The Lifelong Learner - Foreword

Dear life students,

This blog is created with the main intention to provide guidance to students pursuing medical education either at the undergraduate level or higher, particularly in the subject of Internal Medicine. This avenue is an added measure to reach out to students due to my limited contact time for teaching in the clinical setting.

Being a clinician in Internal Medicine and part time educator affiliated with a local centre for higher medical education, my time is mostly occupied by clinical work and other associated duties in the clinical centre where I am currently serving. The number of hours allocated for each student group is limited as determined by the university and does not commensurate with the vast number of topics in Internal Medicine. Granted that students have already been handed a list of examination topics and syllabus by the medical faculty to narrow down the study scope as well as faciliate revision. 

However, in my opinion, medical education is not, and should not be about passing exams only. Medical education should be focused on producing medical graduates who will be safe and competent practitioners. And the basics in Internal Medicine is already a lengthy list making it a challenging task to emphasize every aspect of the it for the final MBBS or MD exit exams.  

Throughout my more than 15 years of clinical experience, I have come to appreciate the importance of adequate exposure and training for our junior doctors and medical graduates. Having a competent junior colleague on the medical team is crucial and would make patient management more comprehensive and smooth. 

Therefore it is my hope that this avenue will provide students with more exposure to practical medical knowledge especially those relevant to clinical practice and at the same time, assist them in their preparations for their professional examinations.

Let this platform be a medium for exchange of medical knowledge as I believe in two way exchanges. One can never be too old to learn or re-learn. Some information can be forgotten along the way and it is always good to have a reminder every now and then. Feel free to raise a question or add on to the information posted in the comment section. And please do point out any errors on my part that you may come across in your reading of my content. 

Thank you and happy learning. 

CCE.