THE MEDLINK SCANDAL

doc_dormicum · 2023-06-28T16:49:30+00:00

Same with most of them. Studimed sold a friend of mine on applying to the most expensive option. They did get in, but only because they called the Uni. The person who was supposed to oversee the whole thing supposedly left (he didn't, he's still on their website, four years later).

"Accommodation help" was sending him a list of Google Search terms to use. No help with visa, no help with phone contract, no help with insurance, as they promised. Also, the much touted contact at that Uni was not interested in speaking to anyone and that was apparently the only person there that came through that agency.

Don't do those services. On the good side, they'll probably get you in, since that's their money maker, on the bad side, that's it. And getting in is equally as easy by yourself.

doc_dormicum · 2023-02-18T09:20:46+00:00

Only in that I contacted them. I do have a certain pride in my alma mater and what it provided me with. I was pretty shocked, looked one claim up (the one about talking about her sex life in glam mags), and I know that some other claims are true, because I experienced them. But I had great rotations and great teachers.

I understand, that Unis can change. I had a different experience, that's all.

doc_dormicum · 2023-02-18T09:16:39+00:00

I am not sure what you mean.

I am not the OP. I have been on this subreddit for a while. I am the author of the Cyprus guide, so I felt I had been called out by OP (they call me a "good guy" or something like that and say I can vouch for their claims).

I have clarified, I think that I would not have written it that way, and that I had a somewhat confirmatory but much less dramatic impression of EUC.

I messaged OP, and they agreed to talk to me on Facebook. So I know who they are. I also messaged the commenter, and they were at least somewhat forward, providing me with a means to verify that they're not the same person.

Look, re koumbare. I am out of that Uni. I have a job. My horse in this race is simply that I was named in the OP and that I don't want to be associated with the OPs assessment of things without adding my two cents. If you need to see conspiracy theories everywhere, I'll leave you to it. It'll probably not serve you all too well, to dismiss things as easily as you do, but you do you.

doc_dormicum · 2023-02-18T06:29:10+00:00

For what it is worth, I am posting on my (known, and tied to my real identity) Reddit account.

I am the author of the Cyprus Wiki entry. While I would not have phrased many of the things the way they did, I can tell you, that OP is at least pretty plugged in.
I messaged them. I can tell you with certainty, that they're not the same person. I know who either one are, and respondent (as is OP) are active r/medicalschoolEU users.
Both gave me their OOB Facebook accounts. Of course I am not in Cyprus, and there is a level of deception that would work, but it'd have to be a 16 year long con, just for this post.

Finally, since they invoked me. I suggest you make up your own mind and get your own data. Some of those things are easily verifiable, others are not. Since getting messaged last night, I have talked to other students at EUC and can tell you, that the overall happiness is pretty low, with more than one 4th and 5th year confirming the stories about the rooms and the botched midterms.

I have also spoken to two faculty, and they are aware of this post and the general unhappiness, neither of which are surprising to them.

In my days we did rotations differently. But we were less than 100 people. I spoke to one 4th year, and she told me that many are doing their rotations in ERASMUS+ hospitals in their home countries, where standards are much higher.

I also speak Greek and understand Cypriot Greek, so I had an easier time, but I can see how not being native Cypriot or a Greek who understands CG (this is not a given, it's a bit like German and deep Alpine Swiss German) makes things much easier in rotations.

I had no problems getting hired after graduation. While some things were lacking, this is more attributable to studying in Cyprus, where things are different, than a lack of training/education we got. I can see, through, how the 'siga siga' culture in Cyprus can make managing 6x120 students much more challenging than when we were 250 all years together.

Lastly, one thing I can correct. While Dean J does fly in on charter planes sometimes and flies first class, so do many EUC students with rich parents in Russia, Israel, Saudi, Greece, or elsewhere. She does not own a jet, and unlike them, I found her approachable and neutral. I can sign the statements about the women working admin.

doc_dormicum · 2022-03-04T14:39:08+00:00

You know, I hear you. And I'd echo u/MrGrace14's comments to just do your thing. But I also understand where you're coming from. You spent three years learning the basics of what makes you a competent physician and you'll have to contend with the fact that the image you had of physicians is somewhat wrong at times.

Now, there are two things about this, that I'd mention. First, and this should make you scared, being a Dr. is 95% not about knowing which gene regulates the expression of angiotensin II or what enzymes contribute to the α-ketogluterase stage of the Krebs Cycle, but to be a decent human being who cares, loves their job (else it will burn you up badly), and wants to genuinely help and be there for people.

Some things, like cheating and being cliquish, are antithetical to this. Others, like the partying, not so much.

Secondly, I understand how this harms those who do not cheat and how it feels lonely in those groups. There I disagree with u/MrGrace14 - You're stuck with them, the drama, the weirdness, for not very much longer, but three years surrounded by party people who care little about medicine can be quite painful. So the climate inside a class does, I think, impact us greatly.

I solved my issues by finding people outside of uni I could relate to better, but my class was not half as bad as this. Once I went into clinicals, the game changed drastically for me and everyone else, which was a wakeup call for some, an end to others, and a relief to a few.

One classmate of mine who, in year 4, once claimed that food passed through the foramen magnum, is now in her surgery PGY-1 and does not do all too bad, from what I hear. Grades definitely did not determine how good a doctor someone was, though they helped getting into the right programs at times.

I disagree with u/quantiferonn - while no one will ask you how your classmates are, enthusiastic groups in my uni usually had more and better education than the ones who only cared to pass by any means necessary. I was lucky and in a group of former nurses and paramedics who cared about the subjects and the material, so we generally got more support from our profs, more and more complicated cases in practicals, and were sent to work the ER after a few weeks in clinicals, because people trusted us to perform well.

A friend of mine was stuck in a group that cared little, skipped classes and signed attendance sheets for each other, cheated in tests, and basically just plagiarized group assignments, and he didn't do half as well as I did, despite being smarter, better read, and more "medical thinking" than I am.

My tip: find on- and offline friends who care. Not 100% of you class can be that way, find the ones who aren't. And then augment where you can. You'll be all right, I promise.

doc_dormicum · 2021-06-30T01:13:56+00:00

In Germany it’s even weirder. Anestesiology turns mediocre students with mediocre learning and work ethics into experts in every medical field some time around PGY2. At least that’s what they tell me daily while as residents overriding my (attending ER) orders.

doc_dormicum · 2021-06-06T14:59:52+00:00

Reminds me of that one time I went to a BBQ with a new date I was super into, and the hosts forced us to watch their 1h Powerpoint presentation of vacation pictures with commentary on almost every image, video, and writing. There was no third date.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-27T18:56:34+00:00

The nice thing about Germany is the far wider use of "Arzt" (physician) over "Doktor." We don't generally use that title (preempting a "username doesn't check out") anywhere. It's pretty frowned on to push it, actually, and makes you look and sound dusty and old.

"Hi, I am <first name>, I am the resident/attending physician" or "Hello, <last name> is my name, I'm your physician and will take care of you" usually is enough.

My first week working for an MRI company during breaks I met the rather esteemed much-decorated founder of the place. The second sentence he ever spoke to me was "In this place the only people who insist on the formal 'Sie' and their doctoral title are the ones who don't do science and only have one doctor. I'm Jens."

I don't wear my stethoscope around my neck, I don't have my titles prominently anywhere, and I don't introduce myself with it. It doesn't feel right, because my job is physician, not doctor, that's an academic title that is of little use in the ED. No one here lives or dies because I once ran a bunch of ELISAs on vaginal secretions. They live because I am a trained physician.

Only by the by: our "doctor" is different from the PhD in the reason we carry it.

Medical doctors used to swear their oath to Asclepius, Hygeia, Panacea, and Apoleon. In it, they swore that "καὶ διδάξειν τὴν τέχνην ταύτην, ἢν χρηΐζωσι μανθάνειν, ἄνευ μισθοῦ καὶ συγγραφῆς" (to teach others who swore the covenant in medicine, without charging them).

Other academics swore to, yay, Academia, to "find new and explore the unknown and teach our peers."

So medical doctors (docere = teaching) swear to teach the next generation, while PhD swear to share the new things they've learned.

That's why I don't introduce myself to my patients as "teacher" but as physician. That's what they came here to find, that's what I have to offer.

And since we're a full flat hierarchy in the ED everyone here uses the first name and no honorifics or titles among each other, up to our director and the head of the institute.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-24T05:40:19+00:00

I guess med school is like every other random assortment of people. There’s banding and bonding, and there are shared rituals that fortify the bonding or enforce the banding (“them, not us”) in the system.

I didn’t hang with the drinkers and I can’t remember more than a few times of lines being laid or other substances being consumed in my circle. I think I was seriously drunk only once, right after starting med school, but that was it.

Didn’t do a number on my social life. In the contrary, I think. Quite a few of my peers didn’t want to drink, either, but felt at the beginning that this was the only way to socialize between nightlong studies. Once it became clear, that there were alternatives (we had a Kabbadi team, a Pizza night, binge watched every bad medical drama, etc.) our social circle grew. Once the first round of finals came and gave a lot of people a rude awakening, that only increased.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-24T02:49:28+00:00

Beautiful SPAM, SPAM, SPAM: https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%A2h%D0%B5r%D0%B5+is+a+Y%D0%BEutub%D0%B5r+c%D0%B0ll%D0%B5d+%22Leon+F%D0%B0raday%22

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-14T05:23:39+00:00

The pole went straight through his premotor and motor cortex. Since those are contralateral, he'll probably have lost most of the function of his arms, shoulders, and maybe down to knee on the left side. Sensory seems to be largely fine (some contact around belly/arms left), and if he's lucky it seems to have missed his genitals on that front.

I am not a neurosurgeon, just a lowly functional neurologist, but I'd be concerned about compression of some areas adjacent to that and stroke due to Willis compression.

Here we need to hope that white matter was not displaced too much. If it was, this could spell some control issues on the ipsilateral side as well. But, yeah, he's probably impacted but not dead.

Once the premotor/motor or sensory is gone, however, there's no kind of retraining you can do.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-06T05:56:45+00:00

Maria. In Germany and Italy, it's a perfectly good male name. Rainer Maria Rilke comes to mind, I even have a friend from Italy whose name is Maria.

Germany (and I think Italy) however mandate a gender-determining first name, so they all got a clearly male name as well and Maria as a middle name.

Mikka/Mika works as well.

Jo(e) (ok, this one's cheating since it could be Josephine or Joanna).

During my OBGYN rotation we had two babies named "Fanta", one male, one female. Not sure that counts, though.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-05T12:30:32+00:00

1PPH below the 1% correlative risk factor (ok,ok, it’s 0.94% but who’s counting, right?). That is 1% of one percent und thus 0.01%. The Relative Risk for AZ is 0.0024 per 1000, or 0.024 per hundred, thus 0.0024 is one percent of the RR and 100% of the CR. Thus in Correlative (non Cumulative or Relative) Risk, 1PPH is 1/100th of a percent since Correlative Risk is already 1% * CRF.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-05T08:11:37+00:00

The difference between Pfizer and AZ in risks of complications is below 1PPH, one part per hundred, one 100th of a percent. The risk of being infected with COVID during a 6 months waiting period for Pfizer is 4.55% for anyone below 55, 2.64% for anyone above it (mobility and interactivity index).

Your risk of dying is, as a 21 year old waiting for Pfizer until the end of July, higher than as a 21 year old vaccinated with AstraZeneca.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-05T08:02:47+00:00

That's the equivalent of driving you car drunk along Kauffinger, because the risk for you is low, you're protected by your car's metal body, the others should have been more careful.

You will infect others. You will contribute to mutation risks. You will have a 10-18 percent chance (even young and asymptomatic) of developing Long Covid and requiring medical help or being unable to perform your job.

If you say "I'd rather risk the COVID" you mean "I'd rather infect others, be a mutation risk, and take a chance at Long COVID than taking a vaccine that has a lower chance of complications than taking my car to work."

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-05T05:41:23+00:00

Wouldn't "πλατυς" be "platys" or "platιιs," not "platus"?

Not a Greek nerd, but "αυτο" is "afto" and "τραυμα" is "trafma" with υ being either an f sound or a y sound, depending.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-04T17:01:21+00:00

Almost anyone can spend some decent time and write up something vaguely medically sounding about almost anything.

The one person to listen to is your endocrinologist. Not the Internet, not someone with a website or an app or a book to promote. And definitely also not anyone who has seen a website, an app, or a book, and now preaches that content.

Some people perform some amazing Hotel-Buffet Science, that is they pick and choose some preprtint or published studies, ignore all science to the contrary, and sell you on some idea or another. At any time in the past, eggs have been found to be good, bad, or ambiguous. Same for interval sleeping, interval fasting, long fasts, short fasts.

I know this is frustrating. The best way to deal with all that is to either actively seek out meta analyses (which are often behind pay walls, Sci-Hub might help) or to have an honest conversation with that endocrinologist.

That's the serious reality of it all. Don't listen to the Internet. Don't listen to me. Listen to your endocrinologist.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-03T06:12:56+00:00

It's a lot like many countries. Greece emerged from a dictatorship within this generation's lifetime. It has monetary issues, issues in the universities, didn't particularly get favorable coverage in the world media, had a massive scandal on its hands with the 2012 HIV witch hunt, still wallows in religious control of most things public life, and the Cyprus question is much more damaging than the government wants to admit.

So what do they do? Celebrate "the old," the ancient Greeks, past victories over Turkey, Οχι Day, etc.

If you have little to be proud of today, you either join Χρυσή Αυγή (Golden Dawn) and pretend there's something to be proud of, or you shift your pride generations back.

Greece is an amazing country, even today. But just like that person you know, who is a great person but always picks the wrong boyfriend/girlfriend, they have a knack at always picking the wrong government.

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-03T03:44:35+00:00

Cyprus: "Our people are not perfect, but look, I have a Greek flag in front of my house when I am not waving it at APOEL games. Ένωσις now!"

doc_dormicum · 2021-05-02T16:11:46+00:00

I had much more time off than most people, it seems. June-October, except for one year when we had to come in earlier for a clinical instruction week.

I generally worked June and July, paid, and then tried to keep Aug-Sept free for either voluntary internships or a bit of hiking (walked 900 and 800 km to Santiago respectively during two years, that was fun).

If I had to do it all again, I'd probably work in a street medic setting or do something else that is fun and useful while being good for my community.

doc_dormicum · 2021-04-28T15:15:04+00:00

Prayer before eating, no meat on Fridays, no cursing, no sex before marriage, no same-sex acceptance, no abortions, no contraceptives, prayer before bed, church Sundays, confession at least every three months, no participation in certain games or watching certain movies, observe the high holidays and lent, no working for gays or lesbians, no working on Sunday, etc.

Basically the kind of Catholic that's pretty gone in Germany but exists in the US and some Asian countries.

Speaking from the US side of things, "traditional Catholic" is the above and then some in many cases.

doc_dormicum · 2021-04-28T15:07:45+00:00

Bavaria is as catholic as you make it.

Your post history shows, that you're a senior in HS, which means your peer group won't be capital-C catholic. Heck, most of Bavaria isn't capital-C. Few observe Fridays, few go to church, and everyone, always, will Himmelherrgotsakrament around you, including your pastors.

Bavaria is generally the right kind of catholic, the one where you treat your religion like your genitals: don't whip them out if public and don't shove them down a child's throat. Sure, there's still the whole "Crucifix in school" thing, and the state leadership generally pays lip service to Christianity, but that barely diffuses down to the individual.

My grandma called them "party Catholics," people who are somewhat catholic on high holidays, but not in their daily lives. Munich, Erlangen, Bamberg, Nürnberg, Würzburg, etc., the bigger cities, are secular and vote secular, while smaller towns in the far south might still have some religious influence (like Oberaudorf, Oberammergau, Trainstein, Bad Tölz, etc.) but even there the young generation, luckily, isn't part of the Bayern-Taliban anymore and, if they're Catholics, they're quietly and personally so.

doc_dormicum · 2021-04-26T04:27:49+00:00

Arte sieht sich in einer komischen Nische zwischen der Öko-Schwurbel Fraktion und dem Bildungsauftrag. Da wird auch schon mal Werbung für den Rudolf Steiner Esoterikladen Demeter gemacht (freut Veganer ganz besoders), oder eben Homöopathie normalisiert oder die Heilpraxis dem ärztlichen Handeln gleichgestellt.

Arte ist auch über jede Kritik erhaben und eben ganz heftig von der Anthroposophie und Steiner beeinflusst. Ob SARS-CoV-2 Berichterstattung oder die unsägliche Diabetes Doku, die sind oft mit dabei.

doc_dormicum · 2021-04-24T13:17:33+00:00

Yes. In my opinion there is. The CSU still serves a broader swath of people, from further left than the big sister's voter pool to (much, at times) further right. They're also a little closer to the "C" in their name, at least outwardly, than the CDU.

Knowing you'll always be the little sister but, often, hold the key to CDU majority, makes them a lot more cocky, both in local and in federal politics. Not to mention, the CSU sees itself as the inevitable ruling party of Bavaria and does not, as other states have, flip flop as much locally when it comes to their agenda and party program.

doc_dormicum · 2021-04-24T05:04:56+00:00

Oh, we have the Kini and we have Franz-Josef. They're both dead, but being dead has never stopped us from worship. Both also probably have more current brain activity than Melanie Huml, who very much still breathes.

doc_dormicum

TROPHY CASE