Undergraduate Elective Presentations
Thursday, 16 October 2014
Medico-Chirurgical Hall
Joint Event with University of Aberdeen Medical Society.
The University of Aberdeen 2014 MBChB Graduates, who were awarded Elective Bursaries by the Society to facilitate their final year studies, were invited to compete for the Adam Quaich by presenting their elective findings to the meeting with the audience selecting the winner.
Notes
Minute of meeting of Society 16th October 2014
The meeting was held in the Society's Hall. The President, Professor Mike Greaves, presided. 4th year students were present and a video link was established to students in Inverness.
The meeting was the annual presentations given by former students who had received bursaries to support their student elective project the previous year. 4 students gave presentations.
Dr Victoria Calvert (Professor Hanz Kosterlitz award) spoke on An audit of the presentation, diagnosis and management of Burkitt's lymphoma in a rural Zambian setting. Dr Calvert had travelled from Newcastle to attend the meeting.
She described Burkitt's lymphoma and its various forms and the difficulties around detailed diagnoses in Africa. Her project had been done in St Francis Hospital, Zambia. She had obtained a list of patients from the hospital and then manually found the notes. Out of 56 cases, she obtained the notes for 27 which she analysed for age, presentation, investigations and treatment. Outcomes were poorly recorded.
After giving details of her study, she talked enthusiastically about her trip and her elective and gave some 'top tips' for the students.
The second presentation was by Dr Andrew Nicolson (Sir Ashley Mackintosh award) who had also travelled from Newcastle. His elective title was A population study of Schistosoma infection in under 5 year olds presenting to rural health outposts in Mulanje, Malawi.
After talking about Schistosomiasis, its cause, effects and treatment, he described his study which involved collecting urine from children and analysing it for haematuria and performing microscopy looking for the parasites. Of 101 samples, 10% had been positive, with 3-4 year olds being most affected. He had trained in microscopy before he travelled.
He then spoke about his enjoyment of the elective and gave advice to students.
The next speaker was Dr Jennifer Reekie (Dr Mary Esslemont award) who had travelled from Bristol. Her title was Review of obesity-induced childhood obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, which she had performed in Melbourne, Australia.
She spoke about Melbourne Children’s Hospital where she worked from 8 to 5 being involved with clinical work as well as doing her study.
24% of children there were obese and 60% of them have the syndrome. She talked about the syndrome and the problems of treating it. Her project had involved a literature review (which revealed the scarcity of good trials) and she had then worked on one specific case of which she gave details.
She spoke enthusiastically about her trip.
The final speaker was Dr Andrew Smith(Sir James McGrigor award) who had travelled from Edinburgh. His topic A novel scoring system for assessing Beta Cell function after clinical islet transplantation (CIT) had been performed in Edmonton, Canada.
He talked about transplantation of Beta cells in difficult diabetic patients, the advantages of this technique and the limitations. Edmonton is a pioneering centre for this treatment and his study investigated a new way of assessing the function of the transplanted cells.
A vote was then taken, including from students in Inverness. Whilst the votes were being counted, Dr Donald Thomas spoke to the students about their forthcoming electives.
The Adam Quaich was awarded to Dr Andrew Nicolson on the result of the votes cast for the best presentation..