Unlike my experience preparing for the Internal Medicine re-certification exam, I quite enjoyed refreshing my knowledge of infectious disease for the re-certification examination for the Infectious Disease Subspecialty of the American Board of Internal Medicine (here-forth known as the ID Boards). That is not surprising because I love this field. For the past ten years […]
Recertification Time for Internal Medicine
A few months ago I took my recertification boards for internal medicine (IM). I remembered cramming and doing MKSAP at the end of third year medical residency which coincided with the beginning of first year infectious disease fellowship for my initial certification which I passed on first try. Now here I was ten years later. […]
2016 – The Year of Zika
We are barely a month into 2016, and already it seems we have found our illness du jour. ZIKA VIRUS! I will admit that Zika virus is relatively new to me despite being an infectious disease specialist. When I first heard of it in 2014 through an online news report out of Brazil, I had to […]
Balamuthia mandrillari Transmitted through Organ Transplantation
Bala-what? Balamuthia madrillari! Admittedly, this amoeba rarely shows up as a cause of infection even for infectious disease specialists like myself. Infections by Balamuthia mandrillari are of the sort that feature only on esoteric board examinations. I have never seen it. This amoeba was first identified in the 1990s and to date has probable caused […]
Now What?
It has been an eventful summer. I went from signing up to be a junior infectious disease attending to two seasoned ID specialists to being the only infectious disease specialist upon my arrival. I am being bombarded with consults, requests for outpatient consults, requests to join countless committees, and “wouldn’t I take a quick look at […]