Last month, the New York Times鈥� 鈥淭hink Like a Doctor鈥� feature gave AV俱乐部 medicine student Heather Chambers a chance to shine.
The regular column features a difficult medical case and asks readers to try and guess the diagnosis.聽 聽
Chambers, a third-year student, read about a woman who was taken to a New York City emergency room with an excruciating, seemingly infected leg wound. Despite the best efforts of her doctors, the wound did not respond to antibiotics.
That was all the information Chambers needed. 鈥淭he answer was right there in the title,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he issue is one that you wouldn鈥檛 suspect until it didn鈥檛 respond to treatment.鈥�
The problem was pyoderma gangrenosum, a rare condition that causes tissue to become necrotic and presents itself much like an infected wound. As Chambers points out, its hallmark is that, unlike infection, pyoderma gangrenosum does not respond to antibiotics.
While more than 400 people wrote in to try and answer the question, .
It was the AV俱乐部 Medical School鈥檚 newly implemented e-learning and online teaching that allowed her to make the diagnosis so quickly. In her second-year dermatology rotation with Dr. Peter Green, Chambers learned about the disease. 鈥淭he course was taught really well. It incorporated interactive modules, one of which covered this disease. I just looked at the picture and knew.鈥�
A new approach to medical learning
Chambers is part of the first MD class that will graduate under Dal鈥檚 new curriculum, launched as part the Faculty of Medicine's renewal process. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot more case-based learning, fewer lectures and more small groups,鈥� says Chambers. 鈥淪tarting in first year, it gets people out to shadow and work in an actual medical position.鈥�
She says the interactive learning tools are key because it means that the professors are thinking about their students. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good indication of thinking about how to teach.聽 Different people learn differently and it鈥檚 important to know that the professor is thinking about that.鈥�
The tools are essential elements of a program designed to produce doctors that 鈥渁re able to work as agents of creative change in health-care institutions and communities,鈥� she adds.聽
Doing what she loves
A career in medicine was in the back of Chambers鈥� mind throughout high school and her undergraduate degree, but she presumed her less-than-confident math skills might hold her back.
It was her experience in the health-care system, after becoming ill during her first career as a public television producer in Oregon, that inspired her to apply to medical school.
鈥淚t made me realize that doctors aren鈥檛 super-human,鈥� she recalls, 鈥渁nd if they could do it, then why couldn鈥檛 I?
鈥淥nce I figured that out, I just started taking math classes, and lo-and-behold, I was just too young the first time.鈥�
Chambers is currently in the middle of third-year specialties rotation. 鈥淧ublic television was a lot of long hours too, but it鈥檚 different now that I鈥檓 doing something I really want to be doing,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he more I get into it, the more I just feel privileged to be able to participate in peoples鈥� lives the way I have the ability to, and that I have some way to make things a little better.鈥�