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Haematology Elective - Where?

Hello y'all,
I am Heinze, a medical student from Brazil planning to take a medical elective in a Haematology service in the UK.
I would love to have nice hands-on experience, build some networking and - if possible - in a centre where lymphoma and leukemia are a strong and active field. It is all part of a greater plan to take on a fellowship or even residency in the future.
Been searching google and this forum, but nothing seems to give me a nice and clear option, as well as a recent one (data from 10 years ago are not reliable at all, I suppose).
Anyway, thank you for your attention! Hope I get more answers than doubts.
Original post by Heinze
Hello y'all,
I am Heinze, a medical student from Brazil planning to take a medical elective in a Haematology service in the UK.
I would love to have nice hands-on experience, build some networking and - if possible - in a centre where lymphoma and leukemia are a strong and active field. It is all part of a greater plan to take on a fellowship or even residency in the future.
Been searching google and this forum, but nothing seems to give me a nice and clear option, as well as a recent one (data from 10 years ago are not reliable at all, I suppose).
Anyway, thank you for your attention! Hope I get more answers than doubts.

What "data" do you refer to?

Obviously even the smallest haematology departments will be dealing with lymphoma and leukemia daily. I'd go as far as to say I'd be surprised if there was a teaching hospital in existence that wasn't doing research into either of those.

You could aim for a larger department in the hopes that they have more going on. The problem is that these departments are likely to be a) less hands on and b) more expensive for elective students.

Most elective students go for the more famous cities (not necessarily based on the department - just the name of the city). For example in Oxford there were always loads of elective students, but I haven't come across a single one in Sheffield in two years. You may find that you get a better deal from going somewhere less popular - firstly you will be more unusual so you might find people take more interest in you, particularly if you are very enthusiastic. Secondly, it is likely to cost less.

Perhaps someone on here has more specific contacts. Otherwise, I'd suggest googling and contacting a few different places and seeing what they say. Good luck.
Reply 2
Original post by nexttime
What "data" do you refer to?

Obviously even the smallest haematology departments will be dealing with lymphoma and leukemia daily. I'd go as far as to say I'd be surprised if there was a teaching hospital in existence that wasn't doing research into either of those.

You could aim for a larger department in the hopes that they have more going on. The problem is that these departments are likely to be a) less hands on and b) more expensive for elective students.

Most elective students go for the more famous cities (not necessarily based on the department - just the name of the city). For example in Oxford there were always loads of elective students, but I haven't come across a single one in Sheffield in two years. You may find that you get a better deal from going somewhere less popular - firstly you will be more unusual so you might find people take more interest in you, particularly if you are very enthusiastic. Secondly, it is likely to cost less.

Perhaps someone on here has more specific contacts. Otherwise, I'd suggest googling and contacting a few different places and seeing what they say. Good luck.


Hey nexttime! Thanks for your reply.
For data, I found some posts of people talking about elective in medical schools from 8-10 years ago and how some were great and others not so much. Is there a chance for some opinion from that time to be relevant? Of course there is. However, I found better to gather new advice.

Exactly! People tend to go for a "famous" university when there are several criteria we should consider beforehand, as: 1) how many students will be with you; 2) in which place you'll be; 3) will you just observe?; 4) how much will it cost you and so on.

Of course, academic fame comes from somewhere. In fact, it is most likely that a prestigious institution has its merits for having a name to live up to. But if the same medical school is full of other medical students acting in a cramped and "patient swollen" environment (and I'm not running away from "health service chaos". Been there already) in which medical practice is unlikely, no name will suffice to give me or any other medical student the satisfaction of smaller/lesser known centres where you might have a better experience.

Again, thank you for the info!
There's a lot of exciting stuff with Car-T cells going on at the moment. I know Kings, UCLH and Newcastle are running trials at the moment. They are also big transplant centres which also makes them very interesting. Cambridge (Addenbrookes) is also apparently about to get involved with Car-T trials (although not yet) and is also a big transplant centre. Arbitrarily I would say those would all be good bets. Honestly I think you're better going to a big tertiary centre for Haem as complex cases in DGHs get quickly transferred to them, and so you'll encounter a lot more inpatients and interesting stuff in tertiary centres.
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 4
Original post by seaholme
There's a lot of exciting stuff with Car-T cells going on at the moment. I know Kings, UCLH and Newcastle are running trials at the moment. They are also big transplant centres which also makes them very interesting. Cambridge (Addenbrookes) is also apparently about to get involved with Car-T trials (although not yet) and is also a big transplant centre. Arbitrarily I would say those would all be good bets. Honestly I think you're better going to a big tertiary centre for Haem as complex cases in DGHs get quickly transferred to them, and so you'll encounter a lot more inpatients and interesting stuff in tertiary centres.

That's nice to hear! I missed the deadline for Cambridge, unfortunately. Been thinking about applying to UCL, though. As for Newcastle, I'll take a look in their application process, costs and deadlines.
Thank you!

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