Contents: March 2005

Editorials

Nanomedicine
Advances in science have always fuelled innovation in medicine, and nanotechnology is no exception. Thanks to science fiction, most of you will have heard of nanotechnology; Dan Martin and Andrew McCaskie fill in the gaps.

Making happy doctors
Medical students must receive regular, structured, and constructive appraisal to detect unhappiness and promote effective change, argue Ed Peile and Yvonne Carter

News

Disability training reduces students' negativity

Tuition fees about to be imposed in Germany

Medics to teach in primary schools

Medics worldwide: news and opportunities from the IFMSA

Japan tests medical students for approachability

Oral education is inadequate

Medics launch global health website

Education

Beginners guide to genetics: Past, present, and future
In the last article of our series, the Genetics Group, coordinated by Osvaldo Mutchinick, deals with the history of genetics and how future research will impact diagnosis and treatment of diseases

The next small step
The microgravity experienced in space missions has serious effects on human physiology. Kevin Fong looks at the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body and our current understanding of the effects of microgravity on physiology

First aid: Airway, choking and asphyxia
In the second part of our series, Samena Chaudhry and colleagues guide you through management and problems associated with airway obstruction

Pub medic: Electronic health records
Bishoy Morris explains what the fuss surrounding new electronic records is all about

Puzzle: Gastric cancer

Careers

Dying for a kip:the importance of sleep medicine
Medical students get about two minutes teaching on it, and there are only a handful of dedicated consultants. Its time we woke up to the merits of sleep medicine say Andy Currie, Ed Peile, and Chris Hanning

Understanding personality type: How it relates to job satisfaction
In the sixth article of her series, Anita Houghton explains how your overall personality type can dictate what you enjoy and what youre good at in work

Life and loathes of a new doctor: Carry on nursing

How to answer MCQs
Simon Chen offers some tips on answering multiple choice and true or false questions

The advice zone

Papers

Paper plus: Should snowboarders wear helmets?
Helmets protect skiers and snowboarders against head injuries, but do they also protect the neck? Kristina Fister explains how a matched case-control and case crossover study was used to investigate the effect of wearing helmets on head and neck injuries

Life

Virtual encounters
Are the days of newly qualified doctors practising skills on real patients numbered? Doctors in the United States are making their first diagnoses and their first mistakes on plastic, wires and computer circuits, rather than flesh and blood. Vishnu Madhok explains

Future imperfect
Virtual reality is changing the face of medical education and surgical practices. Sukhmet Panesar, Anish Shah, and Iain Mckay-Davies look to the future

Private life
More and more UK doctors are working privately, and the Scottish National Party has proposed golden handcuffs to retain doctors in the state system. Katie Reid asks medical students around the world if they feel a duty to serve the public

Game on
Video games are for kids only, right? Wrong! Sadat Edroosexplains how such games have evolved from mere toys into potential learning aids

Making a difference
Oxfam’s Rhona MacDonald discusses how doctors can help end global poverty and introduces Oxdocs, an Oxfam initiative for doctors and medical students

What's the evidence?
With just the click of a mouse, you can access thousands of research articles of variable credibility about lots of different medical conditions. But how do you actually apply them to clinical practice? Manique Wijesinghe and Sharon Strauss describe how you should use evidence based medicine