Trainee medics flex their creative muscles with rheumatology revision guide

Many university students will share their revision notes, but two medical students at the University of Leicester have gone a step further by publishing an academic-standard textbook to help fellow trainee doctors.

Rheumatology: A clinical handbook is written by Ahmad Al-Sukaini and Mohsin Azam, both fourth year medical students at the University and believed to be the youngest authors to write a medical textbook. The senior author of the book is Dr Ash Samanta, a Consultant Rheumatologist from University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, based at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

The textbook provides a clear and concise understanding of rheumatology, a multidisciplinary branch of medicine that deals with the investigation, diagnosis and management of patients with arthritis and other conditions involving the muscles and bones.

The textbook is primarily aimed at medical students and newly qualified doctors, covers the core elements of rheumatology using the most up-to-date literature. Whilst taking an exam orientated approach, the book provides a range of student friendly features such as pictures, diagrams, practice questions and much more.

Professor Nick London, Associate Dean and Head of medical education at University of Leicester Medical School, said: "I have read this book and greatly enjoyed it. It is pitched at exactly the right level for medical students and is an excellent example how, with appropriate supervision and guidance, enthusiastic medical students can contribute to the education of their peers."

Ahmad said: "The book was born out of revision notes that we helped to develop for our musculoskeletal clinical attachment block at University. We approached Dr Ash Samanta and he was very encouraging and supported our initiative.

"We suggested putting together a short book that would be more comprehensive than the revision notes and that would flag specific key issues in rheumatology for undergraduate medics in a student friendly manner."

Mohsin said: "Our aim was to provide an informative rheumatology guide that is fun to learn from. We are hopeful that it will benefit our peers no matter what medical school they go to in no matter what part of the world they are studying in.

"We hope that this is only the start of our journey, and that we can provide a series of further medical textbooks in the future that will cover other branches of medicine in a similar fashion."

Dr Ash Samanta said: "Their enthusiasm, effort and assistance is to be strongly commended and they have both brought a unique 'student perspective' to this work."

Provided by University of Leicester