Himmelfarb offers the following online resources to help you prepare for the USMLE or PANCE/PANRE exams.
Exam Master
Exam Master uses question banks to prepare you for the USMLE Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 exams as well as the PANCE and PANRE exams. The question banks aim to simulate the experience of an actual board exam. Scoring feedback lets you know what areas you need to focus on. Access is available from on-campus locations and via VPN from off-campus locations. Create a free personal account to access.
Features include:
Detailed scoring feedback.
Tutor Mode emulates the look/feel of the exam or can focus on basic science subjects.
Timed Mode delivers practice exams and then provides access to My Stats for a report of strengths and weaknesses by subject.
Case Files Collection
In addition to its ‘Access’ textbook libraries, McGraw Hill offers the Case Files Collection, an interactive series of case scenarios that emulate real-life cases. This resource will strengthen your skills in both the basic sciences and clinical medicine. Set up a free MyAccess account to use. Access the software and then create a free MyAccess account.
Features include:
1000+ cases, explanations, and quizzes.
Clinical rotation cases are offered for: anesthesiology, cardiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, medical ethics & professionalism, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery.
BoardVitals
BoardVitals offers question banks geared toward 3rd and 4th year medical students preparing for the NBME Shelf Exams. Features include timed test conditions, study tips, and individualized study recommendations based on practice test performance. Access BoardVitals and then create a personal account.
Features include:
Choose a specific exam: Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, OBGYN, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Surgery
Choose either a timed or untimed exam
Study Mode can display answers and explanations during the quiz
Select your difficulty level: Hard, Moderate or Easy questions
Choose subject areas within a specific exam to study
PA Exam Prep
PA Exam Prep offers practice questions for PANCE and PANRE. Itcan generate random practice quizzes for you, or you may create customized quizzes tailored to specific areas of study. Set up a free personal account prior to first use.
Features include:
Choose your level of difficulty.
Establish keywords that should appear in the quizzes.
Define your learning objectives from among:
Areas of focus (family medicine, emergency medicine, OB/GYN, etc.)
Organ systems (cardiovascular, EENT, hematologic, etc.)
Task areas (history taking, ordering labs, pharmaceutical therapeutics, etc.)
Choose among three test modes: Practice, Test, and Simulation (simulates the actual exam).
In an effort to remain accountable to communities who have been negatively impacted by past and present medical injustices, the staff at Himmelfarb Library is committed to the work of maintaining an anti-discriminatory practice. We will uplift and highlight diverse stories throughout the year, and not shy away from difficult conversations necessary for health sciences education. To help fulfill this mission, today's blog post honors International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day is meant to serve as a time to honor and commemorate the victims of the Nazi regime, and to promote education about the Holocaust. On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army. Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland, was the largest of the the Nazi concentration camps and the place where 1.1 million people lost their lives during the Holocaust (USHMM, n.d.).
Medical Experiments in the Holocaust
Medicine played a role in the dark history of Auschwitz. SS physicians conducted a variety of medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. These experiments were conducted without the consent of the prisoners and were often painful, and even deadly. The results from these experiments are overwhelmingly rejected today due to “inhumane conditions, lack of consent, and questionable research standards” (USHMM, n.d.). Nazi experiments focused on three main areas of interest: survival of military personnel, drug and treatment testing, and advancement of Nazi racial ideological goals.
Experiments aimed to improve the survival of military personnel included “high-altitude experiments to determine the maximum altitude from which crews of damaged aircraft could parachute safely,” “freezing experiments'' to develop hypothermia treatments, and testing ways of “making seawater drinkable” (USHMM, n,d). Drug and treatment experiments used prisoners to test immunization and antibodies intended to prevent and treat contagious diseases “including malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever and infectious hepatitis” (USHMM, n.d.). Bone grafting experiments left prisoners disfigured. Prisoners were exposed to phosgene and mustard gas so antidotes could be tested. Experiments aimed at advancing Nazi racial and ideological goals were intented to establish “Jewish racial inferiority” (USHMM, n.d.). These experiments were often deadly for prisoners. Even when a prisoner survived the experiment, they were often put to death afterwards “in order to facilitate post-mortem examination” (USHMM, n.d.).
Josef Mengele: The Angel of Death
The most well known Nazi doctor, who conducted many of these horrendous experiements at Auschwitz, was Josef Mengele. After joining the Nazi Party in 1937, Mangele received his medical degree and joined the SS a year later, in 1938. Mengele arrived at Auschwitz in May of 1943, and in November of that same year became the Chief Camp Physician of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) (USHMM, n.d.).
Auschwitz medical staff were required to be present when new prisoners arrived to the camp as part of their “rounds,” during which time they made “selections” of prisoners to determine who would be put to work doing hard labor, and who would be sent directly to the gas chambers (USHMM, n.d.). Because he often spent his “off-duty” time at the ramp on the lookout for twins, his research area of interest, Mengele is a “pervasive image” among survivor accounts of the ramp (USHMM, n.d.). He is known as the “Angel of Death” due to “his coldly cruel demeanor” while on selection duty on the ramp (USHMM, n.d.).
In the following video, Eva Kor, a twin who experienced the horrors of Nazi experimentation first hand, recounts her experience with Mengele:
Jewish medical professionals who were prisoners at Auschwitz were forced to carry out the details of many of the experiments that happened there. Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a prisoner-physician who “assisted Mengele under duress,” later documented his experience in his book Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account.
While Mengele’s crimes were well documented, he evaded punishment for these crimes by moving from Argentina to Paraguay to Brazil, where he died in 1979. To learn more about Mengele, read Halioua and Marmor’s 2020 article The eyes of the angel of death: Ophthalmic experiments of Josef Mengele.
Jewish Physicians and the Holocaust:
While the actions of Nazi doctors during the Holocaust were overwhelmingly horrifying and atrocious, there were doctors during this time who made the choice to practice medicine in a way that offered hope and was intended to save lives whenever possible. In the 2014 book Jewish Medical Resistance in the Holocaust, Dr. Michael Grodin highlights the “mostly unknown moral and physical struggles faced by physicians trying to provide care and comfort amid the depredation of war” (Saunders, 2014). As documented by primary and secondary source materials in this book, Jewish physicians “fought to promote public health in ghettos and concentration camps as a way of slowing the march toward extermination” (Saunders, 2014). To hear more about this book and Jewish doctors during the Holocaust, take a look at the short video below:
Perl as a young medical student (Gross 2020)
One Jewish physician who was a prisoner at Auschwitz and was forced to work with Dr. Mengele was Dr. Gisella Perl, pictured on the left as a young medical student. Dr. Perl was a gynecologist who lived in Hungary with her husband, Ephraim Krauss, a surgeon, and their two children. In March of 1944, Perl and her family were sent to Sighet Ghetto. By March of 1945, she had been moved to Auschwitz. Perl, alongside four other doctors and five nurses, were tasked with establishing a hospital in the camp.
In addition to gynecology, Perl found herself “trying to heal all of the forms of abuse inflicted on her fellow prisoners” including caring for head wounds, extracting infected teeth, taping broken ribs, and cleaning painful lacerations (Gross, 2020). Having had her medical bag ripped away by a German doctor, she had no equipment with which to perform these duties aside from “paper for bandaging and a small knife she sharpened on a stone” (Gross, 2020).
Even in the midst of such dire circumstances, Perl made every effort to use her position as a doctor in the camp for good and to save as many lives as she could. When asked to provide blood samples for prisoners who she knew had contagious diseases, she sent vials of her own blood instead so the patients would not be killed because of their disease (Gross, 2020). “On days she knew the SS would clear out the hospital and send the sick to the gas chambers,” she would send some patients “back to their barracks so they would be spared” (Gross, 2020). One Auschwitz survivor called Perl “the doctor of the Jews” (Gross, 2020).
Mengele, having learned that Perl was a gynecologist, ordered her to report every pregnant woman directly to him, telling her that “they would be sent to a special camp, where they would receive extra bread rations and even milk” (Gross, 2020). However, Perl soon learned the truth when she witnessed pregnant women being beaten, attacked by dogs, and thrown into the crematorium alive (Gross, 2020). Perl decided that “it was up to me to save the life of the mothers, if there was no other way, than by destroying the life of their unborn children” (Gross, 2020). When Perl knew that a woman was pregnant, she did her best to hide the pregnancy whenever possible, and she ended the pregnancy when it could no longer be hidden (Gross, 2020). She spent her days working for Mengele, and her nights performing abortions in an effort to save the lives of the mothers.
Perl survived the Holocaust. She went on to work in labor and delivery at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan before opening her own practice “dedicated to helping women with infertility” (Gross, 2020). In 1978, she learned that her daughter had also survived and was living in Israel. She moved to Israel to live with her daughter and grandson and volunteered her services at gynecology clinics delivering babies until her death in 1988 (Gross, 2020).
Nuremberg Code
Following the Holocaust, medical professionals were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the “doctors trial” portion of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal case of United States v. Karl Brandt et al. During the trial, issues of medical ethics brought up by the medical experiments performed on prisoners took center stage. What is now known as the “Nuremberg Code” was established from this trial. The Nuremberg Code established 10 key ethical principles to be followed for all medical experimentation including: voluntary patient consent, avoidance of unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury, the degree of risk should never exceed the importance of the problem solved by the experiment, human subjects should be able to end the experiment when physical or mental continuation seems impossible, and that scientist should be prepared to end the experiment at any stage (Shuster, 1997). The Nuremberg Code is widely considered to be the “most important document in the history of the ethics of medical research” and continues to guide the “principles that ensure the rights of subjects in medical research” to this day (Shuster, 1997).
Additional Resources:
To learn more about medical care and Jewish physician experiences during the Holocaust, explore the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Medical Care, Nazism, and the Holocaust Collection. This collection includes diary entries, oral histories and interviews, photographs, official letters and manuscripts.
References:
Boston University. (2012, February 18). A history of Jewish doctors during the Holocaust. Boston University YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/LI6qcshy-Kc
The School of Medicine and Health Sciences has a Premium Institutional Membership with the AMEE - Association of Medical Education Europe for staff and faculty. SMHS welcomes faculty and staff from the schools of Nursing and Public Health and the MFA to also use these resources. All that’s required is registering here using your GW or MFA email address.
Things you’ll have access to once registered include MedEdWorld, an online community with newsletters, interest groups, webinars, and online courses. MedEdWorld includes medical education-focused textbooks and journal articles. There are also links to video clips, images, diagrams and websites for personal use and teaching.
AMEE membership provides discounts to their annual conference and other conferences, and their publications, including MedEdPublish, an open access e-journal. The journal Medical Teacher is provided free to members in an online format.
Could you benefit from peer-to-peer guidance and feedback on your writing assignments? If so, help is coming to Himmelfarb! The GW Writing Center is offering weekly, one-on-one consultations at the library throughout the spring semester.
Schedule an appointment to meet with Kamiah, a Public Health major with expertise in scientific writing and APA/MLA citation styles. She will be onsite Wednesdays from 7pm – 9pm. Her consultation services begin Wednesday, January 26th. The Writing Center table will be located on the first floor by the emergency exit near the Circulation Desk. If you prefer, you may also schedule a virtual appointment.
For questions, or for more information, please visit the GW Writing Center website.
Mentoring is a relationship that can benefit both the mentor and the mentee. Having a supportive mentor is often critical for success and growth when becoming a new professional or changing jobs. Mentoring relationships are valuable for students who are exploring careers, or need strong recommendations to take their next step into the professional world. Being an effective mentor can help hone your leadership skills, expose you to different perspectives and ideas, enhance your reputation, and bring the satisfaction of having helped a junior colleague or student.
At GW there are several departments that provide support for mentoring. One of them is housed in Himmelfarb Library! The SMHS Center for Faculty Excellence is located on our first floor. Helping support and develop mentoring relationships for faculty at all stages in their careers is part of their services. They have programs to support both Micro-Mentoring, which is one-on-one mentoring, or Peer Mentoring Groups for cohorts of 6-8 junior faculty. Additionally they will present Effective Mentoring Workshops to departments on request. Visit their Mentoring Resources page for more information on these programs and their Mentoring Toolkit.
The Milken Institute School of Public Health has TEAM Milken - Transition, Engagement, Academics, and Mentorship. The program aims to provide individualized support to GWSPH majors to help them thrive academically and professionally. A peer mentoring program for undergraduate students will launch this spring. The TEAM has 30+ staff and faculty participants to provide outreach and guidance.
The Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship includes mentoring as a core component of the program. They sponsor a mentoring network through the GW Innovation Exchange. The exchange helps students interested in entrepreneurship connect with alumni or community professionals to find collaborative opportunities and internships.
Evans MM, Kowalchik K, Riley K, Adams L. Developing Nurses Through Mentoring: It Starts in Nursing Education. Nurs Clin North Am. 2020 Mar;55(1):61-69. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2019.10.006. Epub 2019 Dec 24. PMID: 32005366.
Henry-Noel N, Bishop M, Gwede CK, Petkova E, Szumacher E. Mentorship in Medicine and Other Health Professions. J Cancer Educ. 2019 Aug;34(4):629-637. http://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-018-1360-6. PMID: 29691796.
Roberts SE, Nehemiah A, Butler PD, Terhune K, Aarons CB. Mentoring Residents Underrepresented in Medicine: Strategies to Ensure Success. J Surg Educ. 2021 Mar-Apr;78(2):361-365. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.08.002. Epub 2020 Aug 21. PMID: 32839148.
The Lancet is one of Himmelfarb Library’s most highly used journal titles with more than 31,500 uses in 2020. This equates to an impressive 605 article downloads per week and 86 article downloads a day! But did you know that Himmelfarb provides access to numerous other Lancet titles including specialty titles like Lancet Infectious Diseases, Lancet Public Health, and Lancet Oncology?
Published by Elsevier, The Lancet (main title) publishes scientific knowledge with the aim of improving health and advancing human progress. Started in 1823, today the journal ranked as one of the top medical journals in Journal Citation Reports with a 5-year impact factor of 77.237.
However, you may not know that Himmelfarb Library provides access to 19 different Lancet titles! In addition to the main title (both the British and North American editions), Himmelfarb’s subscriptions include the following Lancet titles:
Regardless of your specialty or interest, The Lancet likely has a specialty journal to fit your interest, and Himmelfarb can provide you access to these titles. Lancet articles can be found by searching databases like PubMed, SCOPUS, and CINAHL. Discover what these specialty titles have to offer and explore Himmelfarb’s collection of Lancet titles today!
January 17th is regarded as both a day of remembrance and also a day that we can take the time out of our busy lives to pay it forward and to educate ourselves on just what it means to be a member of our community. As Dr. King Jr. once said: “"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." Taking that quote into consideration, it is easy to ask ourselves: “What can we do for each other?” or “How can I encourage my community to be more united?”
The event will feature Keynote speakers: Dr. Michelle Morse (she/her), Deputy Commissioner for the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness & Chief Medical Officer at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene and George M. Johnson (They/Them), Author of "All Boys Aren't Blue" and "We Are Not Broken"
If you are unable to attend, there are other events throughout DC that you can do to help your community!
The Health and Wellness fair focuses on meeting the needs of mental health, giving hope, and equipping the community with resources and services needed. Registration, social distancing & Masks are required.
Register online to join members of the community to clean up the Waterways. All ages are welcome to attend, supplies will be provided. Rain or shine!
Where can I find out more?:
Even if you are unable to attend or participate in local community events on MLK day, we encourage all to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s message, and how important it is that we strive to promote equality in our own communities, even in the midst of a Pandemic. Additionally, we encourage you to read about KING WEEK at GW!
January is National Blood Donor Month. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a proclamation designating January as National Blood Donor Month (NBDM) on December 31, 1969 (AABB, 2021). Originally meant to honor blood donors and to encourage more people to give blood during the winter months when blood supplies are traditionally low due to lagging donations from the holidays and cold and flu season, it is not uncommon for there to be shortages in the blood supply during January.
January 2022 is no exception! According to a joint statement put out by the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB), America’s Blood Centers, and the American Red Cross, the nation’s blood supply is currently at a critically low level. The joint statement explains that blood centers have reported less than a one-day supply of certain blood types. As of yesterday, January 11, 2022, 36% of the country’s blood centers have a one-day supply or less, and only 2% of the nation’s blood centers reported having a three day or more supply (enough to meet normal operating demands) according to America’s Blood Centers. The American Red Cross, which supplies 40% of the nation's blood supply, states that the organization is facing “its worst blood shortage in over a decade, posing a concerning risk to patient care” (American Red Cross, 2022).
While the blood supply is traditionally lower in January, the current COVID-19 case surge, winter storms, blood drive cancellations, staffing challenges and donor eligibility misinformation have all posed additional threats to the current blood supply. The American Red Cross states that an overall 10% decline in donations since March 2020, and a 62% decline in college and high school blood drives resulting from the pandemic have also influenced the blood shortage crisis (American Red Cross, 2022). Meanwhile, the demand for blood has not decreased. According to the joint statement, “blood donations are needed now to avert the need to postpone potential lifesaving treatments” (AABB, America’s Blood Centers, American Red Cross, 2022).
Regardless of your blood type, donating can make a positive impact! The requirements for donating blood are simple: Donors must be healthy and feeling well, be at least 17 years old, and weigh 110 pounds or more. If you have donated blood recently, wait at least 56 days before making another donation.
You can participate in National Blood Donor Month and help replenish critically low blood supplies by scheduling an appointment to donate blood today! The American Red Cross is currently offering extra incentives to blood donors who donate by January 31, 2022 including a chance to win a trip to Super Bowl LVI! Contact one of the following organizations to find a blood collection site near you:
Donating blood is safe as blood donation sites have adapted safety protocols to comply with local, state, and federal safety regulations to protect blood donors and staff. Donors and staff are required to wear masks, donor beds meet social distancing needs, and cleaning processes have been enhanced. One unit of blood can save up to three lives, yet less than 5% of eligible donors give blood. Donating blood is an easy and free way you can make a positive contribution during these times, so celebrate National Blood Donor Month by donating in January!
We hope you all had a safe and relaxing Winter Break. We look forward to seeing you in the spring semester. Our current access policy and hours of operation are the same as Fall 2021. Please see below for more information and also for descriptions of and links to our core resources and services.
Onsite Access
We look forward to seeing you if you plan to visit Himmelfarb onsite! But first, please check that you are in compliance with the library’s entry requirements:
All affiliates must present a valid GWorld card upon Himmelfarb Library entry.
Visit the Himmelfarb Library website for our current hours of operation. Our daily hours are always posted and updated on the Himmelfarb Library website. Presently we are open:
Mondays - Thursdays: 8am - 11pm
Fridays: 8am - 8pm
Saturdays: 12pm - 8pm
Sundays: 12pm - 11pm
We hope to return to 24/7 hours of operation on Wednesday, January 19. Please continue to check our website for updated information.
Circulation Desk
Can’t find the book you need on the shelf? Do you want to know if we own a particular book title? The staff at the first floor Circulation Desk are here to help! The Circulation Desk is staffed during all hours of operation. For questions about our services, please email mlbcir@gwu.edu or call us at (202) 994-2962.
Reference Services
Need help with formatting citations, searching databases, or finding information? Himmelfarb Library provides reference assistance Mondays – Fridays from 8am to 5pm. Stop by the first floor Reference Desk for a consultation, use our Chat service to message with Reference staff, or visit our web page to discover the additional ways you can reach a Reference librarian, whether you are on- or off-campus.
Classes
We can demystify APA citation format for you! We’ll introduce you to the systematic review process! Explore Himmelfarb’s listing of online classes that can help you with your research — and, registration is free!
Consortium Loan Service and Interlibrary Loan
Would you like to borrow books or order articles that we don’t have in our collection? No problem! We offer two ways to bring those items to you.
Through our Consortium Loan Service, you may request books from other academic libraries in the DC Metro area, including Gelman Library. All requested books are delivered to Himmelfarb within a few days. You will be notified when books have been delivered, and then you can come to our Circulation Desk to check them out. (We will also return the books for you when you bring them back.) If you live out-of-town and require shipping, we can accommodate you.
If no local consortium libraries have what you’re looking for, or you need a journal article that's not in our collections, then our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service will find it for you! Students receive up to 15 free ILL requests (books or articles) per semester. Requested articles usually take 2-3 days to arrive in your inbox, and books usually take 7-10 days to be shipped to Himmelfarb for checkout.
GW Writing Center
Great news for you if you’d like a little help with the papers you’re writing. GW’s Writing Center will begin offering weekly in-person consultations at Himmelfarb later this month. You’ll soon be able to schedule appointments to meet with a member of the Writing Center team. Stay tuned for further details!
Study Room Reservations
We have plenty of study rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors (and a few on the B1 level!). Remember to make an online reservation prior to using a study room.
3D Printing
We invite you to explore our 3D printing services, Find a model you’d like and we’ll print it for you at a cost of ten cents per gram, with a $1 minimum charge. (If you’re interested in printing scientific models, the NID 3D Print Exchange is a great place to explore.)
Here are the titles and descriptions for each video:
Promoting Your Research Are you looking for ways to promote your research or publications? In this brief tutorial we cover basic social media promotion tips, tweetable abstracts, and the value of including your research in open access repositories. We also discuss the importance of ensuring that researcher profiles include accurate and up to date publication information.
Advanced Literature Searches and the MeSH Search Builder This tutorial provides information on how to access and utilize the MeSH search builder using PubMed. We discuss how to perform advanced literature searches using this tool.
The Research Cycle This tutorial provides an overview of the research lifecycle and describes what happens in each phase.
CREDiT taxonomy Do you have questions about authorship credit and order? The CREDiT taxonomy can help! In this tutorial we discuss contributor roles and publishers that utilize CREDiT to ensure that researchers get credit for their work!
Retractions, errata, expressions of concern In this tutorial we give an overview of retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern. We discuss reasons for retractions, the process of making corrections to published research, and look at examples in PubMed.
Open Access and Your Research Is there value to publishing your research in an Open Access (OA) format? In this tutorial we define Open Access, give examples of different types of OA, and discuss options for publishing or archiving research in an OA format.
Once you’ve finished watching the new videos, explore our video library and watch the previous short lectures to learn more about publication, promotion and the resources Himmelfarb Library offers.
If you are a researcher with questions or concerns about publishing your research or looking for ways to promote your work to a wide audience, the Scholarly Communications Committee is here to assist you at every step of the process. Feel free to contact members of the committee via email by using the email address listed at the end of each video or contact Himmelfarb Library at himmelfarb@gwu.edu. If you have suggestions for future video topics, leave them in the comments or send an email and a staff member will share it with the committee.
