I want to first thank Dr. Jaysson Brooks for his leadership as the Editor of the First Aid/USMLE-Rx Web Team this past year. I’d also like to thank Dr. Tao Le for giving me the opportunity to take the helm for the coming year. My hope is that we will continue bettering our efforts to serve your needs and maybe provide a little entertainment along the way. I want to start by informing you, our readers, of a few changes that we’ll be making this year in an effort to improve the quality of our outreach on our blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
First, as you may have noticed already, we will now be presenting sample questions from Qmax for Step 1 and Step 2 CK as challenges. Please check back the day after for an update from our team with the answer and explanation. We hope this will give everyone a better chance to test his or her knowledge. In an effort to simplify things, we will also be posting the questions directly to Facebook. So, if you follow us there, you won’t have to link through to the blog to see the question.
Second, the Web Team exists as an outreach for First Aid & USMLE-Rx, as a whole. Part of being an “outreach” is interacting in a meaningful way with those to whom you are reaching out (in our case, the First Aid/USMLE-Rx customer base). This year, in an effort to improve meaningful interaction, we will have guest posts from the Senior Editors of the First Aid series keeping you informed of their progress in revising and updating our books. These posts will also serve as a platform for you to provide feedback in the form of comments and suggestions for the next edition of the books undergoing revision this year. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to help your colleagues, the future readers of the First Aid series.
Third, we understand that a lot of our readers are current or future international medical graduates (IMGs). Therefore, we are making a concerted effort to recruit an IMG author to write about issues encountered by IMGs applying to US residency programs. Please keep an eye out for upcoming blog posts addressing IMG-specific concerns.
Finally, if you have any additional suggestions as to ways we at the First Aid Team can serve you better, please provide them in the comments below.
Cheers,
