MedEd Connect Blog: Exploring Medicine Based Careers

Orthopedic Surgery Zayd Shariff  Orthopedic surgery focuses on the musculoskeletal system which includes your bones, joints, and ligaments among other things. It is a key part of medicine that helps individuals stay fit, mobile, and active leading people to live a healthy lifestyle. It encompasses conditions such as arthritis, sports injuries, and spinal problems. Despite its importance throughout the world, access to the speciality remains unequal across the globe. In affluent countries such as the United States orthopedic surgery continues to rapidly improve. Innovations include techniques that utilize robotic assistance, procedures that are minimally invasive, and patient personalized medicine. As a result patients recover in shorter times and stay healthier for longer periods of time. While these improvements are obviously beneficial, in less developed countries the most basic forms of orthopedic surgery are out of reach. For example, a fractured femur can be treated within hou...

Neurogenetics Alishba Abbasi Neurogenetic disorders are genetic and chromosomal alterations that affect the nervous system, affecting brain development, nerve function, and overall neurological well-being. Early intervention is crucial for a child's ability to acquire essential skills and independence.  Along with lifelong healthcare management, which can only be achieved via a collaborative approach involving a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, scientists, psychologists, social workers and administrative staff in order to meet the specific needs of the individual and their family. The establishment of an integrated service that includes clinical assessment and diagnosis, molecular genetic testing and follow-up consultations would all need to be in place.  Yet for many, this is unavailable. Either due to the expenses required, the ethical issues related to it, or due to the pace at which this field is advancing, which proves hard to keep up. Despite increased funding, the...

  Throughout the past seventy years, scientists have worked with psychostimulant medications to help patients with ADHD, also known as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. ADHD affects peoples’ lives all around the globe. Its symptoms include hyperactivity, impulsivity, and issues with attention. Through a multitude of scientific research on the causes and effects of ADHD, researchers have found a solution to aiding those who struggle with daily functioning due to ADHD. Psychostimulant medications have been known to alleviate symptoms of ADHD and improve attention by increasing dopamine levels and norepinephrine in the brain. Once these neurotransmitters are boosted, the psychostimulants work to increase a patient’s ability to concentrate. However, neuroimaging has recently allowed scientists to discover how long-term psychostimulant treatment affects the brain structure of adults with ADHD. Specifically, scientists used brain MRI scans from 26 adults, with 13 who had been tre...