Medical Thread

[Saifullah]

wats up wid everybody they all acting like aunty's. i have the flu as well its not like the end of the world..lol

[kakargirl]

wats up wid everybody they all acting like aunty's. i have the flu as well its not like the end of the world..lol

barakzai abdali wror has had flu and food poisening and kept on working long hours in hospital which made everything worst than it would have been if he had rested .

[Saifullah]

i was jokin

[BarakzaiAbdali]

wats up wid everybody they all acting like aunty's. i have the flu as well its not like the end of the world..lol

I do not disagree... a healthy young guy should be able to sustain this thing. I have not been sick in years. This was DFA confirmed A strain and really had me down for the count. This was then followed by a raging gastroenteritis that I had to keep up with via oral hydration therapies. The latter came in from a piece of likely infected buffalo meat. The monkey wrench in all this is that I was just in the unit taking care of a bunch of folks with c diff. So I just empirically started myself on flagyl and dramatically improved... stool antigen/toxin pending.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Barakzai,

I have many thoughts racing through my mind about medical school.

1) If one completes medical school in the US, are there still great residencies outside the US?

2) What medical schools outside the US meet the US in standards? I am talking about schools that are just as tough to get into and also require MCAT and all the other stuff. I would be willing to go out of country for a high quality education, and nothing else.

Not to get too political, but I don't think America needs physicians anymore, plus, the healthcare system is going to collapse anyways.

Salamoona,

1) If you look back at my prior posts when you get the chance you will see that I harp on a huge point in regard to what you lose and what you gain as a US citizen. The issue with going to Europe as a noncitizen is that you will never be allowed to reach the rank of attending after training. The Indians are finding this out fast and leaving in the droves, either to return to India or to come to the US. These are new policies that have affected UK immigrant trainees.

2) Many do. I am sure Dreamer and others are as qualified if not more, than many of their American counterparts at the same level of training. However, I am sure they would also advocate that you look at your end game and decide what your goals are in terms of where do you want to end up? Dreamer has the distinct advantage of being a UK citizen and being able to advance into the highest strata of practicing physicians there. As a US citizen, you will not be able to do this. Canadian schools, on the other hand, do take American citizens and feed them back into the system with reasonable ease and they make their way into excellent residencies. I trained with a gal from McGill, who grew up in Michigan. She was as capable, if not more than her counterparts. So consider Canada as an added option, in order to make it back here.

You will eventually have to marry and provide stability for your family. As a result, if medicine is your chosen route... you will have to plan in such a way that you are not living hand to mouth and chasing your career through training across multiple continents.

Regarding the saturation of the field... I cannot disagree with you more. The AMA, and the college of surgeons has been playing a master game in restricting the number of physicians, and adjusting the supply demand ratio so well that a shortage will exist for decades. What will affect the field is the incursion of various players at the general practitioner level, like NP, PA, and other folks. However, specialists, general surgeons, and the like shall remain masters of their destiny to a great extent.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

United kingdom (oxford, imperial, UCL, cambridge) and many universities in europe are of high standards...

Undoubtedly. The studies that are coming out of Europe, and the multi center trials, are leading the way in various respects. If you look at the wbpage for the last AHA conference... there were many high impact factor studies coming out of Europe. I would love to be involved with any of those teams on any of those studies. Europe is also pushing the envelope on innovative, cost saving techniques at the surgical level, like beating heart surgery.

However, when giving advice to folks like unknownprince, the issue remains: where does he himself in 20 years? As a US citizen, I want to live close to my parents and be able to practice and stay continental. If someone else is willing to leave, and sacrifice some aspect of career advancement due to their lack of a citizenship in countries abroad, but are content with that... then more power to them.

However, family life appears distant at the age of 19... however 10 years down the road, it becomes a reality. Whether you are an engineer, an artist or a doctor, you have to be able to make your goals mesh together. If you marry... and you want one kid, and are willing to live a pretty simple life, you might be comfortable with these a number of career sacrifices/directions. Rizq comes from God alone, and I firmly believe that. However, a part of this may very well relate to wise decision making being a blessed thing.

As an example: imagine if you are a general physician who can treat x number of patients and pull in $120,000. You decide that you can live off $60,000 and will treat x/2 pro bono. This example negates business costs etc. However, your wife and kids have a right over you... any decision you make has to incorporate their well being, education requirements, and required quality of life.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

When you feel better i have many q's to ask you BarakzaiAbdali.

Sure, you can post them and I can answer them... just forgive me for the slowed pace. I have some interviews coming up and may space out the answers. However, go ahead and put them here.

[unknownprince]

Salamoona,

1) If you look back at my prior posts when you get the chance you will see that I harp on a huge point in regard to what you lose and what you gain as a US citizen. The issue with going to Europe as a noncitizen is that you will never be allowed to reach the rank of attending after training. The Indians are finding this out fast and leaving in the droves, either to return to India or to come to the US. These are new policies that have affected UK immigrant trainees.

2) Many do. I am sure Dreamer and others are as qualified if not more, than many of their American counterparts at the same level of training. However, I am sure they would also advocate that you look at your end game and decide what your goals are in terms of where do you want to end up? Dreamer has the distinct advantage of being a UK citizen and being able to advance into the highest strata of practicing physicians there. As a US citizen, you will not be able to do this. Canadian schools, on the other hand, do take American citizens and feed them back into the system with reasonable ease and they make their way into excellent residencies. I trained with a gal from McGill, who grew up in Michigan. She was as capable, if not more than her counterparts. So consider Canada as an added option, in order to make it back here.

You will eventually have to marry and provide stability for your family. As a result, if medicine is your chosen route... you will have to plan in such a way that you are not living hand to mouth and chasing your career through training across multiple continents.

Regarding the saturation of the field... I cannot disagree with you more. The AMA, and the college of surgeons has been playing a master game in restricting the number of physicians, and adjusting the supply demand ratio so well that a shortage will exist for decades. What will affect the field is the incursion of various players at the general practitioner level, like NP, PA, and other folks. However, specialists, general surgeons, and the like shall remain masters of their destiny to a great extent.

this puts things in perspective. Thanks for putting this forward. I guess one has to start looking at priorities.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Is there any way I can see if the courses I have taken are equivalent to the required courses to be a Physicians. Are there any accelerated programs for students who have a Masters degree in Math?

A few posts ago, I answered Shlombay regarding the prereqs and posted what Hopkins and Harvard generally consider prereqs. I noted these schools, but most others fall in line when they speak. If you attend a major university, most of these have a prehealth professions committee office. What you can do, is try to explore the equivalency with them as some colleges vary in terms of what is considered their local equivalent of, for example, a premedical physics course. If that is not available, then a good rule of thumb is that the course should be reasonably difficult enough to satisfy a biology degree coursework pathway, so see what the bio majors are taking.

I think the masters is a helpful thing, but generally, the best route is to put it to use in biomathematical research/biostatistics/biomathematical modeling with an in house, university research group. In general, the major elements: prereqs, MCAT, letters of rec, GPA, etc are rarely if ever waived.

[kamranalikhan]

Assalamoalakum ! Salam to all friends.me dr nangiale khan from mardan.have done mbbs from kmc peshawar.have great wish to pass mrcp may my Allahalmighy bless me and all those friends who wishes to become.dear brothers of this forum i neeed mrcp2 mcqs or links i shall be very thankful.

[Dreamer]

Assalamoalakum ! Salam to all friends.me dr nangiale khan from mardan.have done mbbs from kmc peshawar.have great wish to pass mrcp may my Allahalmighy bless me and all those friends who wishes to become.dear brothers of this forum i neeed mrcp2 mcqs or links i shall be very thankful.

MRCP was easy... use the Pastest books

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Are there any cheap medical schools? I'm willing to relocate like public med schools?

Case Western has a prestigious sub program at the Cleveland Clinic that is full tuition paid. However, it is a 5 year thesis based program, but that only helps with residency apps.

State institutes on average, are easier on the bank account than the privates, but in general they are also generally priced at about an in state tuition of $28,000 and out of state at about $40,000 per year.

With that in mind, a good strategy is to establish residency in a state with a low population to school ratio, like Ohio where there are 7 medical schools, a large proportion of which are public.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Assalamoalakum ! Salam to all friends.me dr nangiale khan from mardan.have done mbbs from kmc peshawar.have great wish to pass mrcp may my Allahalmighy bless me and all those friends who wishes to become.dear brothers of this forum i neeed mrcp2 mcqs or links i shall be very thankful.

I completely defer to Doc Dreamer. I have no idea how the MRCP works. I apologise. Would love to learn more about it myself.

[Dreamer]

I completely defer to Doc Dreamer. I have no idea how the MRCP works. I apologise. Would love to learn more about it myself.

whats to know... its a membership exam for the college of physicians...(internal medicine Drs) made up of part 1, part 2 and PACES
U must pass this to become a Registra in Medical specialities.... once a Reg you can sub-specialise in cardiology, dermatology etc

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Ah the medical interview trail, half political, yet still clinical. It helps gives you respect for a novice politician who likely has to come up with his dog and pony show and travel on a low budget. It also helps you realize that politics is a horrible field to work in and you appreciate medicine a whole lot more. So, I want to use this opportunity to leave some bulleted points as my time is a bit limited these days.

1. The difficulty of the interview varies. For the premedical student level, generally the medical school interview is geared toward your application without too many surprises. Higher ranked schools may throw some curveballs. Generally though, if you control the tempo and keep the listener engrossed, the medical school level interviews are not too bad.

At the residency level it varies on what you want to go into. The easier to get into residencies: family medicine, internal medicine, pathology, some general surgery programs are pretty straightforward. As long as you can not look like an ax murderer and speak reasonably well, you should do fine. As an Afghan/Pashtun we have a lot to talk about and they generally want to get to know you as a person.

The more competitive fields like dermatology, radiology, rad-onc, highest ranked Internal medicine programs, most gen surg programs that are university based can be more challenging. As an example, I had a colleague that went into derm, she told me that she had to act out the part of Romeo and the program director (a male) played Juliet. My sister, a surgeon, had to widdle a boat out of soap. Another colleague who went into ortho had to suture two pieces of cheese together (it was there all day and everyone had already had a go at it so it was much harder by the time he got to it).

At the fellowship level for GI and cardiology within internal medicine, it gets pretty difficult as well. When you are beyond that, it gets a little bit easier because the sub-subspecialty slots need to be filled (e.g. congestive heart failure, interventional cardiology, etc.)

* I will add to this tomorrow/coming weeks on how to take on the interview and how to deal with the aftermath. It is the most important individual skill for the international medical graduate and American medical graduate alike.
*Currently here in Boston, which by the way is as terrible to drive in and is equally filled with as many nasty, ill mannered people as New York City.