Right! I have some really big news to tell you today. TheLancetStudent.com is now looking for medical students from around the world who are interested in:

 1) Being a regular BLOGGER on TheLancetStudent.com. This will mean that you can write the daily blog for a few days or so on a regular basis

2) Being a regular CONTRIBUTOR to TheLancetStudent.com. This means that just like most newspapers, or TV networks, you can be like our Correspondent in…Delhi, Dhaka, Denver, or where ever! You can keep us posted with what is  happening in your area and also write articles for us.

3) Being a regular REVIEWER (helping to review all of the submissions that come in). At the moment, me and some other Lancet editors read and review all of the articles that you send us, but we think it would be much better if medical students from around the world helped us to do this as that would be proper “peer” review.

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I know we normally have a picture here to go with all blog entries, but today, I thought it would be really fitting if we had.. you’ve guessed it… nothing!

I have just had a rude reality check that I want to share with you. Yesterday I was robbed in broad daylight in a crowded place. My bag with everything in it was snatched from me. So my money, cards, keys, phone (with all the stored numbers), travel card etc all went too.

I had to spend the night on my doorstep with no one to call (apart from having no phone, I did not have the phone numbers of my friends) , no way of getting in, and no money to go anywhere else.

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Women Deliver

As I have highlighted in this week’s Lancet Digest, and The Lancet Student Recommends the finalé of the Health and Human Rights Series is absolutely mind-blowing. It features the narratives of some doctors who have witnessed human rights abuses, including James Orbinski who writes very powerfully about his experiences of being Head of Mission with Médecins Sans Frontières during the Rwandan Genocide. He includes one of the most enlightening quotes about humanitarianism that I have ever heard/read:

“Humanitarianism cannot end war, create peace or clear consciences of politically indifferent. It is a human response to political failure-an immediate short term act that cannot absolve political responsibility for public security either nationally or internationally.”       

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 Hi there. Rhona here. Let me give you a quick introduction to Stephanie DeVita at the University Coalitions for Global Health. We had a brilliant phone chat this week about what we could do to help medical students from around the world join together to help to do something to make a difference ie campaign for change. Stephanie said that UCGH wants to become more campaigning beyond the US and she has suggested some global health topics that students everywhere could campaign on. We both very much want your feedback and you could do this by either emailing me (student@lancet.com) or Stephanie (see below), or you could simply just make your choice in the poll (also below). Thank you SO much. Now over to Stephanie-Rhona

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The selfless emergency responders of the future?

This is Katie Pastorius and I am back on blog duty while Rhona is busy changing the world!  

In conducting interviews for an emergency response article on the Mississippi bridge collapse, I discovered some amazing people (as I am sure you find after tragic disasters of any scale). Their story is important because it highlights medical student’s response as community members, not MD’s on call or at the hospital. I think they are a great example of the type of people we need in medicine and allow us to reflect on our own actions as medical students in the community.

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The Brilliant The Corporation

Hi there. I have just posted two very thought-provoking articles on different subjects. One is on screening for TB in immigrants and the other is on the power of corporations and how we as consumers and as ‘civil society’ can help keep companies in the straight and narrow (and if you have not watched or read the brilliant The Corporation by Joel Bakan- please put this on your immediate ‘to do’ list now!) Have a look at both articles if you can and please feel free to share your own views.

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Richard Smith giving his speech at the closing ceremony of the IFMSA conf

Hi there, It’s Rhona here. You won’t believe what has happened to me since my last blog entry. In fact, it’s almost so unbelievable you wouldn’t believe me anyway if that makes sense. Enough to say, I am back at work and have been doing a bit of housekeeping on TheLancetStudent.com today. I know- a Saturday! Does that make me sad or keen? I’ll leave that for you to decide!

 I just wanted to tell you about a few things. I have been sorting out our new podcast section today. It currently sits in the global health resources section as all the speeches and interviews so far have been about, yes you’ve guessed it…global health - the focus of TheLancetStudent.com.

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 The Lancet and TheLancetStudent.com  are SO fortunate to have such brilliant medical students with us on placement just now. Nadine Cozens from Kings College, London, is doing part of her elective with us. Here she tells you what she has been up to so far. Over to you Nadine-Rhona

When considering ideas for my elective, it suddenly occurred to me that whilst it is usually assumed for medical students to disperse all over the world for eight weeks, there were plenty of opportunities right here in the UK. I had given a great deal of thought to doing an elective abroad, but suddenly I realised that this was the perfect opportunity, before I started working as a doctor, to get involved with something less clinical, but still very medically orientated…not to mention of course the thousands of pounds I would save by staying in the UK!

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 It’s The Lancet press day today and I am busy running around so over to medical student extraordinaire Katie (proper name Catherine) Pastorius for today’s blog entry. Please note I told her she could write whatever she wanted and NO money has changed hands. So over to you Katie - Rhona

I am a second year medical student at the University of Minnesota Medical School and I am writing for The Lancet this month as part of an internship sponsored by the Minnesota Medical Foundation.

The Lancet office is in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Camden Town in north London. Camden is a great place to experience culture and The Lancet is an amazing place to gain journalistic experience, keep up on current research, and become engaged in global health. (more…)

This photo is courtesy of Oxfam

It is truly ironic that the man responsible for killing millions of people (over 40 million apparently) is responsible for one of the most powerful quotes about statistics ever made: “The death of one man is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.”

Perhaps if Joseph Stalin had paid more attention to the suffering of individuals, he might have felt moved enough to spare the lives of the masses. Why am I mentioning this? Because I have just read the latest statistics about the flooding in South East Asia which has now affected up to 20 million people in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. In Bangladesh alone, up to eight million people, the population of London, are thought to be affected and in some places the water is up to 10 feet deep. But behind these statistics are the individual tragedies of people, often the poorest of the poor, who have lost everything.

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