adelaidemedblog

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_eM8DRo3SNY

I was going to go out just now to run some errands (return an embryology book to Dr. Pierce, buy a new bike tube, levers for my sister’s bike and ask what that green slimy ooze coming out of the inside is… and then go for a sleep therapy appointment) but I started to think about blogging.  I’ve had a stressful, stressful two weeks and now it’s time to do things I haven’t done in a long while.

The Youtube video above is some guy from first year Harvard medical school talking about his experiences in the course there.  I found it interesting material to procrastinate on before MCQ/SAQ, because I was looking for some psychosocial material to cover and came across his video post by chance.  The one thing that I found most interesting was one particular thing he said…

Ok I can’t remember exactly what he said.. but it went something like, “Med school has taught us that so many people are starting to believe that the world of medicine is being controlled by drug companies, so our year has decided among us that we will try our best not to be influenced by those companies.  Not to take drug pens, no free lunches, gifts, and other stuff they might try to give us.  Of course that’s what we want now, hopefully we’ll be able to keep up the attitude for a long time.”

Earlier in the year, we had a lecture from this guy who runs Healthy Skeptics.  Don’t ask me exactly what the organisation does, because I can’t remember that.. but I do remember that he had a couple of important points to take home for us:

1. Drug companies are very knowledgable about how to convince doctors that their drugs are better.

2. Drug reps are very well trained.

Therefore,

3. We should all be very careful when approached by drug companies in any form.

4. The less vulnerable we think we are, the more vulnerable we actually are.

I bring up these two things - the youtube video, and the lecture, because there’s a third thing that really got me going.

It happened a couple of week before swotvac.  Mum invited Gloris and I to a “free dinner”, run by “the sleep centre”.  Well, I’m a med student, so free dinner definitely sounds good.  It saves about $3 on food costs for that night and if I’m lucky I’ll be full enough to save $1.20 on breakfast tomorrow morning.  Anyway, I’d be getting a good $20+ meal cos I’m eating at a restaurant too.

The company that was running it was selling orthopaedic mattresses.  They were giving us a free dinner so we could listen to a man named Tom convince us why it was so important to our health and wellbeing to buy one of these for ourselves.  They gave us free samples of deep heat in snazzy Thai-covered tubes.  There was cold reading, audience placement, and hilarious stereotyping all round.

After I finished the dinner, I raised my hand (Tom was talking, continuously), apologised but said I needed to run, and dragged Gloris out of it too.  Was I thinking too deeply?  I was going to be convinced by this man.  But… leaving after the dinner was doing exactly what the lecturer had told us was wrong.  It was taking without giving - certainly not a practicable aspect of proper medical ethics.

I felt very vulnerable during that time.  I wonder if in the future I will not take the free pens, gifts, lunches.  Is it a way to save ourselves, or the rest of the world?

Maybe I’ll be brainwashed, but by which side??