.

Learning about a disease.

What we are looking for

We ideally want to produce in memory, a set of information about the disease which is both flexible (you can alter it later if you need to as you get to know more), and is usable for the rest of your career.

The obvious

Medical/Nursing folklore suggests in my view correctly, that the best system for learning about a disease is to see someone with it.
Hence the emphasis on seeing lots of patients as part of your training.

People/Patients themselves are excellent things to associate with. Because a person has a plethora of characteristics, things he/she can do/say and interact with, people give an excellent basis for using the Story Tool or Journey Tool. The more interesting an object (in this case a person) to you, the better the Memory Masterpiece you can create.

There is one problem however with this time honored method. You may not be able to see examples of people with all diseases. Many dieases are quite rare.

A suggestion from someone who has sat many medical specialty exams is that for those diseases that you have not seen before, think of someone you know, and imagine them with this disease!
If you are really keen, take a photo of them, and make a Memory Masterpiece of them before even adding your disease story or characteristics.

Memorisation after choosing your patient.

After you have chosen your mental 'example patient' who has the disease, then start making up a STORY incorporating the progression of the disease over time WITH treatments thrown in. You might even be interested in adding in a journey that your 'example patient' might take, with stops along the way for treatment or disease progression.

OR

As a variation you might take a journey over and through their body. You might have to visualise the bits of their body as the disease takes hold. Ideally make the person take a Journey or take part in a Story which is happening outside their body, while these events are taking place.

Example

For example you know Auntie Martha (AM) who has Rheumatoid arthritis.
Imagine a walk near AM's place, which she is going to take. Find some places along the way, which are of interest,
OR
Imagine a story of life that AM has had... where there are landmarks of interest along the way.
ALSO
Don't forget to imagine AM when she was healthy... see her stride, see her humour and energy. Explore in detail her bodily characteristics.

Then imagine next to the first landmark... say an interesting house, when she suddenly had her first symptoms of Rheumatoid in her hands.
. Imagine her arms swinging by her side, and the antibodies attacking the synovium and her feeling it and looking at her swollen joints.
Imagine during her walk, the things she does as she gets progressively more disabled by more and more joints.
Maybe she calls a cab, to go to her doctors, but while she is in the cab she starts to get more short of breath (pulmonary fibrosis), then when she is waiting to be seen, she goes to the toilet and passes pink urine (nephritis)... etc etc
Imagine then her doctor... where is this doctor, which room is he in, what is his demeanor?
In his bellowing voice he says we will have to do a Rheumatoid factor and an ESR. AM cannot quite hear as she is hard of hearing, so he writes it on a blood test form in extra big letters.

You can continue for the treatment, risks and side effects of treatment etc etc.

Remember to make each event along the way DAZZLINGLY DETAILED AND INTERESTING. Add emotion, movement, sound, smell and perspective.

RecallPlus can help +++

This sequence of events, the color and excitement of it, should be captured by RecallPlus for future reference and revision.
First make up the story without any scribbles, by just using the keyboard... ctrl-D etc.
Then when you revise it, if there are weaker associations, add a scribble then. 		.