Sketchy made its name with Microbiology, and the Pharm antibiotics videos are equally famous. This is the longest subsection.
This is a massive section. Organize these by heart failure, arrhythmias, hypertension, and coagulation.
We have broken the list into nine major sections. list of sketchy pharm videos
These videos cover the cholinergic and adrenergic systems. They are the most frequently referenced early in med school.
Why a list? Pharmacology, as taught to students, is uniquely monstrous. Unlike anatomy, which is spatial, or pathology, which is narrative, pharmacology is a web of arbitrary connections. A student must learn that a beta-blocker (ending in “-lol”) lowers heart rate, but also that it can mask hypoglycemia, and that one specific variant (sotalol) does something entirely different to potassium channels. There is no inherent poetry in a drug’s mechanism; there is only the brute force of memorization. Sketchy made its name with Microbiology, and the
The “Sketchy” method is a deliberate rebellion against this brute force. It offers a mnemonic universe. Each video is a still-life painting that explodes into motion: a hospital room filled with visual puns. A fire hydrant (furosemide) leaks water (diuresis) while an otter (ototoxicity) plays nearby. The list, then, is not a playlist; it is a map of a bizarre archipelago. The student who compiles their “list” is an explorer charting the “Beta-Lactam Island” (penicillins) versus the “Macrolide Atoll” (azithromycin).
The list provides narrative order to a universe that is, by design, surreal. It tells the student: First, learn the Aminoglycosides (the barnacle-covered ship). Then, learn the Tetracyclines (the teeth-staining soldiers). The list is the scaffolding upon which a fragile, visual memory is built. Heart Failure & Angina:
This is arguably the most important section for clinical practice and boards.