Medical Thread

[Mayana]

Yes, wrora, it definitely is a great field to look into and I'd like a backup in case everything doesn't work out the way I want it to so that I can still have a career even if it is just with that B.S. And for now, the Chemistry courses I am taking anyway overlap with the ones required for Chem E, so that's good.
And when you find time, do elaborate on the "overlay with the cardiovascular system", I didn't quite get what you mean..

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Yes, wrora, it definitely is a great field to look into and I'd like a backup in case everything doesn't work out the way I want it to so that I can still have a career even if it is just with that B.S. And for now, the Chemistry courses I am taking anyway overlap with the ones required for Chem E, so that's good.
And when you find time, do elaborate on the "overlay with the cardiovascular system", I didn't quite get what you mean..

The heart is a biomechanical/electrical pump that encourages flow through a vasculature meshwork. Some electrical-biomedical engineers map out the the heart as a voltage source, supplying the energy differential to permit forward flow (max pressure at the left ventricle and "zero" at the atrial inflow side), and the vasculature as resistances and capacitors. Some biomechnical engineers simply this into heart serving as an electromechanical pump/generator, converting electrical energy into mechanical energy. Chemical engineering systems take these issues into account and really analyze the system based on pressure and flow models that accord with the models that cardiologists utilize for clinical correlation. The concept of cardiac output and pressure differentials, as well as laminar and pulsatile flow are handled well in chemical engineering systems design.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

after medical school what is next step? I have matric finished from swat what is my first step?

Forgive me if I use a little naiveté when answering your question. I am going to answer it in terms what an American thinks is best to do from the view within the American Medical System. The reason why I term my approach as naïve is that two of the most difficult places on earth from which to access this system appear to be Afghanistan and Khybar Pashtunkhwa (KP). This appears to be related to the security situation and the ill begotten and ill executed war on “terror”. However, I write this with the personal interactions I have had that show me some of what I advise is very possible.

First, know that the Indians and Southern Pakistanis are taking the new “right” approach. They used to utilize the typical foreign graduate route of high school, college, and medical schooling in india à American residency. However, they realized that this pipeline is bound to taper off eventually and that it limits options for them when they attempt to enter the field. Now they understand that they can secure J1 or education visas and start off within the American College System. I am a bit unfamiliar with the terminology utilized in Britain and the regions she formerly governed (including Pakistan), however, my assumption is that “Matric” means the American equivalency of high school. If this is the case, then you ought to utilize this new approach that the Indians (Muslims and Hindus alike) are capitalizing on and enter the American system at the college level. This does not mean you have to start at Harvard… I know Indians who went to Iowa University and subsequently went on to top tier private US Medical schools. The Arabs are also slowly catching on, but this usually at the level of the oil company scholars and the sons of some high level sheikhs. This approach does demand some money and quiet a bit of effort… but it saves you the time, money, and effort required on the other end that usually results in a entering the US system at a position that erects the glass ceiling above you and limits advancement. As a personal example, I have a close Indian Muslim friend who did exactly what I write about above and did his Bachelor of Science in the Midwest. He proceeded to gain entrance into one of the finest American Medical Schools and is now a resident at one of the world’s premiere institutes, Massachussetts General Hospital (or Man’s Greast Hospital as we joke). He has neither a green card nor a citizenship.

If you stay in KP, I would suggest applying to Aga Khan. That school appears to be adept at getting folks into the American system with greater ease and prepares them for the idiosyncrasies of our system (e.g. working with an advanced electronic medical record system, MRI/CT scanning, etc). That institute also appears to be challenging the glass ceiling and is finding innovative and creative ways to enter the American system in specialties that are often restricted to American graduates like ophthalmology, ENT Surgery (ear, nose, throat), Radiology, and Radiation Oncology.

The initial step, should you choose to follow either pathway, will be to ignore Pashtuns that have no vested interest in your success. Look out for what is best for your own interests. I am about to generalize and I mean no offense and have not experienced this on this forum, but I have personally seen this in real life in multiple situations. I recall when my own sisters were getting ready to go off to medical school, Pashtun colleagues of my parents were advising them against this, telling them that girls ought to not leave the household. In the background, their own daughters and sons were all gearing up to apply and take the same route. I am fortunate that my father did not take a single piece of advice from these people. For some reason, instead of wishing the best for their brother or sister, and wishing what they want for themselves, our people’s general modus operandi is to try and drag others into our misery. Chris Rock once joked that this was the same plague on his African American people and why he viewed this trait as a major contributor to their continued failure as a people. This is why we Pashtuns continue to chase success and unity at all levels (even the medical level) the same way Don Quixote chased windmills. Our Indian, Arab, and Jewish colleagues on the other hand get on their knees so that their future generations and colleagues can stand on their back to get to the next level.

The bottom line: See of if you can carve out the option of going to college at an American institute that is a university and that has a track record of placing people into medical schools. If this is a long shot, then consider Aga Khan or Khybar Medical. Do not listen to naysayers that are distracting you from your achievable objective.
Those of you with younger siblings who live abroad and who are currently going through the medical training route, I suggest that you consider this approach for your younger siblings as well.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I had some other requests for a private email address. I invented this one for further usage:
ColdSteelHealer@hotmail.com

I aptly use the pseudonym American Abdali (the one person on here who has ever seen me will get the joke). In the coming days, I will try and catalogue preparing for the interview process as I begin this same process again for the sub-subspecialty level (it closely mirrors all other levels). I hope that this cataloguing of how to prep aids others on here.

[Zayam]

"Once we stop taking things for granted, our own body can become one of the most surprising things of all. It never ceases to amaze me that my body both produces and destroys 15 million red blood cells every second. Fifteen million! That's nearly twice the census figure for New York City. I am told that the blood vessels in my body, if lined up end to end, would reach around the world. Yet my heart needs only one minute to pump my blood through this filigree network and back again. It has been doing so minute by minute, day by day, for more than eighty years and still keeps pumping away at a hundred thousand heartbeats every twenty-four hours. Obviously this is a matter of life and death for me, yet I have no idea how it works and it seems to work amazingly well in spite of my ignorance.


I do not know how my eyes adapt, yet when I chant by candlelight they are a hundred thousand times more sensitive to light than when I read outdoors on the porch at noon. I wouldn't know how to give instructions to the 35 million digestive glands in my stomach for digesting one single strawberry; fortunately, they know how to do their job without my advice. When I think of this as I sit down to eat, my heart brims with gratefulness.


From there it is only a small step to seeing the whole universe and every smallest part of it as surprising. From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights."


Just wanted to share a quote from a book called. "Common Sense Spirituality" by Brother David Steindl-Rast

[Zarmeena]

you have greatly helped me barakzaiabdali iwill continue to follow the topic here and i will return with more questions. i hope i have not bothered you.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

you have greatly helped me barakzaiabdali iwill continue to follow the topic here and i will return with more questions. i hope i have not bothered you.

Zarmeena,

Salamoona,

I wish I could have done more and feel that I left you hanging. We are not there yet, but my hope is that in the years to come a few of us on this forum can join together and make this process a whole lot easier for folks like yourself. The goal will be to pool resources and put together scholarships for deserving students, male and female, that want to attend American medical institutes and still live a riba free life.

Ask as many questions as you would like.

All of my best Regards

American Abdali

[unknownprince]

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.

[kakargirl]

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.

salam wrora, barakzai abdali wror will answer you as soon as he's well he's been very ill lately may allah swt give him health .

[Saifullah]

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

[Admin Khan]

BarakzaiAbdali,

Feel better champion.

[kakargirl]

BarakzaiAbdali wror is still very ill may allah swt give him health,he's had a attack of bad flu and food poisening, may allah swt give him health and recovery soon ameen.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Thanks guys, for the kind words. Im slowly but surely getting back into it.

[unknownprince]

I was having flu-like symptoms yesterday. I ate a grapefruit, and it disappeared.

[Dreamer]

Thanks guys, for the kind words. Im slowly but surely getting back into it.

bless your heart