Today was our last day in Birmingham. We started off the day by attending our final lectures at Birmingham City University. It honestly feels crazy how quickly the week has gone by because it feels like we just arrived, and now it is already our last day here. Over the past week, we have learned so much and experienced so many new things, so it was a little bittersweet realizing that our time in Birmingham was coming to an end.

We had two lectures today. Our first lecture was about cardiovascular diseases in developing countries. Throughout the lecture, I learned many interesting statistics. One statistic that stood out to me was that in 2019, ischemic heart disease was the number one cause of death in the United Kingdom, which is very similar to the United States. We discussed how these numbers continue to rise, making cardiovascular disease a major global health issue.

We also learned that adults ages 70 and older are the main age group affected by cardiovascular diseases. However, one thing that was concerning to hear was that over the years, younger and younger people have started developing cardiovascular issues at earlier ages. This stood out to me because it shows how important prevention, education, healthy lifestyles, and early healthcare interventions are becoming for people of all ages.

We then looked at mortality rates comparing Nigeria, the United States, and the United Kingdom. We learned that Nigeria has a higher incidence of death related to cardiovascular diseases, especially due to healthcare inequalities and less access to preventative care. Although some of the numbers may appear lower at first, we discussed how record keeping and healthcare reporting systems are not always as developed as they are in the US and UK, which can affect the accuracy of the data. We also learned that Nigeria has a life expectancy that is about 10 years lower than the US and UK, which highlights the impact that healthcare access, prevention, and health inequalities can have on populations.

Preventative care is something that I am very interested in. I feel that many conditions such as heart attacks, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular diseases could be reduced if people focused more on prevention rather than only treating the condition after it develops. This is something that I think healthcare systems globally still struggle with. The foods many people eat, along with low levels of physical activity, are not leading to healthy lifestyles or good long-term health outcomes.

I believe that educating people about preventative care, healthy habits, nutrition, and exercise can have a major impact on overall health. In many cases, prevention and education may improve outcomes even more than medications or procedures alone. This lecture really reinforced for me how important public health and prevention are in healthcare.

Another fact we learned was that in Nigeria there is not really a widespread emergency response system like 911 in the United States or 999 in the United Kingdom. Because of this, emergency care can sometimes be delayed up to six hours, which can be very dangerous for patients experiencing serious medical emergencies such as heart attacks or strokes.

We also learned that after someone has a heart attack once, there is about a 1 in 5 chance that they may experience another one. This reinforced for me why preventative care is so important. Educating people about healthy lifestyles, early intervention, and managing risk factors can help reduce the chances of these serious health problems happening in the first place.

We then learned about ECGs and how to read them. An ECG records the electrical activity of the heart and is a non-invasive procedure used to help monitor heart function. During the lecture, we learned that ECGs show the electrical activity occurring within the heart, but they do not show the mechanical events or actual pumping action of the heart itself. It was interesting to learn how healthcare professionals can use ECG patterns to identify different heart conditions and abnormalities.

We also learned what a heart block looks like on an ECG, including how a prolonged PR interval can be a sign of certain conduction problems within the heart. It was really cool to learn about and actually see on the ECG examples. I think cardiology is a very interesting field and definitely an area of healthcare that I am interested in learning more about in the future.

After the lecture, we grabbed a bite to eat, and then we were off to London! Which I am super excited to experience! I have heard so much about London, so I am really looking forward to exploring the city and seeing what the next part of the trip has in store for us.