the Johns Hopkins University(...)
Partnering Toward Discovery: A Focus on Inclusion Body Myositis
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchMany people are not familiar with a rare disease called inclusion body myositis (IBM). Most have never heard of it. On Jan. 22, 2019, Harry Benjamin Larman and students Janelle Montagne, Sahana Jayaraman and Kyla Britson presented their clinical and basic science research on IBM at the first event in this year’s Partnering Toward Discovery(...)