My classmate and fellow nerd from Kansas Chris Adams
has created a short little blog to detail a walk-thru of the loan deferment process
. He sent it out originally as an email, and I just completed it and got confirmation I’m in deferment!
(And if you’re reading this… a plea to contact your Congresspeople, as they’re trying to make it harder for
residents
to qualify for economic hardship. Please pass on to your own medical schools, as this will affect younger med students even more than it does us!)
The current rule by the Dept of Ed that allows residents to defer their loan payments until after residency is in danger of being removed because it’s too
“cost-prohibitive.” For those graduating this year, this means you’d only get to do 2 years of deferment (with later years being a much less
favorable type of deferment); if you’re graduating next year, only 1 year of normal deferment, and if you’re graduating after that, you’ll be SOL.
PLEASE contact your Congress people, tell them you’re a doctor or future doctor and it will greatly affect your ability to afford residency!
More info on it here (the AAMC and AMA are both lobbying hard to get this rule change reversed):
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/18024.html
This is a script you can use when you call them:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/16/script.pdf
(pdf)
And please also make your voice heard electronically thru this script:
http://capwiz.com/ama/issues/alert/?alertid=11184256&type=co
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Quick update, got an email from someone at Student Doctor who showed me that the
Stewart University website
is dead. No idea what happened.
I previously discussed it here.
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I hope you’ve enjoyed
the series
and it’s made you think a bit about health care, health policy, and how difficult it is to come up with solutions to our health care problems. I appreciate the
civil discussion and debate, and continue to welcome any other feedback!
A few topics I wanted to cover but didn’t have time to:
-
Science education – If we want our patients to understand medicine and the science behind it, they need to understand (and accept) the basic tenets of science
— randomized studies, for example — and perhaps that’s where we’re failing. People seem to have a miraculous ability to accept the science
they have chosen to believe (antibiotics for bacterial infections, germ theory) while ignoring rigorous science that doesn’t fit with their world view
(thiomersal is not responsible for autism).
-
Patient Autonomy – Has it gone too far? By asking patients or their decision-makers to decide, “Do you want to keep trying failing treatments or
terminate care,” perhaps we’re putting too much decision-making in the hands of a person who clearly doesn’t want to feel responsible for
“pulling the plug” on their mother (who would?)? While no one wants to die or wants a loved one to die, is it fair to other people who have a better
chance of hope of recovery to take up a hospital bed to treat a demented 95 year-old man who won’t get any better?
- And many more!
On that note, it’s been a pleasure writing about my journey through medical school, and I appreciate everyone who’s joined me and supported me along the
way.
I’m heading to
Xela, Guatemala
(aka Quetzaltenango) tonight for two months with
Asociación Pop-Wuj
to do some intensive Spanish and medical Spanish training (as well as seeing their cigar-smoking saint,
Maximón
, and hiking and exploring) before heading back to be in a friend’s wedding. I likely won’t be blogging much, but hey, who knows. Since I now have an
official job as a doctor (scary), I’ll be wrapping Over My Med Body up in time for Graduation in June. Stay safe and healthy and I’ll see you on the flip
side!
yours,
graham
Me on Match Day, blogging away:
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Q&A with the Graham Walker. Stay tuned to find out where I match!
(I know you’re as excited as I am. And boy am I serious in that photo!)
Tomorrow seems like it really sets the dominoes in motion–that I’ve got several different paths my life could take, and it all depends on what’s
printed on that letter tomorrow. If I’m at program X, I sell my car; if I’m at program Y, I need to go find an apartment, etc. Here goes nothing!
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Matthew Holt has
a few
posts
about
Jay Parkinson, MD’s
medical practice in Brooklyn, which is cash based and all digital and electronic–electronic medical record, online chats, video chats, emails to
patients–totally awesome. I love the practice style.
My main concerns? Two things: he’s stealing all the easy work from people, and while I’ll admit I don’t know much about preventive medicine
residencies, how much training does he really have in treating adults, when he did a pediatrics residency?
On the first point: he will only see adults age 18-39. If you look at
adult preventive health care guidelines
for people 18-39, it’s really mostly blood pressure checks and physical exams, with an occasional cholesterol check and pap smear and STI check for women. After
kids, 18-39 year-olds are the healthiest group of people there are. For the most part, their main health problems consist of viral illnesses and substance use. Are
there sick 18-39 year-olds, sure, but they’re the vast minority. Bottom line: 18-39 year-olds are, for the most part, incredibly easy to care for. Do they need
to be seeing a doctor, sure, but man, low-hanging fruit.
My second concern: adults are not big children. The majority of a pediatrics residency is spent taking care of very sick babes and children. (Or seeing them in clinic
and learning all the rashes and viral syndromes that most kids get seen for, the milestones, the vaccines, how to talk to parents, etc.) The closest you come to
adults in pediatrics are adolescents that come in for physical exams for school for the most part. But you certainly don’t see adults, besides the occasional 18
year-old who wanders in and hasn’t changed doctors yet. Maybe this isn’t much of an issue, since taking care of these patients is pretty straight-forward,
but still, it doesn’t seem like the training fits the job description.
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Really great and interesting YouTube clip
of a woman who is in a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis being able to walk and interact in Second Life.
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About the shortage of primary care
, which I’ll be discussing — and with similar recommendations to Kevin — later in my series. Way to go Kevin. Another point we can agree upon.
(Kevin is right; as a medical student, we can see the writing on the wall and do the basic math.)
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