In2Med sets July date for digital dashboard portal for medical applicants

A new online programme for medical students, started by two students studying medicine at Cambridge University, is set to launch on July 13.

In2Med founders Ankit Chadha and Ellie Phelps have already launched a personal statement course for sixth form students applying to medical school – currently on a half-price trial at £49.99.

The ‘Clinical Modules’ programme is due next, and aims to assist and network university students studying medicine – like Ankit and Ellie.

“Ellie and myself are in the fifth year of our medical course at the university,” says Ankit. “Until now prospective students had to fly over to get their training for the application, which meant financial backing, so last summer we thought we would write our own courses to help students both in the UK and in India.

“As well as the personal statement course, we also wanted a programme for students already studying medicine so – this is before coronavirus – we decided to make it an online learning portal.”

The personal statement course is available as a half-price trial for £49.99: looking at it from the perspective of, say, a lower 6th form student who is applying to medical school in the autumn, that has to be be money well spent. As it says on the website: “You need to sell yourself to Medical Schools. And you have to do this in up to 4,000 characters, which will make up roughly 500 words, over 47 lines of 12-point script.”

“So it’s a month to six weeks to do the course,” says Ankit. “It helps you keep track of books read, the hours of helping in a care home, or work experience in hospitals. This course shows you how to get started, then you go out in the community and do different things. Especially with coronavirus, students may not be getting help from other students, so they’re still trying to gain experience despite the restrictions out there. By the end of the course they can prepare their first draft.”

The Clinical Modules programme is for university students studying medicine earlier on - the years Ankit and Ellie have completed.

The website says: “Do you find yourself chasing information in a hundred different places? You attend a lecture, then flip through five different textbooks but don’t find what you want. Maybe you go to the library for more books, or maybe you search online and get sucked into a black hole of irrelevant (but interesting!) information. Then there’s ward rounds, tutorials and published notes...”

The solution is the clinical modules portal, “the roadmap that will guide you step by step from first year to final exams”. Here, a monthly subscription “gives you access to everything you actually need to know, organised and presented with a system based approach. You can access the material from anywhere, track your progress in your personal dashboard and chat to fellow students in our community spaces”.

There’s nine specialist modules including cardiovascular, endocrinology, gastrointestinal, dermatology and musculo-skeletal. Three clinical skills modules cover history taking, clinical exams and radiology.

Ellie told the Cambridge Independent: “For me, In2Med has been the chance to craft my own course, combining my own and my peers’ experiences of going through the application process. Every applicant has their own unique reasons for wanting to study medicine and own experiences to demonstrate it, but one of the biggest challenges is fully capturing it on paper in a personal statement.

“In2Med has grown to become a really comprehensive resource that can help a lot of people in a time when uncertainty is even more heightened than ever before. I am excited to keep working on expanding the site, focusing on what would really help prospective medical students.”

In2Med has been awarded two grants from Santander Universities and this year joined the Cambridge Judge Business School’s Accelerate Cambridge programme.

Babita Devi, coach at Accelerate Cambridge, said: “In2Med is a great example of an organisation that is responding to the changing nature of what is fast becoming a ‘new norm’.

“Service providers have had to adapt to the current environment to continue to support their customers and In2Med have successfully created a digital platform to assist with students that want to study medicine.

“Creating a solution born out of their own frustrations, the platform will not only assist with preparing for entry to medical school, and they have an exciting pipeline of services to support students studying medicine at university.”

Details here.