Introducing High-Impact Medicine (Hi-Med)

By High Impact Medicine @ 2021-12-05T21:10 (+71)

High Impact Medicine, Hi-Med, is a new movement supported by CEA aiming to bring together medical students and  doctors into local groups to learn more about the ways medics can help as many people as possible in their careers, and engage with opportunities to have a wide-reaching positive impact within medicine. 

We believe medical students and doctors have the potential to effectively tackle some of the world’s leading problems alongside, and learning from, clinical practice. Medics are a demographic of individuals who are a natural fit for EA ideas and it is a career which grants flexibility and capital to contribute meaningfully to various areas. 

Our goal is to explore the core opportunities and challenges facing the world today, using an effective altruism framework, and use this as a springboard for discussion about the unique and potentially highly impactful role that medical students and doctors might play in this.

This year we are setting up local groups in Cambridge, London and Oxford (UK) to foster communities of like-minded students and doctors and explore high impact opportunities. We are planning to host several speakers and socials, both in person and online, as well as organise a fellowship in the first quarter of 2022.

We are collaborating with EA Medicine, who currently facilitate an incredible global network for EA-aligned medics to connect and network with one another and further their knowledge. We primarily hope to foster local, engaged communities of medical students and doctors who may not be as familiar with EA, or who are not currently EA aligned. 

If you’re a medic interested in finding out about how you can work to effectively address the world’s most pressing problems, whether you’re based in Cambridge/ London/ Oxford or not,  stay involved via social media: Facebook and Instagram.

If you’re interested in getting more involved in HI-Med, whether starting a community where you are or helping organise the new, growing movement in Cambridge, London or Oxford,  fill out this form! 

bit.ly/HI-Med-GetInvolved

If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch with us at highimpactmedicine@gmail.com

Henry Howard @ 2021-12-11T04:10 (+11)

This is great. I'm a doctor in Aus. I've been giving 50% of my income to effective charities all year. I think one of the most valuable things a doctor can do is give part of their income to charity. It both a) normalises the idea for other doctors and b) restore some faith in the medical profession by  proving that they're not just in it for money.

High Impact Medicine @ 2021-12-12T17:21 (+9)

Hey Henry this is absolutely great; I just had a look at your website and videos, and think that they are fantastic. Completely agree with the points you made!

Luke Freeman @ 2021-12-07T04:35 (+11)

What a great initiative 😀. Out of interest, what's the main differentiators between this and EA Medicine and are there plans to collaborate/cross promote?

High Impact Medicine @ 2021-12-08T22:37 (+13)

Thanks Luke and great question- we are collaborating and working with EA Medicine wherever possible. The main differences as far as we see them are:

  1. High-Impact Medicine is looking to specifically reach out to and engage medics who aren't EAs or haven't heard of EA even
  2. Hi-Med has a local group model (setting up small groups in London, Oxford and Cambridge), whilst EA Med has a global focus. We hope through building individual local communities we can foster deeper engagement (from fewer people) from medics and further our aim of exploring how medics can contribute to addressing the world's most pressing problems effectively.
Luke Freeman @ 2021-12-09T01:07 (+3)

Thanks for sharing 😀 

--alex-- @ 2021-12-09T00:10 (+5)

Does High Impact Medicine also include folks working as Nurses, Pharmacists, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, OT/PT, Medical Engineering, IT and Hospital Logistics?

Ben_Harack @ 2021-12-30T20:02 (+3)

People interested in High Impact Medicine may also be interested in the Human Diagnosis Project (see http://humandx.org and the "Human Dx" app on the main app stores).  The Project intends to solve the problem of medical diagnosis for all of humanity. Currently it allows physicians to train their skills and collaborate on answering thorny medical questions. Eventually it will hopefully provide significant diagnostic help (via both collaboration and decision support) for both medical workers everywhere as well as the broader public. The Project would benefit greatly from additional engaged physicians who are interested in helping people.

Personal context: I work on the Engineering team at the Human Diagnosis Project.