RESEARCH CAMP 2024
OxPal ran a virtual research camp composed of lecturers and interactive sessions delivered by expert tutors, equipping students with the skills so they may further or start their research careers. This course was conducted from 17th July – 10th August. We were supported by the Palestinian Medical Students Association (PMSA) to carry out this course. The topics we covered are summarised below
These sessions were delivered by leaders in these fields such as Professor Carl Heneghan, Dr Mehrunisha Suleman, Dr Osaid Alser and Dr Saralees Nadarajah. We thank them for their time and effort in providing expert quality teaching, and engaging the students so they may be guided on their journey into research.
SUMMER SCHOOL 2024
OxPal conducted our Summer School for Palestinian medical students from the Arab American University of Palestine (AAUP), as well as displaced Gazan Students from the Islamic University in Gaza (IUG) and Al-Azhar University (AUG.)
The course was for 28 medical students – 4 displaced Gazan students and 24 medical students from AAUP. 24 of these students were about to start their journey for clinical medicine, whilst 4 students undertook an extended placement in Anaesthetics. They were selected by competitive application organised by the Dean of AAUP Professor Malik Zaben.
During their time in Oxford, students immersed themselves in a well-rounded medical and cultural experience. They attended seminars that honed their communication skills and understanding of medical ethics, essential foundations for clinical practice. Clinical skills sessions were held in the John Radcliffe Hospital’s specialized skills lab, where they practiced procedures and techniques under expert guidance. Simulation training with OxSTaR (Oxford Simulation, Teaching and Research) provided hands-on practice in a controlled environment, preparing them for real-world scenarios.
In addition, the students participated in a surgical skills course led by Mr. Ali Ansaripour and Ms. Radhika Chadha, Doll Fellows at Green Templeton College, and facilitated by senior surgical trainees and consultants. This provided them with an invaluable opportunity to develop fundamental surgical skills with direct mentorship from experienced professionals. They also observed medical practice firsthand by shadowing doctors in various departments, including women’s health, anaesthetics, general medicine, and surgery, both on the wards and in the operating theatre.
Cultural and social experiences were also part of their Oxford visit. The students attended Friday prayers and lunch at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, fostering a sense of community and shared cultural values. Additionally, they were welcomed by the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association, which helped build connections with local organizations. This combination of academic, clinical, and cultural activities provided a rich and multifaceted experience of life and learning in Oxford
OxPal was supported throughout by Dr. Richard Harrington and Dr. Elize Richards, whose contributions were essential to the project’s success. We also thank the Oxford clinicians and medical students who generously shared their time, teaching and supporting the visiting students. We’re proud of this achievement and hope it has provided a strong foundation for their clinical careers. We look forward to running the summer school again and expanding our reach for different students in the future.
Oxpal are excited to announce our Infectious Diseases and Metabolism and Endocrinology Lecture VR Course! We are working alongside Oxford Medical Simulation, to deliver these courses. Please sign up to the courses by completing the form which can be found by scanning the QR code on the poster or by completing the form https://forms.gle/1CguNh3wK3GPZ69MA
CARDIORESPIRATORY LECTURE VR COURSE:
We previously conducted a Cardiorespiratory lecture-VR series in which we integrated VR into our teaching.
SUMMER SCHOOL 2023
OxPal recently organised an Oxford Summer School for Palestinian medical students from the Arab American University of Palestine (AAUP) from Monday 24 July to Friday 4 August.
The course was for twenty medical students from the new AAUP medical school based in Jenin, who have completed three years of pre-clinical studies and were about to start their first clinical year. They were selected by competitive application organised by the Dean of AAUP Professor Malik Zaben.
When in Oxford, students attended seminars in communication skills and medical ethics, received clinical skills teaching at the John Radcliffe skills lab and simulation training with OxSTaR (Oxford Simulation, Teaching and Research), and enjoyed a surgical skills course run by GTC’s Doll Fellow Mr Al Ansaripour, facilitated by senior surgical trainees and consultants. They also shadowed doctors on the wards and in theatre with the women’s health, anaesthetics, general medicine and surgical teams. The students had the opportunity for a day trip to London, and were also hosted at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, for Friday prayers and lunch, and by the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association.
OxPal was supported throughout by Dr Richard Harrington, Dr Elize Richards and Dr Katy Boncey, without whom this project would never have been a success. We also thank the numerous Oxford clinicians and medical students who gave their time to teach and befriend the medical students during their stay. We’re very proud of this achievement and hope that we’ve given the students a solid foundation upon which to begin building their clinical careers. We’re already excited to run this summer school again and look forward to giving as many students as possible this learning opportunity in the future.
INTERPRETING INVESTIGATIONS LECTURE SERIES
We are glad to announce our new course on investigations interpretation skills which includes the essential skills you need as medical students in your academic studies and clinical life.
Throughout the course, we will be delivering several interactive online lectures on the following four interpretation topics:
– Interpretation of ABGs and VBGs
– Interpretation of Bloods (FBC, U&Es, LFTs, TFTs, bone profile) [has had to be rearranged so follow our social media for updates]
– Interpretation of CXRs
– Interpretation of ECG
Dr. Oday Hamad from Al-Azhar University – Gaza (AUG) is the speaker in all these lectures. He is a Teaching Assistant at Palestine Medical College at AUG.
Join the course WhatsApp group here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/DTBi3FP1IhPHzlLykmvK28
Participation Certificates will be given to those who attend all four lectures. For every lecture, there will be a pre and post assessment forms in order to measure the progress and benefit our attendees got after each lecture.
Links to previous lecture recordings on our Youtube:
– Interpretation of ABGs and VBGs
– Interpretation of CXRs
MEDICAL LECTURE SERIES
In 2022/23 we will be running a speciality medical lecture course with lectures every month with a specialist about specific medical topics! To get involved in choosing what topics we focus on please follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
We are taking a brief hiatus in this lecture programme and it will be starting up again in January 2023 so please follow us on social media for updates!
Previous lectures:
– Anaemia
– Liver disease and an approach to a pt with jaundice
– Thyroid histopathology
– Upper GI bleeds
SMALL GROUP TUTORIALS
We are currently running small group interactive teaching sessions, with experts from Oxford, London, and elsewhere in the UK.
These sessions are on a first come, first serve basis. To keep up-to-date with what sessions are available please contact us via oxpal.medlink@gmail.com to join our mailing list or follow our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/oxpal
JOURNAL CLUB
Our most recent Journal Club was on the 25th November and was all about the surgical vs medical management of appendicitis with Mr Nick Maynard.
Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram or join our mailing list to keep up to date with our journal club.
VIRTUAL REALITY PROGRAMME
➲ SIGN UP HERE ➲
As part of the Virtual Reality Programme this year we are running “walk-through” sessions with Dr Katy Boncey* where she will go through one of the OMS VR scenarios in detail whilst teaching us about dealing with specific medical emergencies. She then provides a short lecture on the medical emergency you would have just seen take place to help consolidate your learning. Keep an eye on our website and our social medias to sign up for these sessions!
*Dr Katy Boncey is a Senior Geriatric and General Medicine registrar working in Oxford. She has a special interest in peri-operative medicine and spent 1 year doing frontline Covid work. She is a Clinical Skills and Simulation tutor for Oxford Medical School and is currently studying for a Masters in Medical Education at Oxford University.
MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME
Matching medical students in Palestine with professors and clinical mentors in the USA/UK. The programme is what the pairs make of it, but the intention is to get local students involved in international research projects.
Unfortunately, applications for this programme are now closed. Sign up to the OxPal mailing list by emailing us at oxpal.medlink@gmail.com to hear about future cohort applications.
OXPAL ONLINE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP TRAINING
Edit”OxPal Online Research Fellowship Training”
Course lead and coordinator – Dr Osaid Alser, MD MSc (Res) Oxon.
Course contributors – Medical professionals and researchers from Oxford University, Harvard University, and others. Director – Kirandeep Saini (BmBch (Oxon)).
Target audience – medical students from any medical school in Palestine.
Start date – 3 January 2020.
End date – 4 May 2020.
Lecture topics
- Medical research: what, why, when and how?
- Research proposal and research funding
- Research question and literature search
- Study design
- Ethics in research (including ethical approval)
- Data collection
- Data cleaning and analysis I
- Data cleaning and analysis II
- Manuscript writing
- Conference presentation and publication
CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE EFFORTS
Edit”Coronavirus Response Efforts”
During these difficult times, the situation is rapidly changing and it is difficult to obtain and distribute credible information to aid the public health effort.
Therefore, OxPal has reorientated its focus to help promote a public health effort and relay to clinicians a clear message about how to approach coronavirus cases.
We have approached the problem from a number of directions including:
- A clinical lecture from a frontline critical care MD – Dr. Mazen Kerallah.
- Almost half the viewing audience were doctors, of which c.65% felt sure they would be more clinically competent in facing coronavirus following this lecture and c.30% felt it was possible they were more clinically competent after the lecture.
- 85% of all attendees felt more capable of informing others around them about the outbreak and the correct information regarding the clinical response to it.
- A lecture course on the management of COVID-19
- Featuring an ABCE approach to clinical management of COVID-19
- Recordings of the lectures can be found on our youtube channel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXpoOZ_m-gZd604fKpGCNR8JmjsbDjkL1
- A collaboration with students at Harvard University to improve public health information availability and dispel widely circulating misinformation:
- Creating and distributing, through OxPal’s network, public health posters about the outbreak and simple steps that can be taken in response.
- Conducting small group discussions and interactive focus groups to guide our efforts in Palestine.
- Research:
- Conducting and publishing research concerning the ways in which major healthcare centres in Europe and the USA can use remote learning platforms to improve public health responses in countries with lower levels of economic development and resources. Part of this research centres upon the ability of centres with large informational/ human capital being able to share those resources, as they arise, with those in more austere environments.
- Presented a poster on our education efforts during COVID-19 at the Medical Education in the time of COVID-19 online conference: https://www.medics.academy/courses/medical-education-in-the-time-of-covid-19
OXPAL EMERGENCY MEDICINE LECTURE SERIES
Edit”OxPal Emergency Medicine Lecture Series”
A survey conducted by OxPal of medical students across Palestinian medical schools showed that Emergency Medicine was the most requested topic for supplementary teaching from Oxford clinicians. Importantly a survey of Palestinian junior doctors also showed that Emergency Medicine was the specialty they felt they needed more teaching on before graduating.
A group of University of Oxford Emergency Medicine clinicians delivered a series of 10 lectures (plus 2 revision sessions) covering most of the key aspects of emergency medicine, running from October 2020 – December 2020.
Lecture topics:
- Human Factors & A-E Assessment of the Acutely Unwell Patient
- The Hypotensive Patient
- Acute Chest Pain
- Acute Breathlessness
- An Acute Abdomen
- Emergency Psychiatric Presentations
- Trauma & Burns
- Mid-term Quiz
- Acute Kidney Injury
- Endocrine Emergencies
- Disordered Consciousness
- Revision & Discussion
Recordings of these lectures are available on our Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXpoOZ_m-gZevJeQNreZQRf9knInT1Fp9
VIRTUAL REALITY
During this lecture series we also teamed up with the Oxford Medical Simulations team (https://oxfordmedicalsimulation.com/) to provide a set of VR simulations related to each lecture in which participants could assess, diagnose and treat patients with the OMS’ interdisciplinary team against the clock in different scenarios.
OXPAL ONLINE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP 2021
Edit”OxPal Online Research Fellowship 2021″
Our next course is going to contain much requested content all about research and statistic skills!
The first lecture is on 30th January 2021 and this programme, containing 8 lectures and 1 webinar, will run until the 26th March 2021.
Lecture topics:
- Introduction to Evidence-Based Medicine
- Watch the recorded lecture on our Youtube channel HERE!
- Critical Appraisal of a Scientific Article
- Watch the recorded lecture on our Youtube channel HERE!
- Univariate Analysis (Parametric & Non-Parametric Tests)
- Watch the recorded lecture on our Youtube channel HERE!
- Linear Regression Analyses
- Logistic Regression Analyses
- Survival Analysis (Kaplan Meier Curve/Cox Regression)
- Watch the recorded lecture on our Youtube channel HERE!
- Qualitative Research Methods – cancelled
- Webinar: How to get into Research
- Watch the recorded lecture on our Youtube channel HERE!
- Academic Writing: Copyright & Plagiarism
- Watch the recorded lecture on our Youtube channel HERE!
- Submitting to a Journal & Disseminating your Publication
- Watch the recorded lecture on our Youtube channel HERE!
To receive updates about this lecture course…
Please follow our FACEBOOK PAGE (https://www.facebook.com/OxPalMedlink)
Or sign up to our MAILING LIST (https://oxpal.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=40d0da590cbd86690b2295c1d&id=1414dd8aca)
VIRTUAL REALITY
We also hope to continue collaborating with the Oxford Medical Simulation platform to provide sets of relevant simulations for participants to work through in relation to the lectures.
Please fill out this form if you would like to access this platform: https://forms.gle/Uy5g2t7WLFzMVfgC6.
MEDICAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE 2022
Edit”Medical Research Conference 2022″
OxPal hosted its inaugural Medical Research Conference on Friday 4th-Saturday 5th March 2022, with some pre-conference talks that took place on Saturday 19th February.
This conference focused on giving our students the introduction, inspiration and skills to get involved in research as medical students and early in their careers. It involved webinars, workshops, lectures and Q&A sessions with experts in their fields as well as the opportunity for students to present their own research and posters in front of a panel and their peers.
It included:
- Lectures on Evidence-Based Medicine and Ethics from internationally renowned speakers Sir Iain Chalmers and Prof Michael Parker
- Interactive workshops on academic writing & analysing clinical trial papers
- Research presentations and poster session from researchers trained and working in Palestine
- Q&A with expert panel on completing top quality research as a medical student
See our CONFERENCE BOOKLET for details about the speakers and workshops!
AGENDA
Saturday 19th February 17:00-19:00 Jerusalem time
- ‘How to get involved with research as a medical student’ webinar with Dr Osaid Alser 17:00-18:00
- ‘How to present your research’ workshop and Q&A with Dr Mohamady El-Gaby 18:00-19:00
Friday 4th March 17:00-19:00 Jerusalem time
- ‘The Importance of Evidence-Based Medicine’ lecture 17:00-18:00
- ‘Ethics in Medical Research’ lecture 18:00-19:00
Saturday 5th March 13:00-18:30 Jerusalem time
- Welcome from OxPal 13:00-13:15
- Workshop session 1 (choice from ‘Academic writing’ or ‘Analysing a paper’) 13:15-14:15
- Break 14:15-14:25
- Workshop session 2 (choice from ‘Academic writing’ or ‘Analysing a paper’) 14:25-15:25
- MedAll Registration 15:25-15:35
- Poster Hall Session 15:35-16:35
- Research presentations from Palestinian students 16:35-17:20
- Break 17:20-17:30
- ‘How to succeed in research as a medical student’ Panel Q&A 17:30-18:15
- Conclusion and thanks 18:15-18:30
To keep up with updates about the conference please follow our social media: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/oxpal, Twitter @OxPal_Medlink, Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/oxpal.medlink/ and email us at oxpal.medlink@gmail.com if you would like to join our mailing list.
COCHRANE COLLABORATION COURSE 2022
Everything we claim to know in medicine is only as true as its evidence base. Knowledge of how evidence is acquired, appraised and synthesised into clinical practice is therefore essential for any doctor practicing in the modern world.
The Cochrane Collaboration is an organisation dedicated to this process, and offers a set of five online learning modules to provide the basics of Evidence-Based Medicine.
OxPal offered once-weekly online sessions to go through these together, with experienced facilitators present to answer any questions arising. Students were able to complete these modules in the weekly sessions, or in their own time, to be awarded a certificate of completion by the Cochrane Collaboration.
The modules were as follows:
- Evidence-based medicine
- Randomised controlled trials
- Introduction to systematic reviews
- Understanding and using systematic reviews
- Consumer involvement in Cochrane