How to study medicine

1. HOW TO STUDY MEDICINE
Dr.T.V.Rao MD
With many years in the Medical Profession and
seeing several students I was tempted to write a brief article on how
to study medicine. As teachers we were taught how to teach to our
students in several medical educational programmes, rarely we
teach our students how to study medicine. Many of us just teach
with the concept of our specialization majority think their
specialization is the entire world. Let us think that we are making a
raw student into a Doctor to take care of other humans. I was a keen
observer of the events of my life for several years. My writing are not
scientific but with interaction with several students and following
their careers. The real problem in medicine is same as when I was a
student 4 decades back. The biggest problem in medical education
today is an old one: There is too much to know, and not enough time
to learn it. The problem is more acute today than it has been in the
past, because of the great increase in medical information and even
the addition of new courses in medical colleges. The real question
remains for the student how can one digest and remember so much
information. I have just a question how much we have read Grays
Anatomy, Robin’s pathology or Oxford Medicine and Harrison’s text
book of Medicine. Despite the importance of reference texts; it can
be difficult to go through them in the short times allotted for
medical-college courses. Also, the information can be so
overwhelming that it becomes difficult to see the forest for the trees,
and acquire an overall understanding. While it is important to have
the reference text, the initial phase of acquiring understanding is
best achieved through the small books which are plenty, written by
our Indian authors which helps us to see the big picture to acquire

2. knowledge and competence. My great fascination to learn
Community medicine which I think to be called Total Medicine,
though, Park’s community medicine made my thinking easier and
made me realise Medicine is to understand the community that
alone responsible for beginning of many diseases in both developed
and developing countries, helps you to see the reality of many
diseases we come across in real practice. Once you’ve managed that,
you can delve into the reference texts or elsewhere in greater detail
as time permits, and you’ll have greater success than just trying to
memorize information. The stiff competition makes our students to
start preparing for Post graduate entrance from 2nd MBBS and they
rarely concentrate on assigned work during Horsemanship. Student
time to study for entrance tests the post graduate entrance may be
limited, especially since studying often needs to be done while other
medical college courses are underway. However passing the
University examinations is important, so is having the understanding
necessary to be a good clinician. While one could review a book that
contains isolated facts that may appear on the boards, you won’t
acquire an understanding this way. Ideally, you should have this
before you review isolated facts for the internal assessments and
university examination with time as constraint. Such understanding
can be achieved through the small books that focuses on clinical
relevance and overall understanding, ideally read at the time the
course is taken, but later if needed. The focus of the entrance for PG
courses is on basic sciences, clinically relevant topics, so that small
books will likely contain the most relevant facts for passing it. Once
you’re on the wards, the question is how to make the most efficient
use of your time in continuing your medical education. Not only is
your time limited, but you’ll often find yourself fatigued from long
periods on clinical duties. Trying to study a book like Harrison’s
Medicine from cover to cover is likely to be futile and may be

3. impossible. You need a more efficient method of learning. Reading
journals can help you keep up on current information, but your
primary focus in the medical-college years should be on acquiring the
general broad information that is common basic knowledge. This in
itself is a very large task, it has often been said, and I agree, that the
best way to learn and retain medicine is through patient interaction.
But to supplement this learning experience, it is important to do a
certain amount of critical reading. Learning from your seniors or
residents can be very useful, but the literature is more likely to be
accurate. The most efficient way to do this reading relevant material,
in my view, is to ask specific questions about the patient conditions
you’ve seen during the day, and then seek out specific information in
your reading and then only refer to the online resources. In this
contest I wish to emphasize yet in my view there is no book like
surgical methods by Dr.DAS. You should have specific questions to
research, and then look for specific answers. In that way, over time,
you will have learned the most important information related to the
common diseases you are likely to encounter. I am late to realise my
teachers advised me Medicine is in a patient and may not be
accurate in Textbooks, now I realise many of my co students who
concentrated on patients became very successful Physicians and
Surgeons, at the same time many who attained many Medals were
not able succeed in real-time practice due lack of understanding the
realities of the Society. Today the Internet and online resources
provides a much quicker and more efficient way of searching for
information. By using a general or medical-specific search engine, it
is now possible to find important current and practical information
about virtually any medical condition. Many of us search through
Google without fully understanding the full potentials, our search
should be scientific in feeding words, and today Medicine is a
specialization to the narrow possible extent. Perfect the art of

4. searching and you lose no time with internet. My few words may not
solve all problems I still think learning is an art to be perfected.
However learning medicine becomes easier if we practice learn from
the patients. I wish to emphasize acquire a general understanding
through the small, clinically relevant books that provides the overall
picture, so you can see the forest rather than the trees. Humour and
mnemonics can help, but understanding is key. Seek out particular
points of information through the Internet. Keep a reference text at
hand underline when you have to refer in future. Read journals as
time allows, today we see few teachers utilize the Library resource,
with loss of major investments in the Libraries. Journals teach diverse
ways Medicine is understood, and motivate us as future researchers.
Keep in mind reading Medicine alone can never make you perfect,
read many times with understanding and try to correlate with clinical
practice, or you are lost in the competitive world.
Email
doctortvrao@gmail.com