Welcome to the Medical Student Perspective Page!
Articles featured on this page are submitted by ACC medical student members around the globe covering topics ranging from personal experiences, patient encounters, mentorship, entrepreneurship, advocacy and more.
May 27, 2022
Ahmad Akhtar, MD, is a recently graduated medical student from the American University of Integrative Sciences and CEO of Darul Qalb, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based non-profit organization that conducts medical missions to provide free procedures to underserved populations around the world.
April 19, 2022
Are you aiming to be an outstanding educator while on service? Join the FIT Section on April 21 at 7 p.m. ET for a webinar on educating in the clinical setting. Learn about how to execute effective teaching strategies, tackle teaching at multiple levels and build a career in medical education.
April 14, 2022
The new issue of JACC: Basic to Translational Science includes a focus issue highlighting innovative presentations given as part of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s inaugural 2022 Technology for Heart Failure Therapeutics (THT) Shark Tank innovation competition.
April 12, 2022
Join Kalyanam Shivkumar, MD, PhD, FACC, editor-in-chief of JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, and Douglas P. Zipes, MD, MACC, for a live webinar on Wednesday, April 20 from 2-3:30 p.m. ET to learn strategies for developing a translational research career.
February 28, 2022
ACC.22 is just around the corner, and we are looking for volunteers to join the FITs on the GO (FOTG) initiative! FITs from the Mayo Clinic and ACC have partnered to create FOTG with the goal of spreading cardiology knowledge and building a community among trainees. For the first time, in addition to FITs, we are opening this opportunity to medical residents and medical students.
February 24, 2022
Some events in our lives are meant to be forgotten, or at least not remembered particularly in detail. But others mark our lives forever, whether it’s positively or negatively. We may not remember what we had for lunch a week ago, but we always remember the day we graduated from high school or the day we received bad news about the health of someone we love.
February 23, 2022
The ACC is excited to announce an opportunity to join a national board of medical student leaders. The leadership council is tasked with promoting collaboration among our student members, growing our student outreach and engagement, and working on common tasks to promote ACC's Medical Student Member Community.
February 15, 2022
"News headlines informed me of the damaging effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the respiratory, neurological and cardiovascular systems," writes Tasha R. Phillips-Wilson, BS, MS.
January 14, 2022 | Leonie Dupuis, BS
On Sept. 23, 2021, I was sitting in the University of Central Florida Health workroom completing a patient note when I received a phone call that changed my life. My dad had a stroke and was being taken to the hospital.
December 10, 2021
JACC and JACC: Case Reports have launched JACC Patient Pathways, a new, interactive case report experience that illustrates the cross-specialty decision-making in an acute care setting.
December 10, 2021
The newest JACC Journal, JACC: Advances, is now accepting submissions.
November 11, 2021 | Eduardo Thadeu de Oliveira Correia, MD
Eduardo Thadeu de Oliveira Correia is an MD/PhD student from the Fluminense Federal University, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, expected to graduate with his medical degree at the end of this year and defend his PhD thesis in 2022.
November 11, 2021 | Abd El Rahman Mohamed, MBBCH
I am an Egyptian fifth-year medical student at Missouri University for Science and Technology in the U.S., and after the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, I spent my quarantine with my father in Abu Dhabi.
November 11, 2021 | Sarah Jane Muder ; Chiya Abramowitz, BA,DO,MBA,MS ; Denis Malkov
Electrocardiograms (ECGs) are consistently one of the most dreaded topics to learn in medical school. They are often described by medical students as "low-yield," a term indicating that something isn't heavily tested on medical board exams.
October 1, 2021 | Sibi Krishna Thiyagarajan
We all might be divided by race, creed, caste, religion, and many other factors. However, what ultimately remains is that we are all humans. In accordance with the Declaration of Geneva, which was adopted by the World Medical Association at its second General Assembly in 19481, we as physicians should not discriminate against any patients who come to us for treatment based on any bias. I believe the same must be practiced among ourselves, as physicians, too.
October 1, 2021 | Mario Alvarez Nava, III
When the global COVID-19 pandemic began, the life of every person in the world changed. In my case, as a third-year medical student, it meant a stop in attending to the hospital and learning through direct contact with patients, and a stop in seeing my friends, family and teachers.
October 1, 2021 | Rachel D Check, BS
Many physicians have influenced my journey in medicine thus far. But amid completing my residency applications, I feel a great sense of gratitude for a certain cardiologist: John Cantwell, MD, FACC. From being his medical assistant to rotating with him as a medical student, my experiences with Dr. Cantwell have inspired me to choose a field that will satisfy my thirst for knowledge and my desire to form strong patient relationships – just as cardiology has done for him.
August 5, 2021 | Sebahat Ulusan
At the beginning of my first year of medical school, I didn't yet comprehend the importance of research activities. However, during my second semester, Medical Education Department Assistant Professor Giray Kolcu, MD, offered me a place to attend an international congress.
June 22, 2021 | Andrew Awuah Wireko
Currently, there is a need for Ghana and many other African countries to fix their ailing and overwhelmed health care sectors. The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care systems across the globe and the international social and economic order has taught the world a great lesson.
June 22, 2021 | Tess Calcagno, PharmD
"Transitional AV canal, status post-surgical repair in 2003. Now with residual cleft in the left atrioventricular valve with moderate regurgitation."
June 11, 2021 | Ahila Alexandria, BS
The hardest battle I’ve had to face is the one I fight with myself every day. Being in medical school is a substantial feat, and it is one that comes with its own unique challenges.
May 10, 2021 | Vivek Bhat ; Ahmad Ozair, MBBS
My 82-year-old grandmother had been complaining of tiredness for a while but had refused to visit a physician. Once her breathlessness began to wake her up in the middle of the night, she finally agreed. The general physician diagnosed her with heart failure and prescribed a medley of medications.
May 10, 2021 | Som Singh, BA
Student-run free clinics are sponsored, not-for-profit forms of community-level outpatient care. Student volunteers are involved in nearly all aspects of clinic operations while under the supervision of volunteer doctors, pharmacists and other health care professionals. In addition, literature supports the general attitude among student volunteers is that volunteering at these clinics improves their clinical skills holistically.
April 21, 2021 | Diego Chambergo-Michilot
"Students should limit themselves to studying medicine through books and only begin research once they are physicians." Students who propose research ideas often hear this response from teachers.
April 2, 2021 | Christian Faaborg-Andersen, BS
Like a kid on the first day of school, I arose from bed at around 4:45 a.m. on Monday, March 2, 2020 with butterflies in my stomach. The clerkship year had at long last arrived. I donned my surgical scrubs and brushed my teeth as the moon stood high and the crickets chirped outside my window. The world was quiet. Then came the cold sweat down my neck and my face felt hot. At that moment, I knew there was an infection blooming inside my lungs.
April 2, 2021 | Zoilo Karim Suarez Yeb, MD
There are several factors that are essential for personal development, but what are they? I am a firm believer that introspection is an important key to growth. After traveling to the U.S. from the island nation of the Dominican Republic to do a sub-internship, my interactions with residents, fellows and attendings have given me a new perspective on how medicine should ideally be practiced and has made me reflect on the issues that are silently affecting thousands of lives within my "Quisqueya La Bella" (Dominican Republic).
February 5, 2021 | Fariha Hameed, BS
A field as vast as medicine can be challenging to navigate for a budding medical student. As someone who has benefitted from having an exceptional mentor, I understand the impact mentorship can have on a medical student’s future trajectory.
February 5, 2021 | Mariana L Henry, MPH
While shadowing at the hospital one Monday morning, I met Anna*. Anna was 17 years old. She loved swimming, cheerleading and horseback riding. Unfortunately, Anna had to put these activities on hold. She had osteosarcoma, and her health had recently taken a turn for the worse.
January 20, 2021
Eric J. Topol, MD, is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, professor of Molecular Medicine, and executive vice president of Scripps Research.
January 15, 2021 | Dan B Tran, BS
Eight years after my sister’s remarkable recovery from surgery that cured her rare congenital heart defect and kindled my fascination for becoming a cardiologist, I felt excitement and humility on the first day of my cardiology rotation as a third-year medical student.
December 1, 2020 | Andrew C Elton, BS
It is the anatomy final in my first year of medical school; I move quickly through the lab trying to identify the semblances of human structures laying on the stainless-steel dissection tables.
November 13, 2020 | Benjamin Titus, BS
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has exacerbated the already difficult problem of how to deliver health care safely and efficiently.
November 6, 2020
Neil J. Weissman, MD, FACC, is the chief scientific officer for MedStar Health and president of MedStar Health Research Institute.
September 9, 2020 | Eduardo Thadeu de Oliveira Correia, MD
Being part of a research project is never an easy task, even for experienced academic physicians. Medical students often become passionate about conducting research in the fields of medicine that interest them; in my case, it is cardiology.
September 9, 2020
Diversity is important to cardiovascular disease (CVD) programs directors (PDs) and PDs are striving to increase diversity in their programs through recruitment and strategies directed toward the fellowship learning environment, according to results of the second annual Cardiovascular PDs Survey published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
August 19, 2020 | Mallory Hoevet, BS
There is a strange mix of freedom and anxiety I feel when walking into a room full of people that I know are more experienced, qualified and competent than myself.
July 30, 2020
Debabrata Mukherjee, MD, MS, FACC, is the chair of the department of internal medicine and chief of cardiovascular medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso.
July 16, 2020 | Emily Gates, BS,MS
To those who are just starting their journey in medicine – let me first say congratulations and welcome to medical school!
July 16, 2020 | Gurleen Kaur, MD
"I have no chest pain or shortness of breath." I stared back at the patient as she said those words, dazzled for a second on how to proceed with the encounter.
July 16, 2020 | Sagarika Arogyaswamy, BA
In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, physician mental health and treatment is more important to discuss than ever.
July 14, 2020 | Zachary Manna,
So, what brings you to a rotation in cardiology? Are you a third-year medical student fulfilling a subspecialty requirement?
July 14, 2020 | Adriana Camila Mares, BS
They are more than the world's oldest amphitheaters – they are symbolic architectures that, through their rich history, teach us valuable life lessons.
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