GEMS Journal Club 4-Neurology with Dr Ed Newman

Hopefully, people didn’t find out last session on clinical statistics too daunting. Many thanks to Daniel on the committee for providing an informative and understandable lecture. Those statistics sections of papers should be all the more clearer now!

Our next session is another Journal Club, this time hosted by Dr Ed Newman of the Southern General Hospital. Dr Newman is a respected Neurologist who is known for giving engaging lectures to students. He will be discussing Ascorbic acid in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT-TRIAAL and CMT-TRAUK): a double-blind randomised trial by Paryeson et al. The paper can be accessed here.

The session will run on Wednesday 15th February, 6:30 in Seminar Room 2, Wolfson Medical School. The paper can be found at the above link, or if you contact us on gems.student@googlemail.com we can send a copy on to you. Hope to see everyone there!

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GEMS Journal Club 3-Epidemiology with Dr Michelle Gillies

GEMS presents its next Journal Club session, Epidemiology on Wednesday  7th December, 6.30-8pm, Seminar Room 2, Wolfson Medical School.

Dr Michelle Gillies will be discussing the following paper with us:
Leon DA. McCambridge J. Liver cirrhosis mortality rates in Britain from 1950 to 2002: an analysis of routine data. Lancet 2006; 367:52-56. Paper available here

Dr Gillies is an expert in the area of epidemiology and she will talk to us about the unique aspects of research in this area, which is often unfamiliar to undergraduates.  This month’s journal club is exclusively for undergraduates so a relaxed, friendly environment in which to practise your skills of critical appraisal   Please note that hard copies of the paper will not be available on the night; please print it off in advance.  Hope to see you on Wed!

This will be our last GEMS session of the year, so from all of us at GEMS we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope you all have a good break and we will see you all next term!

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Journal Club 2-Obs and Gyn with Dr Hanretty

The next journal club session presented by GEMS is here. In this session Dr Kevin Hanretty, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynacologist at the Southern General will be facilitating the session. We will have two members of the GEMS committee, Andrew Degnan and Daniel Kerr presenting two different papers, with discussion facilitated by Dr Hanretty. Dr Hanretty has been well received in past journal clubs, and promises to bring an interesting and interactive session!

The papers that will be reviewed will be:

1. Post traumatic stress disorder chuild abuse history, birthweight and gestational age : a prospective cohort study, Seng et al 2011-found here

2. A meta analysis of  adverse perinatal outcome in women with asthma, Murphey et al 2011-found here

The session will be held in Seminar Room 2 in the Wolfson Medical School, on Wednesday 16th November at 6:30. If there are queries feel free to e-mail us at the usual address: gems.student@googlemail.com.

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First Journal Club Session of the Year-with Special Guests!

Our first workshop session of the year on How to Read  a Paper was a fantastic success, and we hope everyone enjoyed it and took something away. To all second years, all the best with the critical appraisal! Any questions or feedback on that session, feel free to contact us. Our next session is going to be our first Journal Club of the year.

The journal club is organised by GEMS and we will be running several sessions throughout the academic year.  These are interactive sessions with different specialists who help us hone our critical appraisal skills when reading a variety of research papers using different research methodologies.  All our speakers are academic clinicians who bring some insight into the particular paper from their day-to-day practice.  These sessions are not only informative and fun but also totally informal so don’t worry if you are not an expert yet…

The journal club also ties in with the workshops GEMS are running again this year where you can learn or brush up on everything from reading a paper, to statistics, to audit planning then you can try out these new skills at the journal club sessions.  Reading and critically appraising a paper is not only required for the dreaded second year coursework but is a skill required throughout your student life and beyond, regardless of where you see yourself ending up… so join us and get a headstart!

To kick off the new academic session we’re planning a joint journal club meeting of the West of Scotland Academic Foundation Year trainees and the undergraduate Glasgow Evidence-Based Medicine Society (GEMS).

There will be 5 speakers from the Academic Foundation Year programme and it should serve as a good introduction to journal clubs for those who’ve not been to one before. Discussion will be facilitated by Professor Matthew Walters, a respected academic stroke physician at the Western Infirmary.  The papers will be circulated a week or so before the meeting (it is not mandatory to read them prior to the Journal Club but it will be helpful).  Please e-mail gems.student@googlemail.com if you plan to attend so that we can send you the papers.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 19th October from 6-8pm in the Boyd Orr Lecture Theatre A (room 407).

And finally a quick conference update-successful applicants for the conference have all been informed-well done to those who were selected! Applicants should fill out the electronic registration form by Monday 17th October. Further information can be found on our Conference page.

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