MINI MEDICAL SCHOOL OFFERS "DIAGNOSTICS SKILLS AND CLINICAL WORK-UPS" SERIES

April 1998

Media Contacts: Sarah Goodwin, 404/727-3366 - sgoodwi@emory.edu
Kathi Ovnic, 404/727-9371 - covnic@emory.edu
http://www.emory.edu/WHSC/

Emory School of Medicine and The Emory Clinic are a new class on Diagnostics Skills and Clinical Work-ups, part of the popular Emory MiniMedical School sequence. The class will be held from 7-9 p.m. Wednesdays, April 15, 22, 29, and May 6, 1998, in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Administration Building auditorium on the Emory campus. No science or medicine background is needed, nor is it necessary to have taken the previous MiniMedical course. Students can register through Evening at Emory at 404/727-6000.

Eleven Emory physicians will explain how physicians diagnose and determine the extent of disease and the effect of treatments - and what their patients, sick or well, can do to collect and provide information to help this process along.

Class one covers how physicians take a history, perform a basic physical examination, and work through possible causes of any signs or symptoms. Half the class will focus on the cardiac examination. Class two provides an overview of laboratory tests and the chest X-ray and how physicians decide to order tests.

Class three explains specialized imaging tools such as including nuclear medicine, echocardiography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

In the final class, three physicians begin with a simple problem a patient would bring to a physician, then work through the entire diagnostic and differentiation process to determine what is wrong, how serious it is, and what should be done. Since the disease will not be announced earlier, students can see if the class has enhanced their own medical detective skills.

###

For more general information on The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center, call Health Sciences Communication's Office at 404-727-5686, or send e-mail to hsnews@emory.edu.