Medical Thread

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I am also thinking of how I can combine my political goals with a medical career.

Im very drawn to international politics, and I don't know how I will manage both. At the end of the day, I may just get the degree, and enter politics.

I don't want to be a statistic in this world.

Any suggestions.

There are two routes from which to enter the political arena. In America, most of the folks that enter the political fray do so from a high level. For example, when certain drugs turn out to be dangerous and predispose folks to heart attacks and other issues, the experts speak out and sometimes even take on big pharma to protect the patient. This at times involves rebuking the FDA etc.

The other route is via a systems based approach to how the medical systems across the world work. Most folks who do it this way go and get an MPH, a masters of public health. It appears that this degree allows folks to emphasize on how to change and adapt medical systems.

Regarding being a statistic, I think life is about being content. My point is that politics is a dirty field in that it has some factual bases, some personal vandetta, and a whole lot of opinion thrown in. In the scheme of the universe which is aged beyond billions of years, our life span is so short, more like a spark than even a flame. I understand the need that man has that can be typified by Alexander's statement to his mother when he heard that his father Philip of Macedon had conquered a new kingdom, he cried: "My father shall conquer the whole of the world and leave me nothing!"

However, We physicians wear the white coat because we do our best to present ourselves to the patient as being "speen lamaan" in a way, or utterly approachable despite their political dispostion, religious ideology, hatred towards our race or love of it, whether they are killers or saviours. Political views ought not to cloud how we care for a patient.

This reminds me of an anecdotal situation: I had a good solid friend of mine who comes from a small town in the midwest. He is a methodist white American guy who worked hard and is currently and orthopedic surgeon. We have been friends for years, even before medical school. He interviewed at a southern school and was asked what is generally seen as an illegal question to ask regarding support for or against the Iraq War. This guy is rather savvy and is married into a political family. He is a conservative republican, but more fiscally conservative than the current republican part appears to be. He had by that point developed an opposition to the Iraq War and had some cogent reasons that one might agree or disagree with. This was a panel interview, and the two other candidates answered with positives and negatives of the conflict, staying somewhat away from a firm answer. He on the other hand gave quiet a few encyclopedic answers based on fiscal conservatism. I told him that this was the one medical school that he would not get in. Lo and behold that was exactly what happened. Why? Well there may be some validity do the decision made by the comittee. After all, the other two candidates ambivalence would make them completely approachable by all patients, regardless of their political views. However, what if a pro war republican patient were to attempt and discuss this issue with my good friend? He might not feel that his physician is approachable. I am sure he is smart enough to not get into it with a patient, but the idea here is that the committee wanted to understand whether he could present himself as at least approachable.

The other options of course is the Ernesto Guevara, militant style approach to life. After his time at the leper colony and on the road throughout South America, Che saw things that troubled him regarding disparities. Of course, I cannot endorse his political philosophy (communism), but I think that the same thing that bought him to medicine as a calling, convinced him that he had to take care of the root problem that sets folks up for such dastardly outcomes: change the system to erase the disparities. And of course, the current movements across the world, IRA, AQ, Spanish Militants, even Taliban have so some physicians involved, that it appears that there may be some folks may view the world as Che did and want to fix what they feel is the central issue. In a way, they view my approach, which is to simply stay out of the fray and practice medicine purely, as attempting to treat subarrachinoid hemorrhage or an Aortic dissection/aneurysm burst with a bandaid. However, one has to acknowledge that even Che is viewed by quiet a few people as having a lot of blood on his hands at the end of his life.

I tend to disagree based on my personal preferences. I think that we doctors ought to understand that just because we have MDs does not mean that we are political science experts or that we understand the Art of War the way a savvy general or tactician does. We may be well read on certain subjects, but our doctrate is in medicine and not that particular subject matter.

I am not that worried about my legacy. My ideal way to live the end years and leave this world will be have my wife, kids, and grandkids surrounding me. Possibly on a plot of land in Pashtunkhwa or even in North Carolina, with some shneey chai with the right amount of honey mixed into it and some anaar. If they knew who I was, then I will be content.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

BarakzaiAbdali,
I am currently a Math Major working on my Masters degree at New York University. Can I still become a Medical Doctor?

Absolutely. A few things go into this complex answer.

1) US citizenship: there are schools that prefer US citizens (usually state schools).
2) MCAT scores: My kid sister and brother in law are in the early years of medical school right now. In their year the average to get your foot in the door of a good school was to at least get a ~30. The test covers chemistry, organic chem (reduced amount of this in recent years), biology (molecular has greater emphasis recently), physics, english/verbal, and an essay. You should at least get a 10 on each section, but thats not written in stone. Some local schools that have a goal of graduating primary care doctors allow for slightly lower scores. However, understand that with the economy going downhill, the applicant pool is increasing in size as medicine is seen as a dependable route. These days, I would shoot for at least a 32 just to be safe.
3) GPA: science (bio courses, organic chem, general chem, physics) and general GPA. Once again, this may vary. Many folks with a lot of research and other accomplishments get in with a 3.3, but the general dictum is that you should try to make sure to at least apply with a 3.5 and you should feel safest with a general avg of 3.7 or above.
4) Prereqs: Years ago when I entered the process the requirements were a year of gen chem + lab, 1 year of organic chem + lab, 1 year of calculus? if I remember correctly, 1 year of physics + lab, and some schools were starting to ask for at least a semester of biochem.
5) Recommendations: Try to work with a researcher and get a letter from them. Other letters come from your college professors etc.

I was an electrical engineer initially and took my MCATs in third year of undergraduate school. That year the dominant major for entrance was biomedical engineering. I had to take a few extra courses to fulfill the pre-reqs in the summer of my second year when I made the decision to apply, but it was worth it.

However, people enter the system at many different points, even after their PhDs. There does come a point where age may count against you, but that is usually a very advanced age. I have seen folks in their late thirties in my medical school class with PhDs.

**What I recommend to the youngins who are reading from outside the country on here (still 18 or 19 or so and still not in their undergraduate equivalent phase), try to do what the Indians are doing and enter the system EARLY. Try to go to an American undergrad institute and then apply with that degree. This means if you are a noncitizen and still young, and want to be a doctor, try to enter the system by starting your undergraduate studies here. Then go to an American medical school here. That gives you an easier way to go to residency.**

Regarding your masters in mathematics, do you utilize MATLAB or mathematica? There is quiet a bit of biomedical/biological engineering going on these days that utilize these mathematical models. If you have the time and want to spend a year putting your application together with the above, you can find a group in the medical/engineering departments that are working on biological problems and offer them your expertise. You have to work hard though and do your best to produce.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I agree with u sir, i think i am wasting my time on politics.
I will think about USMLE, i have some financial issues but i wil manage it some how.
Sir i want to seek some help regarding academics from you. Here i read only one book and prepare some specific stuff for exams. E.g learning pharma especially adverse effects of drugs has become headace for me. How is pharma studied in american system? Can u give me links of proper sites regarding pharma, patho, medicine and surgery for students both clinical and basic sciences.
Regards

So it depends on the medical school. However, in general studying for a class versus the USMLE exam can be different trajectories, even in the American Medical schools. Some professors do a terrible job and we just ignored them and studied on our own if we can get away with it. Many American schools are moving away from grades in the first two years, but instead are pass or fail now. This allowed us to focus our attention to the USMLE. I am somewhat separated in years from the ever evolving step 1, but in general I can say that I felt that the Kaplan lectures and the pharma text were excellent. They generally gave you at least the big picture and some clinical correlations. Another text, if one has more time, is Lippincotts Pharmacology. Both these texts are generally managable, with the Kaplan text being a bit shorter and managable. There is another text called "pharmacology for the wards and boards."

Try to not read too many texts. Adopt a single text in pharma that you find amenable to your way of learning. As I said, I preferred the Kaplan lectures and text.

Regarding pathology, Goljan's lectures and text were excellent in my time. Things may have changed by now.

A book that we tend to memorize like the hafizaan memorize the Quran is FIRST AID for step 1. IT appears simplistic, and I cannot explain it, but it works pretty well. We tend to read this book along with our course work to begin memorizing it and then we use this book in the last four weeks or so before the exam and just focus on it alone.

We couple this to doing massive sets of questions from the online Kaplan MCQ bank. The online form is important because it gets you used to taking the test. However, if you cannot afford it then the books they sell in the market places of nangrahar, peshawar, or dehli suffice.

For the step 2 CK, the Kaplan books are also a nice set of texts. FIRST AID was not as reliable for this test. I focused a massive amount of efforst on doing the practice MCQs from USMLE World.

For the step 2 CS: The cases book from FIRST AID is all you need. The foreign grads need some practice though and should do many practice runs with an American colleague who can teach them the tricks of our language and idiosyncracies.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

The problem with Pashtuns is that they are not focusing in their area of specialization and may be that is why they have problems in excelling and attaining a distinguished position in their fields. Having said that political consciousness about our national interests is one thing every literate and illiterate Afghan/Pashtun should be aware about as it directly affects our lives, careers, economics, customs, traditions, norms and society at large.

There is no contradiction in achieving excellence and safeguarding our national interest as an Afghan/Pashtun nation. If you are ready to withdraw from your rights as an Afghan then your very expertise are of no use neither to you nor to your nation as you will be a commodity whose price will be decided by the market of other nations who will sell you to others or use you for their vested interests in the name of religion or any other sacred term.

I would recommend to Barakzai wror focusing in establishing a world class medical college and teaching hospital in Kandahar to impart the technology and knowledge to the future generations according to int'l benchmarks.

Luffy and other youngsters instead of investing their energies first in medical and then opting to go for civil services should make up their mind to continue medicine in case they have passion for medicine. The other option of becoming a part and parcel of the same exploitative system which strengthens the imperialism of our enemies and our enslavement will not be fruitful in the long run as examples like Rustam shah momand and Roedad khan etc have shown to a fair extent.

I never said to not learn and know about politics and how it affects your life. As intellectual people physicians should feel interested in politics in general as it affects his own field intimately. His patients and colleagues will expect him to intelligently discuss current affairs in a nonthreatening way.

My point was that while in medical training, which is very rigorous. Your predominant priority is to take care of patients first. It is more important for you to know how to manage a heart attack during your training than to know the specifics of Najeebs or even Ahmad Shah Baba's life.

There are many things that can distract you. These can be things as basic as video games or even this forum. The goal, it appears of this forum is to encourage progress amongst the Pashtoons. It appears that the administrators want the Pashtoons to be the best doctors and not just simply doctors. They can of course chime in if they disagree. I am sure if Admin Khan or Din Khan or anyone of us knew that Luffy or any other medical student or resident, or intern or physician in training had a test coming up and he were spending too much time here, as his brothers, we would tell him or anyone of our colleagues that he needs to go and focus on his work for now. When he is done with that exam, or is on a break, or is near the end of his training, he can ramp up and spend all his time here for all anyone would care. I am sure they would love to have him around.

I addressed the role of physicians in politics in another answer.

Regarding Kandahar, I would be proud to do so. Mir Wais Hospital is an excellent place to start with and there should be an associated Mir Wais Medical Center of Academic Excellent serving Kandahar and the greater border area for patients that want to cross over from Quetta and even local Iran.

However, the current emphasis and building blocks through which to build, the places with the most structure are Nangrahar (possibly kabul) and Khybar.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Anyhow, it is nice to know Barazkzai Saib will be establishing a hospital in Kandahar...modern type...I know an expert Radiologist (Ph. D.) intending to establish a modern lab in Pukhtunkhwa...I think if these splintered efforts come togethor, that will make a difference....

I have heard Rahman Medical Center has now launched Rahman Medical College...

Excellent. There is a doctor who is an academic radiologist from Swaabay/Mardan that I know very well. He is at a pre-eminant medical center in the US and maybe, we can connect the two together and see if there is any possibility for collaboration.

My own background as an electrical engineer involved me in designing imaging systems. I was fortunate to study under Zerhouni at NIH and be funded by a grant to work on some projects in intervetional radiological/cardiology sciences. I am very keen on cardiac imaging/radiological advances for this reason.

Regarding Rehman Medical, I think its a good move. The only issue I see is that Dr. Rehman studied in England, and though the training is excellent there, they still have slightly different approaches to education/licensing exams than we Americans do. I am sure that this center is open to advances though with the money flowing through it.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Anyhow, it is nice to know Barazkzai Saib will be establishing a hospital in Kandahar...modern type...I know an expert Radiologist (Ph. D.) intending to establish a modern lab in Pukhtunkhwa...I think if these splintered efforts come togethor, that will make a difference....

I have heard Rahman Medical Center has now launched Rahman Medical College...

The radiological researchers will need folks like yourself that can cross over and utilize Visual Basic, lab view GUI programming, and other methods with a biomedical engineering approach. You could certainly make your mark in the medical sciences if you so choose to utilize your skills set in that direction. Remember, each CT scanner has algorithms designed by folks like yourself that that determine exactly how each voxel is presented and the design of imaging filters is a science and art work in and of itself (I am so seperated in years from my engineering work in this field that I would require a lot of review to be able to get up to date and re-learn these things).

[BarakzaiAbdali]

BarakzaiAbdali I am very thankful to you and your thread. I might have lots of questions.

Absolutely. Do not hesitate. My plan is to a bi-weekly answering of questions when they come up. So do not despair if I do not answer right away. However, I am sure that there will be other physicians to step into the void as well and offer mentorship and advice. I look at this as not me being the boss here, but rather a jirga of equals.

There may be instances where I am in the intensive care unit and have to answer after a slightly longer period of time.

I will however do my best by you.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Abdali sahib, this is such a great thread.

I am in my second year of Pre-Medicine. I am taking all of my Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus classes. Right now, i work in a hospital thats near my campus. I work with the nurses and get plenty of experience with it.
My major is Biology and i am also doing a minor in Psychology.

Next month, i am going for a job at a lab, hopefully.

I want to go to medical school, inshallah, and become a Pediatrician. Its what i have been wanting for so long.

I have serious plans of going to Afghanistan and working in a hospital for 6 months-1 year after graduation. There is a lady my father knows who works at the Nangarhar Medical University, she is an OB/GYN there. My point is, i want to use my goals and help back home as much as I can. In the future, i do want to open a clinic along with my father.

Now i am on winter break, and i have started studying for MCATs. I think its better to start studying little by little in a few years advance.

So now that i am done blabbering, i do want to know your thoughts on PA school, i am using that as a backup plan.

You have a good plan going. You appear to be doing what you ought to. I addressed some of the basic pre reqs above. Hammer that MCAT HARD. Seperate yourself from all distractors and go into a closed off room somewhere that allows you to just study. Stay away from distractors. If you can, wake up for fajr or whenever and just spend the WHOLE day studying. Of course, take a break with a weekend night off at the movies to decompress, but do that only once a week at most. That MCAT is an extremely pertinent part of the process. I will ask my sister and bro in law how it has changed and what they used to study.

I think its excellent that you are in the hospitals themselves seeing how busy and how hectic that doctors and residents are. I had one student shadow me during a call night in the ICU. This is important because so many people enter the field because their parents pushed them into it and they had no idea the rigors of the field.

However, take care to supplement this work with something that has an output for you as well. Remember that doctors, and not nurses will be very possibly writing your recommendation letters. That does not at all mean this activity is not useful. If it is something official (e.g. shadowing/volunterring) and something you can log onto the AMCAS application itself under extra curricular activities then by all means do it.

My kid sister is in medical school right now and so is my brother in law. They are young enough that they are close to the process. They made sure to present the tangibles as well on their application. What do I mean by tangibles?:

Well these days, the American system is coupling a patient centered approach and clinical care to cutting edge research. Your plans on getting into a lab is an excellent way to do this. Try to see if you can get into a project with an MD on it. Work hard on this project and realize that your life will consist of hitting the books hard, studying for your test, and spending whatever free time remains trying to drive your personal project forward.

One way I got involved was that I utilized the federal work study program to my own devices. Most folks do something like sit in the library at a desk and work with the library team for 10 hours a week. Others sit at the front desk of a dorm. I went to the labs at the university and sold myself to them by noting that if they allowed me to work in their labs instead of having to work one of those odd and fruitless jobs, they would benefit and so would I. I noted that they would be paying me half of what they would be paying anyone else since the federal government was paying the other half.

A young girl your age in the cardiac stem cell therapies lab I worked in took an alternate approach and understood that you may not get hired officially at the front end. Her first year was as a volunteer in the lab. However, he made it clear to the PI and the team that she wanted to specifically assist on a project. As the team noted her dependability, she asked if there was any possibility for her own spin off project. She was smart enough to start off with telling the PI that she was in her second year of college and would be around for a few years. She noted that this would allow her to start and carry a good project forward. She got to know the PI and got a strong rec from him for medical school. She eventually got a paid position.

My kid sister goes to a prominent school and these schools appear to be looking for something unique. You have that same profile that she had and should capitalize on it. The Americans look at Pashtun Afghan girls and Muslim girls in general, right now, and see a population of oppressed people. They are admitting them in the droves because they view this elevating them. In my medical school there were like 6 hijaabis admitted alone in one single year.

My sister did some good research work at the NIH and at her home institue as you plan to and spent 1 summer at the Afghan refugee camps. However, that was before the tempo of the war picked up. Doing the year long thing, if you want to take a gap year is not at all a bad idea either. However, if you want to take a straight shot in, find an NGO working in the camps you might just devote a single good lengthy summer to it. These days, the NGOs are more organized around Peshawar itself where the infamous Jelozai and Kacha Gerrai camps were and are now treating the displaced FATA and Swatis. The advantage would be that your position would be safer.

I met Greg Mortensen at a conference and he touched base with me regarding some of his work subsequently as we thought we could offer him some tribal protection in certain areas. Its been years since I have seen him. Maybe I can dig up his email and send it over your way or something. He may have some work going on as well. In fact, the slides he showed me indicated he is working on educating your Waziri girls as midwives and has somehow gotten the FATA maliks to accept this approach.

Your personal statement could then reflect your unique background. Ill dig up my own at some point and my kid sisters to help you out.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Abdali sahib, this is such a great thread.

I am in my second year of Pre-Medicine. I am taking all of my Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus classes. Right now, i work in a hospital thats near my campus. I work with the nurses and get plenty of experience with it.
My major is Biology and i am also doing a minor in Psychology.

Next month, i am going for a job at a lab, hopefully.

I want to go to medical school, inshallah, and become a Pediatrician. Its what i have been wanting for so long.

I have serious plans of going to Afghanistan and working in a hospital for 6 months-1 year after graduation. There is a lady my father knows who works at the Nangarhar Medical University, she is an OB/GYN there. My point is, i want to use my goals and help back home as much as I can. In the future, i do want to open a clinic along with my father.

Now i am on winter break, and i have started studying for MCATs. I think its better to start studying little by little in a few years advance.

So now that i am done blabbering, i do want to know your thoughts on PA school, i am using that as a backup plan.

PA school is not a bad idea if things did not work out. With the new Obama measures in place the demands on the system will only increase. The cadre of primary care physicians is too few to meet what will be the massive demands as the baby boomers grow old. A whole slew of folks with supplementary medical training will need to fill the void. These PA schools will also limit their spots and they will then be in high demand by ensuring a low supply to high demand ratio. So if this is your back up its an economically smart one. These folks can also specialize and assist cardiologists, pulmonologists, and other specialist MDs. As an example, our hospital has initiated an interventional pulmonary service. The MD trusts the PA so much that he has trained her on some top notch procedures and they work very well together as a team. Some of the ICU PAs are superb.

However, keep your goal towards the MD for now and do not sway from that. Look at a back up as exactly just that, a backup. Otherwise, you may distract yourself or feel overly comforted. Sometimes a little stress can be oh so helpful and you should feel like pursuing this is the supreme objective. That way, if you did have to go toward the back up plan, you would be well armed with all your prior work to easily make that transition. My wife tells me that PA schools are sometimes asking for GREs and other times MCATs. However, I will admit my lack of knowledge on their application procedures.

The other Back Up Plan:

I have a good friend who was an eastern european boss of mine from my engineering days. He has a niece who is dating a fellow that got in to Med school the second time around. I see this often. Folks have perfectly good credentials, but with the pool of applicants increasing, the competition ramps up. So sometimes your back up should be your persistance. That would then allow you to do your year off with that Ob/Gyn over in Nangrahar and re-apply.

In general, the MCAT should at most be taken twice. I knew one guy from Alabama that got an abysmal score the first time around and retook it and they sort of overlooked the first score. The assumption was that he got his ducks in a row and his act together and grew from the experience.

Other thing Id recommend is take a few looks at that student doctor network site, but do not let the crazy high strung gunners psych you out. Utilize that site as primarily a referral base and not a sounding wall.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

OK guys, I hope I answered things reasonably well. I'll be going a bi weekly or weekly approach to this due to the fact that I am obviously still at a higher level of training and currently applying for further subspecialization. Whatever advancements and learning tools I glean from this experience, I will share with you. Keep me in your prayers and keep posting here with questions.

European and American physicians, medical students, trainees I know you are out there! Step up to the plate and give these folks some guidance as well. Its our responsibility.

[Dervaish]

Barakzai Abdali

Now you are talking sense. I did not enter into your previous thread which was entirely political and full of passion of youth. Now you are on the path of maturity. Keep it up. You have good ideas but you have to stick to. There will be lot of changes in your plans but I wish stability in you thinking. You can excel in your field but if you go astray again, you will become a hobo of ideas. We need young intelligent people like you. There are plenty of people in politics accomplishing nothing. Leadership is needed in every field and your field of medicine is a noble field for the whole humanity. You will make lot of money and when you do then think of establishing some medical institute or a hospital of some specialized nature in the pakhun land. At present focus all your energies on the progress of your specialization. God bless you.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Abdali you will be in my prayers. I am thankful for this opportunity to ask you questions. Does one have to be a bio major to apply to med school? I heard getting into Med school is very hard.

Per one of my answers above, refer to the prereqs section. You can be just about any major or have any background as long as your prereqs and MCATs are fairly recent. Its a tough and selective process though and you should look at those GPA cutoffs and see if you are being realistic. One year the most prominent major for was something like American History or whatever, so major is not a limiter if it is not bio.

[unknownprince]

Abdali you will be in my prayers. I am thankful for this opportunity to ask you questions. Does one have to be a bio major to apply to med school? I heard getting into Med school is very hard.

You should also check out career changer and post-bacc programs. These are for people who want to become doctors, but decided later on.

There are many respected programs. So if you were not pre-med in undergrad, do not worry. There are plenty of opportunities.

Becoming a doctor is all about putting in the time and determination- nothing else is required.

[unknownprince]

There are two routes from which to enter the political arena. In America, most of the folks that enter the political fray do so from a high level. For example, when certain drugs turn out to be dangerous and predispose folks to heart attacks and other issues, the experts speak out and sometimes even take on big pharma to protect the patient. This at times involves rebuking the FDA etc.

The other route is via a systems based approach to how the medical systems across the world work. Most folks who do it this way go and get an MPH, a masters of public health. It appears that this degree allows folks to emphasize on how to change and adapt medical systems.

Regarding being a statistic, I think life is about being content. My point is that politics is a dirty field in that it has some factual bases, some personal vandetta, and a whole lot of opinion thrown in. In the scheme of the universe which is aged beyond billions of years, our life span is so short, more like a spark than even a flame. I understand the need that man has that can be typified by Alexander's statement to his mother when he heard that his father Philip of Macedon had conquered a new kingdom, he cried: "My father shall conquer the whole of the world and leave me nothing!"

However, We physicians wear the white coat because we do our best to present ourselves to the patient as being "speen lamaan" in a way, or utterly approachable despite their political dispostion, religious ideology, hatred towards our race or love of it, whether they are killers or saviours. Political views ought not to cloud how we care for a patient.

This reminds me of an anecdotal situation: I had a good solid friend of mine who comes from a small town in the midwest. He is a methodist white American guy who worked hard and is currently and orthopedic surgeon. We have been friends for years, even before medical school. He interviewed at a southern school and was asked what is generally seen as an illegal question to ask regarding support for or against the Iraq War. This guy is rather savvy and is married into a political family. He is a conservative republican, but more fiscally conservative than the current republican part appears to be. He had by that point developed an opposition to the Iraq War and had some cogent reasons that one might agree or disagree with. This was a panel interview, and the two other candidates answered with positives and negatives of the conflict, staying somewhat away from a firm answer. He on the other hand gave quiet a few encyclopedic answers based on fiscal conservatism. I told him that this was the one medical school that he would not get in. Lo and behold that was exactly what happened. Why? Well there may be some validity do the decision made by the comittee. After all, the other two candidates ambivalence would make them completely approachable by all patients, regardless of their political views. However, what if a pro war republican patient were to attempt and discuss this issue with my good friend? He might not feel that his physician is approachable. I am sure he is smart enough to not get into it with a patient, but the idea here is that the committee wanted to understand whether he could present himself as at least approachable.

The other options of course is the Ernesto Guevara, militant style approach to life. After his time at the leper colony and on the road throughout South America, Che saw things that troubled him regarding disparities. Of course, I cannot endorse his political philosophy (communism), but I think that the same thing that bought him to medicine as a calling, convinced him that he had to take care of the root problem that sets folks up for such dastardly outcomes: change the system to erase the disparities. And of course, the current movements across the world, IRA, AQ, Spanish Militants, even Taliban have so some physicians involved, that it appears that there may be some folks may view the world as Che did and want to fix what they feel is the central issue. In a way, they view my approach, which is to simply stay out of the fray and practice medicine purely, as attempting to treat subarrachinoid hemorrhage or an Aortic dissection/aneurysm burst with a bandaid. However, one has to acknowledge that even Che is viewed by quiet a few people as having a lot of blood on his hands at the end of his life.

I tend to disagree based on my personal preferences. I think that we doctors ought to understand that just because we have MDs does not mean that we are political science experts or that we understand the Art of War the way a savvy general or tactician does. We may be well read on certain subjects, but our doctrate is in medicine and not that particular subject matter.

I am not that worried about my legacy. My ideal way to live the end years and leave this world will be have my wife, kids, and grandkids surrounding me. Possibly on a plot of land in Pashtunkhwa or even in North Carolina, with some shneey chai with the right amount of honey mixed into it and some anaar. If they knew who I was, then I will be content.

manana for the post.

I want to combine my medical profession with my political goals. I have concerns for all poor people, especially those most afflicted here in the US. At first I volunteered at a free clinic to get my "experience," but then I saw the scope of unfairness in this nation when it comes to treating and providing medical care for the undeserved. I also volunteered at a homeless shelter for the same wrong reason, and then ended up seeing the pain and hardship that a 10-year old boy had to deal with in regards to maintaining an interest in his education while being moved from one place to another. The world is not pretty, and most people are evil and wicked, and have been fooled by Iblis with materialism. Time and time again, I see that self-happiness is a form of evil that has manifested itself into people who are considered good. Like they say in the land of the blind, the One-Eyed is King.

I consider all Muslims and Pashtuns my family. I want to leave this world knowing that I worked towards their security, and gave them protection. And gave them their due standing in the world. I want to leave this world knowing that Afghanistan and Pashtuns are better off and have a flourishing nation. I also wish to be buried in Pashtun lands. I want my blood to return ti the soil.

When I talk of not wanting to be a statistic, it is not about wanting glory, but more so about mattering in this world, especially, for my Pashtun Muslims who no one else right now seems to be concerned about. I care for the well-being of all people (regardless of race or religious creed), but the Pashtuns need a lot of attention right now seeing as no one in the world (even the Muslim World) seem to care right now for them.


So in the meantime, I will be a doctor, but I will carry all this into the political spectrum.I want to do my residency elsewhere and not in the US. I will do medical school here in the US, but want to do residency elsewhere. I want to join with other people in opening as many free clinics as possible in Pashtun lands, and most importantly orphanages/schools. I plan on having a huge focus on orphans for 2 reasons: 1) they deserve to be given a shot at a quality education, and 2) the future leader will come from these children. So in essence, I want to raise up a class of people who can fill all of Afghanistan's ranks in terms of government, the health sector, and most importantly, the military. These are the people that will determine Afghanistan's future, not Karzai.

[unknownprince]

Yes, I think what current and future doctors should do now is focus on structuring hospitals in Afghanistan. This is very important for the population, and also to introduce new medical professional schools in the area.

This will have two positive aspects of 1) increasing the populations access to healthcare, and 2) creating more educational opportunities for physicians there.