Interview Prep: Current events in medicine

[tenthree]

Hi all!

I have some upcoming interviews to prepare for, and I know that adcoms expect us to be updated on current events in medicine. What websites/ online news do you guys like to use for this? So far, I've been reading the economist, but I was wondering whether there were any other websites I should know about.

Also, is there any "list of current events/ hot topics in medicine" that I can refer to on SDN? If not, how did you guys make sure you've studied all the current events in medicine that are relevant for interviewing?

Thanks in advance!

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[lumya]

I don't think any adcom is going to expect you to be a subject matter in any current event that's outside of your personal experience (i.e. if you used to be a healthcare lawyer that field is going to be fair game for them). However, I think the following should be topics you have a general idea about (I got a degree in health policy and administration but this is all my personal feelings):

- Affordable Care Act - what is is, what its goal is, short falls
- Single payer healthcare/health economics
- Assisted suicide/end of life care/aging patient population
- Physician burnout
- Mental health
- Social detriments of health
- Opioid crisis
- Artificial intelligence and application to healthcare
- Cultural competency for physicians
- Probably something about COVID-19 and what you think are things we could've done to make it better/what to do to prevent it
- Personalized medicine/use of genomics

You probably won't get grilled for specifics for any of these but it would be nice to know enough so you're able to form a well-thought out response answer based on what you do. You can learn about this from reading reputable news articles or doing quick Wikipedia searches.

 

[Goro]

Hi all!

I have some upcoming interviews to prepare for, and I know that adcoms expect us to be updated on current events in medicine. What websites/ online news do you guys like to use for this? So far, I've been reading the economist, but I was wondering whether there were any other websites I should know about.

Also, is there any "list of current events/ hot topics in medicine" that I can refer to on SDN? If not, how did you guys make sure you've studied all the current events in medicine that are relevant for interviewing?

Thanks in advance!

The NY Times Health/Science section is a good enough for topical things.

 

[LunaOri]

There are also the daily headlines from Medscape, Doximity, and Becker's Hospital News. Although, as Goro mentioned, the Science section of the NYT (or any other major newspaper) gives a good, in-depth analysis of current issues.