“Did you see this?”
“What?”
“The post on acing med school exams is on fire.”
“We definitely need more of these.”
What started as a few casual comments between this blog’s two co-editors last September slowly became the seed that sprouted into MedMo.
For the past month, The Doctor’s Tablet has watched with excitement as readers reacted to our first monthlong focus on medical education (MedMo) across all Einstein social media platforms. Through blog posts, videos, memes, stats and other content, we’ve tried to tell it like it is: from the strain of choosing a med school to the euphoria of being accepted to the sheer panic of “binge” learning—and the exhilaration of interacting with patients.
The response has been inspiring. @amolutrankar wrote on Day 1:
@EinsteinMed Thanks for the post; I’m getting ready to start applications & this is helpful advice.
When our admissions dean advised med school applicants to pay “close attention to your gut reactions” when choosing the right med school (and dispense with commercial rankings), @MedicalSchoolHQ remarked:
Good unbiased article about choosing a #medschool.
What we learned in planning for MedMo is that our audience is hungry for content that explains and offers guidance on choosing, getting into and thriving in med school. Considering that the average applicant applies to about 15 med schools, we figured this group could use some help!
Preparing for MedMo involved our entire team, which eagerly embraced and helped shape MedMo from the beginning; from social media to multimedia, marketing, and Web, it’s been an “all hands on deck” effort. We learned that Albert Einstein’s words-of-wisdom memes are a big hit on Facebook and Pinterest. Our student-hosted videos have been viewed more than 2,000 times on YouTube. We owe huge thanks to our MedMo blog authors: associate dean for admissions Noreen Kerrigan; senior associate dean for students Stephen Baum; assistant deans for student affairs Allison Ludwig and Joshua Nosanchuk; clerkship director Amanda Raff; and rising fourth year Einstein student Allison Kutner.
This project has brought out the creative best in everyone. As each new piece of content posted to our Web landing page (a.k.a. “MedMo central”) we kept getting new ideas and more feedback. We covered heavy topics, such as anxiety and information overload—but also tried to have some fun. One tweet about “Manicures, muscles and surviving 1st year” was a bit hit. Blog advice ranged from the practical (“learn from your team”) to the comically compassionate (“for the sake of your patients, always brush your teeth”).
Navigating all things medical school is challenging and there will be more about the subject on The Doctor’s Tablet in the coming months. We hope that MedMo will continue to be a resource that is useful and leaves room for laughs.
As we close out this phase of MedMo, we leave you with a lighthearted student-hosted video about a “syndrome” that most med students can relate to: After learning about almost every disease, syndrome and “bug,” by the end of the second year, many med students think, “I have them all!”
Before we close, we want to sincerely thank our entire MedMo communications team for their creative ideas, tireless attention to detail and infectious enthusiasm throughout this project: marketing specialist Carla Berger; assistant director of media relations and communications Deirdre Branley; science media relations specialist Kim Newman, media research specialist Chris Iannanutuoni: associate director of internal and web communications Karen Gardner; director of interactive media Najam Hayat; senior web developer Adam Hochman; web developer Linus Surgeon; web designers Maggie McWilliams and Gabrielle Burger; video producer Sunita Reed; and videographer and editor Charles Young. Team shout-out to associate dean for Communications and Public Affairs Gordon Earle for his continuing support and guidance. Yes, MedMo takes a village!
