Hello everybody!

My name is Laura Swale, and I will be attending the second session in Chicago (July 19-28). I am incredibly excited, becuase the forum begins exactly three weeks form today!

In the information packet, under the subtitle "Academic Preparation," we are advised to "be well-informed" about the field of medicine. I was just wondering if anybody could give me a little bit of feedback regarding how to become better informed about issues in the field of medicine. I mean, what news shows, newspapers, periodicals, etc. have you guys been watching,and reading in order to become better informed. Also, what specific issues have you guys been looking into? I hope that my question makes sense, and I hope that we can all help each other to prepare for our forums, and to ultimately become better prepared for the medical profession.

well from what i can tell most of us really dont know exactly what they want us to know so alot of us dont really know anything so dont worry your not alone... i do know that one girl just made sure she was informed on like stem cell research and stuff like that... hope this helped a little bit

Honestly, you don't need any background information. They give you this big notebooks on information that you go over in your med sessions.So dont stress. have fun, it will be probably the best 10 days of your life.

Ok then I'm not alone
cause I went to one of there websites they mentioned and I had no clue on where to start ....and cause I'm kinda lazy

Seconded, lol. I went and was like "Wha? What is this!"

I've been lookin at Sciencedaily.com

They have some cool med stuff.. but i get distracted by other things on there.. or a butterfly flies by my window and I want to go outside.. xP. You know, the procastination blues. "I gotta get this done, but I also want to go climb a tree!" xP

Alright, awesome! I'm a lot less worried now, but I have found a lot of very interesting information on sciencedaily.com, so thank you! Everyone else should check out sciencedaily.com as well!

I'm not going until the 5th, but I'm sure new health care reform will be a topic of discussion e.g.: Obama's view, the conservative view, the AMA's view.

I recently picked up an issue of "Time" magazine that featured a big article on the new health care reform, so I will definitely have to peruse that. It makes sense that that would be a big topic of discussion, considering the profound effects that it will have upon future physicians.

Thanks!