Category: Medicine

  • Stem cells from human, adult skin

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    Sam
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    Students have asked me about the ethical difficulties of embryonic stem cell research a number of times in the past, and it’s a great question to pose at candidates’ interviews. That topic may now have become mute though, as work published by two groups in Science and Cell suggests that you can dedifferentiate your own…

  • Gambian Medicine

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    Sam
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    If you would like to find out more about Higher Education and medicine in The Gambia, plus more about the country itself, try these links: University of The Gambia The Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital Article: Experience of Cuban Faculty in Establishing a Medical School in the Republic of The Gambia UK Gambians Health The Gambia…

  • Anatomy Teaching

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    Sam
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    I thought I’d got out of teaching anatomy on Monday, in Swansea at least. Prof. Menendez and the anatomy lecturer here in the Gambian School of Medicine have roped me into teaching the 3rd year students in a 1 and a half hour slot on Monday morning (at about the same time as I would…

  • Arrived

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    Sam
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    We safely arrived in The Gambia and the hotel after many hours and much tipping of Gambians. The flight was very picturesque, passing south over England, crossing France, the Bay of Biscay, flying over Portugal or Spain, and then north Africa down to Gambia and Banjul. Today, we met with our Gambian counterparts in a…

  • Clinical Skills Video Podcast

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    Sam
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    In addition to downloading specially crafted clinical skills training videos from Blackboard (if you’re a Swansea University medicine student) you can now access them through iTunes in a format ready for your portable video player. More videos will be released through the teaching year. Subscribe to the video podcast using iTunes.

  • Clinical skills videos

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    Sam
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    The embryology podcasts have been well received, and we’re working to add to those, to improve them, and to glitz them up a bit. How would you like to see clinical skills demonstration videos in a podcast format on your iPod (or other popular mp4 player)? The videos are already available on Blackboard to Swansea…

  • How older siblings stunt growth

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    Sam
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    A study is suggesting that having an older brother can stunt the growth of younger siblings. My younger brother’s about a foot taller than me, so it wouldn’t seem to apply to my family. Researchers suggest the trends they observe might be due to uterine factors in second pregnancies, or dilution of time, money or…

  • Vaccines

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    Sam
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    I’m visiting Banjul, in The Gambia at the end of this month to aid the development of the link between the medical school there and the school here in Swansea. I’ll have my elearning and IT hat on for most of the week, with some anatomy teaching and much meeting and greeting of Gambian colleagues…

  • Excercise ‘must be tough to work’

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    Apparently people are confused about exercise and health. I’d go along with that, noticing a large number of large and slow people suddenly appearing outdoors on the cycle paths when the weather becomes pleasant. While a BBC article reports that it is unclear whether one should perform light exercise for half an hour, three times…

  • Guess the questions

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