Happy New Year

Dear Friend,

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a wonderful start to 2025, whether you were out celebrating or, like me, enjoying a cozy night in watching the fireworks. A few years ago, the idea of staying in on New Year’s Eve would have terrified me. But after spending four nights in and watching the London fireworks for the past three years, a takeaway and movie night has become the perfect way to ring in the new year.

At the start of each year, I like to map out my goals for the upcoming months—an exercise I’ve been doing for nearly a decade. I find it more effective than making New Year’s resolutions, which often get broken before January ends. This week, I’d love to share my key professional goals for 2025.

1. Secure My Oncology Training Number

Towards the end of last year, I submitted my application for oncology training, which is essentially a path to becoming a registrar. I am eager to enter the field of clinical oncology, which requires five years of registrar training before advancing to consultant status. But before that can happen, I still have 7 months left to complete my IMT (Internal Medicine Training). As a Liverpool FC supporter, I’ve been jokingly likening myself to Mo Salah in the final months of my contract—though I assure you, my football skills don’t quite match up! It’s an exciting time, and I’m hopeful I’ll receive positive news in April.

2. Publish Book 2

I’m currently working on the second edition of my revision guide for medicine, which will cover the six remaining specialties from Book 1: gynaecology, obstetrics, paediatrics, haematology, dermatology, and psychiatry. Now that my applications are out of the way, I finally have the time to focus on writing the second book, which I’m aiming to release in September 2025.

3. Get Fit

This goal is probably the one that most resembles a typical New Year’s resolution: eating healthier and exercising more. This week, I installed MyFitnessPal and began tracking my calories for the first time ever. It’s honestly eye-opening how many calories are in certain foods! Let’s see how long I can keep this up this year.

In summary, those are my top three professional goals for 2025. However, something I realized while setting these goals is how much they’ve shifted over the years—from being primarily career-focused to more personal aspirations, like buying my first home, settling down, and eventually getting married. I’ll keep those personal goals to myself for now, but they are just as, if not more, important than excelling in your career.

I wish you all the best of luck in 2025 and hope you achieve your goals. Best of luck to everyone sitting the MSRA this week and with your applications!

Drug of the week

Sugammadex

This is a medication for the reversal of neuromuscular blockade induced by rocuronium and vecuronium in general anaesthesia. 

It is the first selective relaxant binding agent (SRBA).

Sugammadex, unlike neostigmine, does not inhibit acetylcholinesterase so cholinergic effects are not produced and co-administration of an antimuscarinic agent.

A Brain Teaser

A 55-year-old man comes to see you following a myocardial infarction 4 weeks ago. He has been started on ramipril, bisoprolol, aspirin and clopidogrel following the event. He was also offered a statin but felt that he was being asked to start too many medications at the same time so he declined the statin at that time.

He reports that since then he has been reading up about the beneficial effects of being on a statin and would like to start statin therapy.

Which one of the following should this patient be started on?

A: Rosuvastatin 20mg 

B: Simvastatin 40mg

C: Atorvastatin 20mg

D: Atorvastatin 40mg

E: Atorvastatin 80mg