Best 17 Gifts for Medical Students for 2024

With the holiday season nearly upon us, it’s time to start thinking about the best gifts to buy for any medical student in your life. This article won’t talk about coffee mugs, socks, highlighters shaped like syringes, or even which lab coat is the best. Instead, you will see only what we think a medical student would genuinely find helpful.

Having spent more than 15 years studying science and medicine, and as the proud father of a pre-med student, I would like to think I have a good sense of what a medical student would like to receive. Therefore, we’ve divided this guide into different sections, from health and fitness to productivity, hardware, and at-home tests (for medical insights). All of these will be of great use to future doctors, and they will appreciate the thought behind the gift.

Health and Fitness Smartwatches/Fitness Trackers

Staying fit and healthy is essential for medical students with their demanding workload. And, of course, with their knowledge of the human body and the importance of taking care of it, they are usually more motivated than most to take good care of themselves. But it can be hard for them to find the time to dedicate to keeping track of their health goals. This is where health and fitness smartwatches and fitness trackers can be so useful for medical students.

Best Overall: Apple Watch 7

If you want to get the medical student in your life a health and fitness smartwatch that can do just about everything, then look no further than the Apple Watch 7. It comes in various colors, and the strap can be customized to suit all different tastes; it can receive phone calls, text messages, play podcasts, and much more.

It also has some in-depth health monitoring features that any medical student will highly value. These include step tracking, heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen monitoring, sleep tracking, and ECGs. The watch can also be synced to Apple Fitness, where you can access a wide range of fitness classes that you can do from the comfort of your home. Perfect for the busy medical student!

Best Fitness and Health Band: Fitbit Charge 5

While the Apple Watch 7 is designed to be a powerful smartwatch with health and fitness tracking included, the Fitbit Charge 5 is designed with serious fitness in mind. Its face is smaller than the Apple Watch 7, which can be good if you prefer your smartwatch not to take up too much space on your wrist.

In addition, it has a battery life of six days which can make it much easier to keep track of your health throughout every day. With the Fitbit Charge 5, you can track your steps, heart rate, ECG, and EDA (measures the sweat on your skin to measure your stress response). It also has robust sleep tracking, which measures your breathing rate and your skin temperature variation, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rate variability (measures nervous system activity).

Best For Android Users: Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

This smartwatch will only work with Android phones, and it is most compatible with Samsung phones (you can only access blood pressure monitoring and ECG with Samsung phones). The Galaxy Watch 4 offers the same fitness and health tracking that you would expect from any fitness watch, such as heart rate monitoring, GPS tracking for running, and sleep tracking.

However, one of the features that sets it apart from the crowd is that you can use it for body composition tracking, which will give you an idea of your body fat composition. This is a much more accurate way of measuring your fitness levels than other measures, and it can help you know whether or not you are meeting your health goals. Any medical student would love to have this piece of information in their health tracking toolkit.

Metabolism and Nutrition

For medical students, taking care of their health isn’t just about their activity levels. It is also about how they are fueling their body and how their body is utilizing that fuel. Using the technology that is now available, they will appreciate gaining a true insight into how their body is working beneath the surface. And be able to make clearer choices for how to take care of it. Being a medical student is demanding, and ensuring that their body is fueled properly will help them better navigate their daily challenges.

Best For Metabolism Analysis: Lumen

Lumen is pretty revolutionary. Many people have tracked their calories or their macros, but without understanding what our body is doing with the food that we put into it, all of us are going in blind. Lumen changes all of that. You blow into the device every morning, and its CO2 sensor and flow meter determine how much CO2 concentration you have in each breath.

This will show you what your body is currently using for energy (carbohydrates or fats). Carbohydrates are a high-energy fuel source that is readily available soon after you consume them, but if you want to lose weight having your body be in a state where it is burning fat as a fuel source instead is essential. You can use Lumen to improve your body’s metabolism flexibility and how it switches between carbohydrates and fats as a fuel source.

It can also provide detailed insights into how your metabolism is affected by your lifestyles, such as sleep, physical activity, and nutrition. Using this information, Lumen can provide personalized meal plans, and it can help you decide whether or not you need

to fuel up before a workout.

Best For Staying Hydrated While Studying: HidrateSpark

We all know how important it is to stay hydrated. Still, so many of us forget to drink enough water, and the medical student in your life will probably have an even greater appreciation and motivation for staying hydrated than most. The HidrateSpark is a smart water bottle that is designed to help keep you hydrated.

It is linked to an app on your phone via Bluetooth and, in the app, you can personalize your lifestyle, personal data, and activity levels, and it will calculate just how much water you need each day. Then the water bottle will track how much water you have drunk and will light up to remind you that it’s time to take a drink. Any medical student will appreciate the simplicity of the HidrateSpark and how well it works in keeping them hydrated.

Productivity

Once the medical student has taken care of their health and nutrition, it is time for them to focus on being as productive as possible. Their workload will be very high, and staying organized will be key to keeping on top of everything and not getting overwhelmed. Thankfully, there are lots of options out there for giving the medical student in your life the gift of productivity, for which they will undoubtedly be forever grateful.

Best For Note Takings: iPad Pro

Taking decent notes is an invaluable skill for any medical student to learn, but keeping notes on pen and paper doesn’t just take up a lot of room. It also increases the risk of them getting lost. The iPad Pro, on the other hand, is lightweight and easy to carry in any bag. Unfortunately, the notetaking app already installed on the iPad Pro is quite basic. Still, the real power of using this device for notetaking is the huge range of notetaking apps to suit any notetaking style and preference.

Most of these apps will offer cloud storage, which means that the notes will be available from any device just by logging into the account on the web. Many allow users to add photos, videos, audio recordings, and even web page clips to their notes. So if they have a certain part of a lecture that will help them understand the information, for example, they can add it right into the notes. These notetaking enhancements will be so helpful when it comes to revision time. With many of them, you can also annotate PDF files and collaborate with others.

Best Apple Computer: MacBook Air

The MacBook Air is perfect for medical students. It is super thin and lightweight, so it can be carried around all day and has impressive battery life, but it also has the power of the MacBook. It can also be synced with the iPhone and iPad, so any productivity activities, such as notetaking, photos, and videos were taken on any of these devices, can be synced to the MacBook.

The MacBook won’t just be a device for taking notes on. However, it will also be a way for the medical student in your life to keep in touch with friends and family via video calls and messages, watch TV, listen to music, edit their photos, and much more. When you gift someone a MacBook, you give them a device that they will use every day of their lives.

Best PC Tablet: Microsoft Surface 8

If the medical student in your life values portability and practicality, then the Microsoft Surface 8 is a great option. They won’t need a separate laptop and tablet because this device is both. It has a kickstand at the back, which can be set to any angle, so you can have the screen in a laptop position or have it flat to the table and anywhere in between.

And you can use the keyboard for writing or switch to the included pen to take handwritten notes directly onto the screen. It is also super lightweight, coming in at just 891 grams, and it has all-day battery life. So when you think about day-to-day life, you can see how this laptop/tablet will fit in perfectly.

Best For Learning Anatomy: Occulus Quest 2

The Occulus Quest 2 is the leading virtual reality headset. It can be used to play games, keep fit, and have fun. But for medical students, it can also be used to aid in their learning. For example, the app 3D Organon VR Anatomy is used by hundreds of learning universities and hospitals worldwide to help students visualize human anatomy uniquely and memorably. It uses 3D models of humans showing their skeletal system, muscles, vessels, nerves, and organs which are open to being explored as if they were right in front of you.

Stethoscopes

Many medical students will need their own stethoscope when they begin their studies (although some schools will provide ones to borrow). Getting the right stethoscope is essential for practical reasons. It needs to be able to work perfectly so that it can be used for its intended purpose. Beyond that, the stethoscope has a symbolic meaning for medical students. It marks them embarking on their journey to become doctors, and the day they receive their first stethoscope will be truly meaningful to them.

Best Digital Stethoscope: 3M Littman Core Digital Stethoscope

Littman has been a well-respected name in the stethoscope field for a very long time. In collaboration with Eko, its latest offering combines the aesthetics and build quality of a classic Littman stethoscope with modern medical tech. This digital stethoscope can be connected to any Bluetooth-enabled device where you can make recordings, use the FDA-approved automated murmur detection, and even live stream in a HIPAA-compliant way for telemedicine purposes.

When using the 3M-Littman Core in the standard way, you will have the option of taking advantage of the digital features by enabling amplification and noise cancellation, which can be invaluable in noisy environments. However, these features can be turned off, and you can go back to analog listening with the flick of a switch.

Best For Transforming Any Stethoscope Into a Digitial One: Eko Core Attachment

Suppose the medical student in your life already owns an analog stethoscope, and you think they would appreciate the advantages and features that come along with a digital stethoscope. In that case, the Eko Core Attachment can be a great gift. It transforms any stethoscope into a digital one to use all of the features you would expect with a digital stethoscope, including amplification and noise cancellation, wireless listening, and syncing with Eko software to make recordings, etc.

At-Home Tests To Learn From

Allowing medical students to have first-hand experience of the topics they are learning about can help them have the clearest understanding possible. And, since they are learning about medicine and the human body, sometimes finding out about their health can be one of those hands-on experiences. For example, at-home genetic testing has become incredibly popular in recent years. It won’t just give medical students an insight into their family history but, for many of the tests, it can also help them understand their genetic predisposition to certain disorders.

Best For Understanding Genomics: 23andMe

23andMe is one of the most popular at-home genetic testing products on the market right now. Taking a 23andMe test allows you to understand your genetic heritage, and it can also help you connect with your extended family tree via their ancestry database. It can also take you through some interesting facts about your genetic traits and what they mean.

Beyond that, depending on the plan you choose, 23andMe can also give you an insight into your genetic predisposition to specific disorders, tell you whether you are a carrier for specific genes, and give you some insight into how your genes affect your wellness.

Best For Whole-Genome Sequencing: Nebula Genomics

Nebula Genomics provides the most comprehensive DNA home testing, and it allows you to decode 100% of your DNA. This provides the most accurate DNA test out of any of the home-testing options. The results from this test are so accurate that they can be sent directly to physicians and genetic counselors. It will also allow any medical student to dive into their DNA and what it means. With Nebula Genomics, you can access Big Data which will be an invaluable tool for them to understand exactly what their results mean.

Medical students will appreciate that they will receive regular reports and articles whenever new ones are published that are relevant to their DNA results through the Nebula Research Library.

Best For Understanding Nutrigenomics: Genopalate

We spoke earlier about the importance of understanding the body’s nutrition. The Genopalate genetic testing takes that idea one step further while also granting some fascinating practical insight into how genes affect both the body and behavior, making it the perfect gift for the medical student in your life.

This DNA test will give you an understanding of your completely personalized macro and micronutrient needs as well as food sensitivities and how substances are metabolized in your body. It will also help you understand how your DNA might affect your eating behavior, for example, late-night snacking or emotional eating.

And it can show you your taste profile which can help to explain why you might like or dislike certain foods. It can also help you optimize your meal times to be sure that your body uses its fuel as efficiently as possible.

Best For Self-Testing: Everlywell

Everlywell testing is all about taking charge of your health. And medical students will appreciate finding out more about their body and how it functions about what they are learning in class. Rather than DNA testing, the testing from EverlyWell is all about understanding your body’s functioning, and you can order a wide range of tests, including:

• food sensitivity
• Covid-19
• women’s and men’s health
• fertility
• testosterone
• vitamin D, B vitamins, folic acid, and inflammation testing
• metabolism test
• peri- and post-menopause test
• STI tests
• Lyme disease
• indoor and outdoor allergies
• cholesterol
• and many more

Medical Gadgets to Learn From

Medical technology has come a long way in recent years, and there is now a wide range of gadgets that anyone can use at home to understand how their body is functioning. These can be an excellent gifts for a medical student because they provide practical and hands-on experience of testing these health functions and seeing how they affect how their own body works.

Best Mobile ECG: KardiaMobile

KardiaMobile allows anyone to test their heart health anywhere and anytime. It is small enough to fit in your pocket and provides FDA-approved ECG testing to detect arterial fibrillation, bradycardia, and tachycardia. The results can be analyzed on your smartphone and shared from there with health professionals if needed.

The ECG testing itself is easy and is achieved simply by placing two fingers on the sensors. Any medical student will appreciate the detailed insight into their heart health that KardiaMobile provides.

Best for Blood Oxygen Monitoring: Wellue O2 Ring

The Wellue O2 Ring is worn overnight and tracks oxygen saturation, heart rate, and body movements every four seconds. It is FDA-registered, and it will vibrate if abnormal O2 levels or heartbeats are detected. It also provides detailed health reports based on the data it collects, which can be read on the accompanying smartphone app.

So if the medical student in your life is worried about snoring or sleep apnea or wants to pore over the data it collects about them while they sleep, the Wellue O2 Ring will make the perfect gift.

The Bottom Line

You don’t have to buy cliche gifts for the medical student in your life. By using a different approach, there are all sorts of exciting and valuable gifts that they will appreciate and use for years to come. These can be gifts that they will use in their studies or gifts that will help them get practical experience and insights into the areas they are studying, and they will all show the thought and care that you have put into them.