pimp notes: open-source med student notes

Pimp Notes
PimpNotes.com a medical notes project for students and doctors in training. While the grids are offered for $9.99, there are a number of other resources here for free.

Flash Cards
I created this project during my second year of medical school in order to put the large amount of information we are expected to learn into an easily-acceessible format. I saw how large texts and articles help clarify the features and complexity of a disease and its processes, yet when reviewing, the same text tends to obfuscate important associations we're supposed to draw. It's only on review that we begin to see larger patterns and groupings that help us go through differentials more effectively.

I was not happy with flash cards that I had seen before, because they cut out so many of the details--details which often make the disease processes so much more memorable. Otherwise its just a simple game of word associations that we see on Step I. I didn't want to lose these details, but I also didn't want to read 30-page articles three times. So, I designed a standard flash-card template with a simple use of symbols to take the place of common text. In doing so I was able to reduce a 30-page printed article from e-Medicine or Up To Date into one flash card while communicating the same content. Yet now it was in a format that still allowed for me to quickly trace every known step of the pathophysiological mechanisms of a disease, identify points in those pathways to use intervention, and see clearer connections between the micro and macroscopic picture of medicine.

The Grids
The grids are a quick-and-dirty reference I made after the flash cards, in order to see the bigger picture when reviewing all the material for the boards. They are a combination of information from several resources, checked closely to concur with the following resources:

I only extracted key information from each of these resources. Then when taking the Q-Bank questions, I highlighted all of the items that were referenced in a question root or the answer and removed superfluous information that just cluttered things up. What remained in the grids is more what is expected of us on clinical cases as we head into Step 1. None of these grids cover first-year material.

What this is not. . .
I'm not proposing that the flash cards and the grids are a replacement of the material we are expected to read, nor the secret to success, but only a convenient resource to use as you dive into an ocean of details that can be truly overwhelming at times. Some really don't like grids and cards. Others do. For me they have been only a component of the learning process, but they have been good to use at various times. The flash cards are great to use as a quick introduction before and after you read about a disease. They help give you a general framework in which you can better place the details you gather as you read. And then of course they are good for a detailed review of diseases after you plough through the books. As a more concise reference, the grids are good for comparing large groupings of pathologies so you can see the big picture through all the details.

The name, "pimpnotes"
For those who are unfamiliar, the expression, "getting pimped", is common parlance among medical students describing the process of being publically questioned by senior doctors who are testing their fund of knowledge, often-times at the embarrassment of poor students who do not know the answer. pimpnotes seemed a great name for materials intended to help students prepare for getting pimped.

If you like this project, have suggestions, want to contribute, etc, then feel free to contact us

Thanks and best of luck to you all as you head into one of the most demanding, yet rewarding professions.

J. Zimmerman, MD'07
Brown Medical School