MEDICAL WOMEN’S FEDERATION
Tavistock House North, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HX
Tel: 020 7387 7765 email: admin.mwf@btconnect.com
www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk
@medicalwomenuk
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Name
Rebecca Robey
Email
Project title
Clinical haematology
Location of your Elective
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Contact details for your elective (eg. Website
address or email address of your project coordinator)
What did you achieve?
Michele.rutherford@emory.edu
Would you recommend this location / project to
others?
Further comments (eg. Travel advice, tips for
organising an elective similar to this etc.)
Would you be happy for you feedback form to
be available on our website?
Further comments (eg. A review of your trip)
max. 500 words.
For my medical school elective I undertook a four-week clerkship
in Haematology at Emory University, at their affiliated hospital, the
Atlanta Veterans Association Medical Center. The generous
bursary awarded to me by the Medical Women’s Federation
helped me to fund this opportunity. Overall, the placement proved
to be a fantastic learning experience, and I now feel in a strong
position from which to pursue my intended career in Haematology.
Yes. Emory is a fantastic university with a strong medical school
and excellent reputation for research, partly due to its links with
the USA’s Center for Disease Control (CDC). I hope to have a career
as a clinician scientist, combining patient care with clinical
research.
My elective was arranged through an exchange programme
between my home university, Kings College London, and Emory
University. Being part of an exchange programme meant that I did
not have to pay the usual fees required by Emory, which made the
venture much more financially viable for me.
Yes without email address
I spent time with both the inpatient and outpatient services, and
through these saw patients with many of the most common
haematological conditions, both malignant and non-malignant. I
took responsibility for my own inpatients, clerking new patients,
presenting to the Attending Physician and, with their guidance,
formulating a management plan and documenting the consult in
the patient’s notes. I then reviewed the patients daily, checking
their test results, doing a physical examination and presenting
them on the daily ward round.
I was lucky to see an unusual case of a rare disease, POEMS
syndrome (Polyneuropathy, Organomegaly, Endocrinopathy,
Monoclonal protein and Skin changes). I was the first person from
the Haematology team to clerk this patient, and was involved in
the investigation and diagnosis of his disease. It proved to be an
MEDICAL WOMEN’S FEDERATION
Tavistock House North, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HX
Tel: 020 7387 7765 email: admin.mwf@btconnect.com
www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk
@medicalwomenuk
www.facebook.com/MedWomen
interesting case, with several useful learning points about the
management and investigation of patients with unexplained and
refractory symptoms. I therefore volunteered to write up the case
with help from the Attending Physician, and we have submitted it
for publication in the journal, BMJ Case Reports.
In addition to clinical activities, I attended teaching sessions and
departmental meetings, including a weekly multidisciplinary
‘tumour board’, radiation oncology case discussions, and grand
rounds. I spent time with the haemato-pathologists, learning about
basic morphology of normal and abnormal blood and bone
marrow.
I was also interested to observe some of the differences between
the English and American healthcare systems. I had the
opportunity to discuss issues regarding health insurance and
payment for treatment with both physicians and patients, an
experience that very much reinforced my belief in the National
Health Service.
I worked closely with the team’s physician assistant (PA), which
was interesting in light of the current drive to recruit American PAs
to the UK, in an attempt to address issues of staff shortage. There
has been some backlash in the British medical community against
this, with objections to the fact that PAs do less higher education
and training than doctors and are being offered higher salaries
than junior doctors. My experience, however, was entirely
positive. Our PA was extremely knowledgeable and competent,
and, far from threatening the role of the junior doctors, provided
invaluable support. Moreover, whilst the junior doctors rotated
through the department every couple of months, the PA was a
permanent member of staff. She therefore not only provided a
valuable source of information and training for each new wave of
junior doctors, but also provided the patients with a constant
presence through their long treatments.
Altogether, the bursary awarded to me by the Medical Women’s
Federation provided me with a fantastic opportunity to gain an indepth experience of the clinical specialty of Haematology. It also
gave me an interesting insight into one of the most technologically
and academically advanced and progressive healthcare systems in
the world, but one that is very different from the NHS. I feel I
gained a deeper understanding of the American healthcare system,
and of its strengths and weaknesses compared to the NHS.