Playing "House"

Our small group PBL (problem based learning) sessions are just awesome. Today's case: 5 year old boy who recently came from Africa presenting with fever, chest pain with deep breath, leg and back pain. Without knowing anything about medicine, we were able to figure out the diagnosis--B thalessemia minor with sickle cell disease--just by discussing among ourselves and pulling ideas out of nowhere! And it was very rare too for these two diseases to be occuring together.

Our facilitator tried to guide us and steer the discussion on the right course, but mostly it was up to us to figure out which questions to ask regarding medical history, vitals, lab test results, etc. It was really fun and exciting--just like differential diagnosis on "House" (and of course lupus is ALWAYS a probable hypotheses =P). I learned a lot from everyone in my group, but I think the most important thing I learned was that you're not always right, even if you think you are. Everyone brings their unique insight to the table and only by working together were we able to put together all pieces of the puzzle. It took us two hours to figure it out today, and in real life we probably won't have that much time, but there was SUCH a rush accompanied by a sense of accomplishment when everything finally came together in the end!