A mini medical school that’s less mini and more medical.
A Colorado Mesa University (CMU) lecture hall quickly fills up with college students, senior citizens, high school students and young children. President of the CMU Graduate Education and Medical Sciences (GEMS) club Caitlyn Partridge gets in front of the room and hits a button on the projector. A live stream from the University of Colorado Denver (CU) begins. Everyone is here for one reason: to learn about the medical field.
The GEMS Mini Med School meetings take place on Wednesday nights in the Maverick Center, and they consist of a live presentation broadcasted from CU Denver, followed by a Q&A session. Each of the seminars is centered around a specific medical topic.
“[Mini Med School is] providing more information than what you’d get doing research [on your own.] It’s a course that CU is providing to help provide a way to understanding that’s super easily accessible. All of the seminars are being conducted by medical professionals, giving the opportunity to give the ‘average joe’ an inside view into the medical community,” Partridge said.
The topic for Oct. 2 was about vaccines, and the material was presented by an Internal Medicine Specialist from Denver, Dr. Laura Hurley. The Mini Med School presentations typically last for around an hour, with the Q&A session clocking in around 30 minutes.
According to Partridge, Mini Med School is a great resource for the community to learn more about the medical field. Each meeting is open to all members of the community, so anyone who’s interested in medicine is always welcome.
Partridge also said that a huge benefit of having such a program in an area like Grand Junction is that the information it provides gives the community an opportunity to learn more about their own personal health. She said that the topics discussed throughout the program are things that can be directly related to the community.
“I think ultimately we can all agree that knowledge is power. Especially with the state of healthcare nowadays, it’s super important that we are provided with all the resources so that we can help patients and people in the community understand their healthcare and understand what’s happening,” Partridge said.
Throughout the Mini Med School program, topics such as addiction, disease and others are examined, along with prevention methods and other advice to the audience.
The Mini Med School runs Wednesdays at 7 p.m., with the week of Oct. 7 off. The next Mini Med School meeting takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 16, in the Maverick Center. The topic is Firearms and Suicide, and the presentation will be given by CU Denver Professor of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Marian Betz.
