Organizers Plan Online Medical School 170
slashdot_commentator writes "Job has you down? Thinking of starting a second career? How about finally getting that medical degree you've been putting off? A group of more than 50 schools in 16 countries are working to create an online medical school, in part to combat the "brain drain" that occurs when medical students go abroad for their education but do not return later. ... Organizers said that because degrees would be granted by individual participating schools, all of which are accredited, students should not have to worry about accreditation problems."
As my father/doctor always said.... (Score:1)
"No one is too smart that they have to go to med school in the Carribean or for that matter on the internet."
Which raises some interesting questions about board certification if you ask me.
Re:As my father/doctor always said.... (Score:1, Funny)
boon to cheaters (Score:4, Funny)
The idea,s a bit sick (pun intended)
Re:boon to cheaters (Score:3, Funny)
bit .. internet, yeah I get it ;-)
Re:boon to cheaters (Score:2)
Been Done (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Been Done (Score:2, Insightful)
Good idea, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
The classroom part of this can be done online. But what about the labs and the on the job training? Many hospitals are teaching hospitals where the medical students work alongside doctors.
Re:Good idea, but... (Score:3, Informative)
For the benefit of all the other readers who *also* won't read it...
The program initially is set up with about 70% online learning and about 30% clinical experience. That clinical time is spent at a hospital or participating school. After the first couple of years, the emphasis shifts to clinical study, with 70% of the time now being spent in clinical rotations and 30% online learning.
Oh, on a side note, Franklin university has some very nice online programs that are real, regionally accredited programs. I'm finishing my last CS course there while I work full-time, and have generally been pleased with the system in comparison to the other schools I'd previously attended. http://alliance.franklin.edu/ for info.
Dr. Nic (Score:4, Funny)
Lionel Huts (Score:1)
So it will go something like this... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So it will go something like this... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So it will go something like this... (Score:1)
Bad idea (Score:3, Insightful)
The idea is a total waste of money -- there is no way that the brain drain will stop until for-profit Healthcare corporations quit hiring so many H1B doctors for wages that are much lower than doctors here yet are still higher than those in the third world; that goes for just about every other erudite profession, as well.
Re:Bad idea (Score:4, Funny)
Pssst, Bob! I accedently screwed up really big on a patient, but she does not respond to the reboot command. How do I start over?
Re:Bad idea (Score:5, Informative)
During the first two years of the curriculum, about 70 percent of the students' time would be taken up by distance learning, and the remainder by working in a community setting like a clinic or hospital. After that, the proportions would shift to about 30 percent computer-based learning and 70 percent working in a practice setting.
I don't know what's worse, the post or the idiots that modded it up.
Why ask? (Score:3, Insightful)
The inevitable answer is that this will open up the medical degree experience for many- some will do nothing with it and some will flourish and become star doctors.
Bringing up an idea without any research or (even better) empirical results on slashdot is giving the professional naysayers far too much grist for the mill.
I'm sure if you said "What if we started a global network! And have it initially funded by the government..." on the 1950's version of slashdot all those schmucks would have said "What, and call it the internet? hah! It'll never work!"
Re:Why ask? (Score:1)
Re:Bad idea (Score:2)
Listen, that didn't get modded up for its content... Have another look at the nick and then follow the link beside it pointing to a jpg...
A classic case of (alleged) form over function
Re:Bad idea (Score:2)
(whatever)
Re:Bad idea (Score:1)
"Online schools deprive you of needed experience and interaction"
Most online or distance education courses ive seen have a mandatory block period where physical attendance is required to complete prac's
"The idea is a total waste of money"
The cost of attending and running an online course should be (havent seen figures) a small fraction of the cost of traditional uni's.
A traditional uni has heaps of people turn up to lectures to watch and listen to some old guy read a few pages out of a text book.
Reading is a pre-requisit to entry to university, WTF cant students read the textbook by themselves, and why cant they read it via a web browser.
Comminications is essential to learning, but you only need it when you need assistance... thats what tutorial sessions are for, no reason they cant be done over the net.
University should be about learning, not just a factory that takes a raw material (people) and prepares them (as graduates) for consumption by industry.
Re:Bad idea (Score:3, Insightful)
The thing most people people seem to be missing is, this isn't designed for developed western countries. The idea is for underdeveopled contries with a lack of well educated health care professionals. One major goal of this program is to keep talented young minds in their own country. The idea is, if they learn there, they will be more likely to stay there. This is a real problem for many counties. As a med student in the US i come across a number of foreign medical students and residents that are training here in the US. Not a single one of them has any intention of returning home once they've completed training.
Now I'm not saying this plan is without flaws. I'm not sure the training would be adequate, at least compared to that in the US. However, I could see how in some regards their on the job training could be superior than that in the US. Without all the lawyers to deal with, doctors in their counties would probably be more willing to let students do procedures.
In any case, if the organizers can develope a feasible method to track how much experience their students get, this could be great for underserved nations.
puck
Re:Bad idea (Score:1)
Just don't let it... (Score:1)
Re:Just don't let it... (Score:1)
Re:Just don't let it... (Score:2, Interesting)
I learned more and I was challenged a hell of a lot more. At UoP I actually learned to communicate with people (horror of horrors!). After all, a good part of your grade depends on how well you can communicate and work with a learning team.
After nearly two years of writing around 6 or 7 papers every five weeks, I find myself panicking and looking around for material to research and write a paper on. Blog time! Yes, somehow open source, Buddhism and B-school can make for a blog - at least it's not the strangest one out there.
Some folks just can't hack that. And BTW - I made it through my entire Bachelor's degree without ever firing up any of the MS Office suite. I used Open Office all the way, even back when it was still fairly beta. Their #$!$ website works only with IE though. They know me by name on their complaint line by now.
My favorite part was in statistics because of the Math thingy in OOo. I could make those formulas look absolutely beautiful.
Well, there *was* MS Project... but I did do a presentation on sourceforge during that class just to make myself feel better. I sold it as "the future of collaborative project management". I got extra points.
The hospitals going along with this ok? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The hospitals going along with this ok? (Score:2)
Two words: lower cost.
John Hopkins might not go for it, but the Samaritan General Hospital in Moses Lake, WA would love it to pieces. After all, the doc will still have a medical degree from an accredited school.
No way... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:No way... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No way... (Score:3, Funny)
operation (Score:5, Funny)
Re:operation (Score:2, Funny)
Don't laugh Operation and ERECTOR SETS are used (Score:2)
A lot of dental schools also have a manual skills section of the interview - getting to those out of the way places in the back of the mouth takes some fine dexterity....
Anyway Orthopedics is a lot of fun we get to play with cool power tools and build weird erector set like models like these [ortho-u.net]
Hmmm.... (Score:4, Funny)
Med School vs. Internship (Score:2, Informative)
Only after medschool, when you are an intern, do you get to work with patients, and only with the supervision of a resident. No character on ER (except for some one-episode people who are trying to figure out what rotation to join) are med students. Rather, they are all interns or residents.
I hope this helps in your evaluation of the feasability of this program (MHO - somewhat feasable, but may lack hands-on cadaver work.)
Re:Med School vs. Internship (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Med School vs. Internship (Score:1)
ER the tv show is NOT representative of an actual ER. How do I know this? First off, it's tv = sensationalism/drama/keep viewers interested. Second, I've done a fair amount of volunteering in hospitals (on my way to getting into medical school).
If you take a look at the MSAR(Medical school admissions requirements book: the bible for applicants) you can read the 4 yr curriculum of any medical school.
Re:Med School vs. Internship (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Med School vs. Internship (Score:5, Informative)
As for the intern bit, yes, most physicians learn most from the first post graduate year, but you ABSOLUTELY do touch patients before your internship. You get to intubate, learn how to ascultate heart and breath sounds, interview patients assist with surgeries, set broken bones, suture wounds etc...etc...etc... all in your third and fourth years of medical school. Typically under the supervision of attending and senior residents of course.
I would be truly scared of anyone who did not have that experience before starting an intership and residency.
Re:Med School vs. Internship (Score:1)
Re:Med School vs. Internship (Score:1)
I am in my 4th year of medical school. Yes, the first two years is mostly book work that involves memorization and the introduction of a number of concepts. Even then, however, clinical experience is intergrated into lectures.
After that, medical school turns into mostly working on the floors and with your own patients. For example, I just worked in a real ER. I saw my own patients, made a differential, ordered labs, and did my own procedures. Of course, this was all done under the supervision of an attending physician.
I've also done a sub-internship on the floors, where again I have my own patients, write my own orders and do most of the work...with supervision.
Currently, I'm in the intensive care unit. Same drill. My entire 3rd years was much like this. What you are saying is emphatically not true. Now, not all hospitals that have residents also have medical students because the hospital may not have a medical school afficliated with them. Perhaps this is the cause of your misunderstanding.
As long as this virtual program can guarentee the type of experience we get in a real medical school, then I say go for it. This is a big 'IF' however.
puck
Re:Med School vs. Internship (Score:2)
Right now I am doing my Emergency Medicine rotation at Cook County Hospital right now (which serves as the facade for E.R. the show; the insides are radically different to say the least) and while all the people in white coats may be performing like physicians, a good number of us are just 3rd and 4th year med students.
To actually become a physician requires a lot more than just reading out of books. For one thing, a good chunk of what you need to know isn't even written in books yet--some things only exist in the minds of clinicians, and for another thing, as many of my preceptors are wont to say, patients don't really read the textbooks, and for another thing there's no way to learn procedures without actually doing them.
Not just books (Score:1)
There is a less-common curriculum where clinical medicine is mixed in all along the way, with no division between basic science and clinical. I don't think anyone has demonstrated the superiority of one path over another... but I digress.
Becoming a doctor is much, much more than just taking in the material (which, BTW, is so vast that doctors specialize to be deeply educated about one thing, rather than superficially knowlegable about many things).
There is a process by which one BECOMES a doctor, far more than just the facts. There is a medical community, philosophy, a work ethic, a merciless (and pathological) schedule, and a whole way of interacting with other people and the world. It is difficult to explain, and you don't see the change while you are going through it. It's only in looking back that you can appreciate the changes that a career in medicine imposes.
This curriculum might work... but ONLY for a few of the basic sciences. Another poster already made the point... you MUST have hands-on... The wacky "no cadaver/no animal lab" people are fooling themselves... there is NO substitute for using your hands. Think I'm full of it? ask any surgeon. Mechanical skills are learned by doing, not by looking at a screen (try learing to type while never touching a keyboard).
Brain Drain on Developing Countries? (Score:1)
The key here is the developing countries bit. Is that Ethiopian kid gonna log into AOHell and get his doctorate? I think not.
Excuse for porn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Excuse for porn (Score:4, Funny)
Can't wait to see your face when they assign you to where the biggest demand is: Geriatric Gynecology.
Re:Excuse for porn (Score:2)
um, riiight (Score:1)
Right? Hahaha.
It's truer than you think... (Score:3, Funny)
Funnily enough, each year that particular lecture is filled to capacity with people who dress and sound a lot more like engineers than med students :)
What you study is a small part of med school (Score:4, Insightful)
If you can put it online to learn it, you can also go online to look it up. I want a doctor who has the skills, perceptions, and judgement you get by doing.
I don't know if my skill set is transferrable (Score:4, Funny)
Oh wait: it [pbs.org] is [nitcentral.com]
They power-cycled my grandfather (Score:1)
Scary. I can't imagine being the first patient to volunteer for that one.
heart-stopping operations (Score:1)
Halfway there. (Score:5, Interesting)
All the lectures are recorded in RealAudio, and most of the lecturers show slides in PowerPoint (available for download). The ones that use standard overheads put the handouts in our mailboxes. The students pool together to make transcripts of the lectures, which are very high quality. Tests are online.
The upshot of this is about half of the class rarely attends lectures. Some students NEVER attend the lectures, live 2 hours away, and drive in once a week for the clinical stuff in the hospitals. Just today, a review lecture had an attendance of 14 people out of 160. (I was there because I had to record the RealAudio)
This is just for the first two "basic science" years. Years 3 and 4 are in the hospital wards, getting hands-on experience. Obviously, that can't be done over the web.
I've found that in med school, there is more of an attitude that the students are in charge, and an acknowledgement that people learn in different ways. The faculty will generally go out of their way to make sure you can get all the material. The students are motivated enough to learn on their own. If they learn best by skipping class, the faculty is OK with this.
Re:Halfway there. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Halfway there. (Score:2)
Sure wish Comp Sci was like that (Score:1)
Whenever i skipped class we'd do something interesting with computers in the dorms (or smoke pot and drink beer. Or both. (As in drink and code, not both pot and beer
Better than attending class and learning stuff I already knew like "What is a variable". There should be an aptitude test, but colleges just want your $$$.
Operators are standing by! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Operators are standing by! (Score:3, Funny)
The only way some of us will ever get a date
Re:Operators are standing by! (Score:2)
Awesome Idea , but I think the point was lost (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think that the idea is to let more people study medecine , more along the lines of everyone who is studing it and will be studying it, will be using the same resources
ie. I'm studing in Athens and decide to move to London to study then I'll be using the same material as long as I go to a university that is part of the group and I would have to worry about having used diff. text books and such
Standardisation
Oh well that's just my take
Re:Awesome Idea , but I think the point was lost (Score:1)
But is Standardization really a good thing. Isn't product differentiation what different schools are supposed to be about. You'll see curricula based largely upon a critical board-type exam, but aside from that.. that's where the interests (and perhaps the quality) of the professor come into play.
If you think about what you're really paying for at a prestigious university (not why people enroll, but the cost), a large part of it is the research (subsidized by taxpayers of course). So, naturally, a professor at the forefront of a field (at least in his own mind) will usually have you use his book and teach the class differently than someone who doesn't do active research in that area (or at all).
Re:Awesome Idea , but I think the point was lost (Score:2, Informative)
If you're interested in the history of higher education, as I am, you can read about it in greater detail in Samuel Eliot Morison's The Founding of Harvard College.
Sign me up.. (Score:2)
"You know there is a dead body in here, right?"
Obligatory jokes... (Score:4, Funny)
Great, that's all I need; my doctor slips up while I'm on the operating table and he spends the next 5 minutes making motions with his hand as if to hit the "back" button on a web browser.
me: "Something wrong, Doc?"
doctor: "No.. at least... I don't think so. It's just that I've never seen a real live patient before; at least not I. R. L."
"Damn, nurse... brain surgery is sooo much easier when you can use two hands!"
nurse: "Doctor! Doctor! Have you ever had experience with this kind of disease?!
doctor: "Of course I have! Level 34, just before I grabbed the RailGun."
wife: "Doctor, is my husband... going to die?"
doctor: "Nah, if it gets too bad, I'll just pull the plug on the router and it'll look like we lost the connection. Then I'll try again."
*doctor smiles while the wife wonders what the hell he's talking about*
In other news: I'm a pilot! (Score:4, Funny)
That makes me a pilot!
It wouldn't be hard to cheat with this... (Score:1)
Costly (Score:5, Informative)
$24,917 * 7 = ~175k
Which, ironically, is about the cost of the tuition for the 7 years of med school for only one student. If they get two students, they will already be doubling their money
HowTo become a doctor [howstuffworks.com]
Re:Costly (Score:1)
1. Train medical students online.
2. ???
3. Profit!!!
I've tried this.... (Score:3, Informative)
The general way an online course works is through the extensive use of message boards which allow the students to interact with each other. Real time chat and whiteboard software are also used. Supporters claim that the experience equals that of a real classroom, but my first hand experience is that it does not. Several days ago, I was discussing online classes with a former instructor of mine. His wife teaches some online courses and she contends that her online students are getting perhaps 60% of the education they could receive in a physical classroom - and this is from an instructor who in my experience truly cares about her students.
The first course I took was Intro to Philosophy. The instructor would post a weekly lecture and assign all the typical reading required in a Phil 100 class. Then you had lists of questions to answer and post to the board where everyone else was supposed to respond to your answers, and you responded to theirs. Then you responded to their responses, etc, etc, etc. One day I got tied up and couldn't log on for almost 36 hours - there were nearly two hundred new messages waiting. I ended up dropping the course after the second week because the sheer amount of material combined with math and chemistry courses was overwhelming.
This summer, I took and completed a humanities course entitled _Survey of World Literature_. The class received absolutely no input from the instructor other than the weekly lecture. The only time the instructor made her presence known was to answer direct questions posted in a special ask the instructor board (usually of the I forgot to do an assignment can I please turn it in late whine.) Wildly inaccurate and misguided posts from students went unchallenged by the faculty member in charge. I suspect that the instructor may not have even read the individual postings, but I can't prove it.
Online courses may be very good for people of a particular personality - one who is very self driven, who isn't really into the face-to-face interaction of a classroom setting. In general however, I just don't feel like the technology has reached a point where the education delivered is of the same caliber.
Crocuta
Re:I've tried this.... (Score:1)
Reserve Your Online Nic (Score:2, Funny)
Don't Worry... (Score:1)
Could be worse, he could of used to be an MCSE!!!
who needs medical school? (Score:2)
This is a great idea - should be more of it! (Score:2)
Q: What do they call the person who graduates bottom of their medical class?
A: Doctor.
I, for one, think any new well-researched, diagnosis-focused, detailed and systematic way of partially training doctors (read the fsking article!) is to be welcomed.
Re:This is a great idea - should be more of it! (Score:2)
Huh?! When did I ever say it was easy? In fact, when did I ever say any of the things you attribute to me? If you are the future of medicine, I hope they include some courses on reading comprehension before you are done. Your analysis of the article was equally flawed, but since I'm now essentially doing your homework for you, I respectfully decline to pointlessly elaborate.
Since you addressed none of the points I actually made, I assume you agree with them all?
Finally! House Calls! (Score:2)
Re:Finally! House Calls! (Score:1)
virtual reality
virtual sex
virtual medicine
virtual sexually transmitted diseases?
virtual treatment?
And who's gonna treat the cyborgs?
2 years in classroom. (Score:1)
The second two years are clinical/hands-on, all in the field in mini-internships. How do you do the clinical stuff on-line?
Hi! I'm a Doctor! (Score:2, Insightful)
Excuse me while I chime in here. I'm not a real
doctor but I play one on IM. Clients often ask me: "Doctor, why is it that I feel bad." And I chuckle and I say, "Listen to me SuckMe93, I've had lots of patients like you: People that just don't feel good. I've seen them come and I've seen them go. But in the end it all works out. It's like the skaters say: 'It's all good.'"
Now my point is, we're all doctors aren't we? I mean we take a little, we give a little. We wake up, we feel good. We sleep, and then we swim in the sea of life and we heal.
Thanks for listening,
- The Doctor.
Quincy (Score:2)
Ahh, will the students still have the opportunity to watch an autopsy? I remember a Quincy episode when he was due to teach a class of med students, but needed to do some investigating and couldn't get out of the class... and then made the entire class all pass out/throw up within minutes!
I have a friend doing a Medical related degree at Edinburgh (not sure precisely which kind), and she said their compulsory module on autopsies wasn't initially fun (half the class didn't stay conscious long enough). But they are taught hands on experience from the very beginning.
Given the state of the British NHS (overworked, underfunded yadda yadda), I'm not sure how much it will affect the 'brain drain' in that they still could end up going overseas anyway.
Brain Surgery for Dummies (Score:2, Funny)
I can see it now... (Score:2)
Oh don't worry, I just reboot the system and start over.
SPAM: Doctor Approved (Score:1)
Doable for 1.72 Years of Med school (Score:1, Informative)
I am a fourth year med student - this is dumb (Score:3, Informative)
What's unfortunate is that the students will still be getting the most important part of their training in their home environments. The clinical years are where the majority of applicable skills are learned. The quality of residents, attending physicians, and individual departments help determine how much exposure students get to the cutting edge of modern medicine.
These students might get a better pre-clinical education than they would have. However, they run the risk of adopting all the bad habits of American medicine (focus on pathology, not the patient) without the benefits of its strengths (appropriate application in a compassionate setting).
In short, the best and brightest from other countries will still leave their home countries...
(And just in response to other comments, medical students have much of the same experiences and training as interns and residents just without the actual responsibility)
Invicta{HOG}
This could be great... (Score:2)
Something like this, maybe put on to handheld computers and given out to the locals could go a long way towards elevating their medical standards. Granted its not like they'll be able to perform surgery, but for 90% of the 'first aid' incidents they'll be much better off.
Old game... "Life and Death" ? (Score:1)
It was pretty terrible, but had you performing surgery on people and such... I dunno, it was kind of amusing for awhile, though(especially for the sadistic... I remember they would throw you out of the OR after abour 3 or 4 wrong incisions... also fun was forgetting the anastetic.)
Anyone else remember that one? (and while we're at it with old Amiga games, how about.. "Weird Dreams" was it? I think that was the name... That was a cool game... with the giant cotton candy machine and all.)
Screw it, no point in trying to make this sound on-topic:)
Re:Old game... "Life and Death" ? (Score:1)
Online Grad School Experience (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm studying at Columbia University through their online system [columbia.edu]. Lectures are viewed via Windows Media Player, along with still images (indexed by time against the ASF stream). Professors are available via phone/e-mail and I sometimes go to their offices.
I've just completed a degree in Genetics and am working towards my MSEE. Overall, I think online education is great. Without it, there's no way I could make the commute in to NYC a few times a week to attend class[es], and still hold down a full-time job.
I've certainly benefitted from this. I have had a number of papers published since I started (they are in leukemia diagnosis techniques and gene ontology discovery). I also have a few patents (I know, I'm evil...).
Now, maybe I'm not the typical student. When I got my BS (in astrophysics), I rarely attended classes. I may just learn well on my own, but I can assure you that people can do it.
If, as they say, you are really just doing your classroom portion of the program online, there's nothing wrong with that at all.
It's very convenient. Isn't that what technology is for?
Does this remind anyone else of the simpsons? (Score:1)
"Hi Doctor Nick!"
There's a confidence booster (Score:1)
Then of course, I would have to kill myself honorably.
A tech view from the med school trenches (Score:2)
I am a final year in medical school. I spend a lot of my time on various medical education internet services.
This already goes on. A better title would have been: 'Some medical schools agree to pool their resources and decide to share their online course materials'. As a matter of fact, the licensing exam in the USA is a 8 or 9 hour computer-based multiple choice test, and the students prepare for it by taking practice computer tests online.
Schools vary in their clinical vs. didactic education, but really, alot of the first 2 years of medical school getting up to speed on what the tissues are, the groups of microbes, basic genetic prinicples, major biochemical pathways.
Yes their are some students that don't go to class at all for the first 2 years when all they are doing there is listening to teachers talk. Only 5% of learners are primarily auditory, and yet the lecture is primarily talk. I feel students should be allowed to pursue the path that gets the best results for them: if they can learn all their microbiology at home by spending 18 hour days, instead of wasting time in travel on a bus, then sitting to a teacher talk, they should be allowed to do so. The results at the end are what matters. All students are required to pass a licensing examination--if people think that the licensing examination somehow allows incompetent doctors through, then the exam should be changed.
Online threaded conversations allow a good archive of question and answer for learning: things like physio aren't going to change much, and nice to have access to the prior students questions and answers from previous years.
The ancillary skill of becoming computer-savvy is required for a doctor starting out now. There is an avalanche of new information to sift though online, and proper gathering techniques and critical assessment is required. One should be familiar with tech aids at the point of care if they can reduce errors (eg a PDA of drugs which can compare interactions of all 7 drugs that an elderly patient is on, to see if it causing a side effect). The latest journal articles are best found with PubMed online, if one hasn't learned the sklll of good data mining, their knowledge will fade from the cutting edge quick enough.
There is different subsets of learners. Some members of a group will have excellent communication in a live group at the start, others may feel more at ease asking/answering questions in a virtual group, and building their confidence, so that hitting the live group becomes easier.
For simulations, they make a good adjunct to the real thing. It provides a introduction to a proper case of a disease which may difficult to see in the med school's hospital. For example, Lyme disease is important to recognize on a patient, but most med students in Ireland will never see one. However, Irish citizens do to USA, get it, come back, and the result is tragic after the disease has progressed undiagnosed by the first line doctors who have never seen someone before with the classic signs.
Visiting conferences in medical education, there is a lot of schools in 2nd world countries that now have computers and a half-way decent internet connection, but there isn't enough money to fund creation of well-made high-tech content to use. Hence, willingness of the richer universities to help the developing ones in knowledge is a welcomed trend.
Brain Drain has better solutions (Score:2)
Under pressure from the IMF/WB, many developing countries have significantly expanded their educational systems. Unfortunately, many studies have indicated that the expansion of education has had little average effect on increasing economic growth. Education is only useful if there is a demand for you with your education in your economy. If the only jobs are working in fields, you are better off working in the fields and earning money rather than wasting time in class. If there are no jobs for college educated in your country, you will either have wasted your education, or you try to go to another country where there are jobs for your college education. I'm not saying that education is unimportant for growth, because it is since sustainable long-term growth comes from investment in technology, but it is not sufficient for growth.
The requirements for economic growth is a stable monetary system, low government corruption, democracy, limited regulation (including business, labor, and trade controls), low budget deficits, privatization (including land), respect for property rights, and non-negative real interest rates. And then education can help.
Another issue is while "brain drain" is bad in one sense, there is a tremendous amount of money flowing back into developing countries from expatriots. El Salvador, for instance, gets 1/7th of its GDP from expatriot remissions. India also gets a large amount as well. Studies do indicate that remissions do not fully offset growth losses due to "brain drain," but at least they make up for some of the loss.
Re:i can't wait... (Score:1)
He just might be a legitamate case study example right now. Gotta learn about assectemies from somewhere.
Re:you get rushed into the ER.. (Score:2, Informative)
Surgeons have been performing surgery remotely! Through a computer!
Hell, I even helped develop a virtual laparoscopic surgical simulator (3d spacial recognition and other goodies). Know where surgeons currently learn? On live patients. Wouldn't you rather have a surgeon who's gone a couple rounds with a simulator rather than someone who has no experience?
Re:you get rushed into the ER.. (Score:1)
I know of almost NO truly emergent cases where you are rushed into the ER and get a laparoscopic surgery (occasional ectopic pregnancy perhaps). I'm not talking about the run-of-the-mill appendicitis or Cholecystitis cases that are done by lap scope... I'm talking about splenic rupture, Aneurysms, lacerated livers... That kind of surgery is almost always done with an open belly, and done in a big hurry.
I don't know if we will ever see the day where an emergent splenectomy on an unstable patient will be done remotely. The equipment is just not there yet