University of Missouri School of Medicine - Mutation Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

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a physicianfs prayer- HMAY THERE NEVER DEVELOP IN ME THE NOTION THAT MY EDUCATION IS GGMPLETE, BUT GIVE ME THE STRENGTH AND LEISURE AND ZEAL GONTINUALLY TO ENLARGE MY KNOWLEDGE. -Maimonides We hope we can be of service in your lifelong study of Medicine. The Gommittee on Postgraduate Medical Education: L. E. Wolcott, MD Chai man, A. S. Baker, M.D.5 T. W. Burns, M.D.5 R. M. Hyde, Ph.D.g P Ma o M.D.g W. Mackenzie, M.D.g H. Stoeckle, M.D.g Gail Bank, M.S E ecuti e Director. .

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Moscow's FIRST MEDICAL INSTITUTE by Marshiall F. Gilula I had to do more than just pinch myself! Walking across Manezhnaya Square toward the Kremlin with two Rus- sian medical students seemed hard to digest. As my guides pointed out various features of the Kremlin, I tried not to appear too amazed. It was smaller, less onerous and for- boding, than I'd imagined. Igor and Kyril were the first of many Russian medical stu- dents I met in Moscow. I was a senior medical student from the University of Mis- souri, in the Soviet Union via a Clendening History of Medicine Fellowship, to gather material for a paper to be entitled, Some His- torical Aspects of the Wom- an Doctor in Russia. Igor and Kyril were first-year stu- dents at the First Moscow Medical Institute, the oldest medical school in the So- viet Union founded in 1755. Igor explained that roughly 6,000 students studied at the institute but only about 3,600 in medical courses. The oth- ers belonged to the Pharma- cologic and Hygiene-Sanita- tion facilities. Russian medical students take entrance exams after the 10th or 11th grade of secondary 1 school and study for six years, after which a degree of vrach fdoctorj, comparable to our M.D., is received. A student not scoring high enough on the competitive exams may take them again after working a year or' two, or serving in the army. Most felt it was easier to gain ad- mission after some years of outside work. Many girls completed nurse's training first and were then' admitted to the medical institute. The First Moscow Medical Institute more than made up for initial difficulties in gain- ing admission. Professor Er- makov, the vice-Rector, lis- tened patiently to my still stumbling Russian and wel- comed me. Professor Kuzmin, chairman of the Medical His- tory department, pointed out Entrance gate to Korsakov Psy- chiatric Clinic at II Malaya Pirogorskaya Street, Moscow. X4 M SCOW Scene on Corky. Street near a square dedicated to the poet, Mayakovsky. I5 minutes fwalkingj from Red Square. the two main medical librar- ies in Moscow. With permis- sion and directions obtained, I spent half my time in the Central Medical Library and the other half at the Insti- tute, sampling Soviet medi- cal education. Visitin gross anatomy, I sat with foo other students lis- tening to a stimulating de- scription of the carotid vascu- lar system. The language barrier dissolved as I watched the attractive, energetic wife of a prominent Soviet writer hold 301 medical students in the palm of her hand. Lights went off' for a show of slides and a girl sitting beside me whispered, Isn.'t she a good lecturer? And so kulturniiln I had to agree. During the five-minute break between lecture hours I shared a cigarette with the kultumii anatomist, who lat- er lent me a lab coat and invited me to one of her dis- section classes. Docents, and aspirants lcandidates for the D.Sc. degreel did much of the actual dissection while medical students study the prosections and permanent specimens in the museum. Chairman of the Anatomy Department, Professor Zhda- nov, internationally known for his work in organ trans- plantation and regeneration, expressed pleasure in an American medical student al- so being interested in history. He autographed an article describing the authenticity of Leningrad's portrait of Vesa- lius, which now hangs in the Hermitage. I later translated a paper of Zhdanov's into English. Physiology lab exercises were strongly reminiscent of col- lege biology. A fiftyish ma- tron with grey hair pulled back into a bun, quizzed stu- dents in random fashion on the day's assignment. A stu- dent reciting well got the verbal reward: Very good- p'yat'. Otherwise the smooth face wrinkled and: You are not prepared today-dis- missed! ' Two fifth-year stu- dents showed me their proj- ectg a sophisticated, EEG- monitored investigation of pain responses in anesthetized rabbits and we discussed. the EEG differences between sleep, anesthesia, and hypnosis. During the first two years, Russian medical students take many courses we consid- er pre-med , including biol- ogy, inorganic and organic chemistry, physics, physical culture, and hilosophy CMarx and Lenin? In all six years, a student is ex- pected to pass a minimum proficiency level in French, English, or German. My best contacts with stu- dents came via the depart- ment of Foreign Langua es, which co-sponsored a stucint conference in Radiology. Medical students and clini- cal aspirants lcorresponding to our residentsj presented re- search papers in English! The conference was held in an old anatomical theater and portraits of Lenin and Sech- enov flanked the podium. As each participant mounted the lecturn, making sounds of nervous throat-clearing, I wondered where in America would medical students pre- sent and defend their research in a foreign language. The English was a little stiff and British but technical vocabu- lazy was relatively flawless. Afterwards, there was a par- ty at the Evening Cafe, Molodozhnoye fthe Soviets claim no night clubs, per se, as all public establishments close at 11:30 P.M.j. Re- sjaectable jazz of the mid- fties and young, well- dressed Russians dancing the twist, reminded me that the cold war was mainly in terms of oiiicial ideology. During my last month in Moscow, I went through the psychiatry cycle', that each medical student takes during the fifth or sixth year. Pro- fessor Banshikov, head of the department and chief of the Korsakov Psychiatric Clinic, assigned Mike Petrovich, a junior psychiatrist, as my guide. Wards at the Korsakov Clin- ic were arranged according to sex and degree of disturb- ance . Although Mike was interested mainly in biochem- ical aspects of psychosis, his genuine warmth and empathy with patients showed that he was probably a top-notch psy- chotherapist, also. Each staff psychiatrist had access to his own EEG and served as his own technician. A staff man who specialized in rheonceph- alography fa procedure which detects brain blood flow rather than electrical currentsl said he had spoken with ham' operators in the U.S. One of my favorite sou- venirs is George's ham station card with call letters in Rus- sian. While on psychiatry, my Rus- sian classmates attended small section meetings each morning for three to four hours. One topic would be presented to the group of eight to 1 i studentsg the res- ident in ci.arge would ques- tion each student in turng and wind up by presenting one or two patients for the students to inteview. One session on alcoholism Professor V.M. Banshikov, Chair- man, Department of Psychiatry at the First Moscow Medical Institute. was conducted by Irma Sem- yonovna, a soft-eyed woman in her early thirties whose intelligence could manipu- late the most abstruse psy- chiatric concept into practi- cal shape. She asked how much of a problem alcohol- ism in the U.S. was, and I showed her a small Blood- Alco Chart that gave al- cohol blood level per num- ber of drinks, according to body wei ht. She said ap rov- ingly: Hgmerican medical sci- encell' and launched into a lecture on drinking and driv- ing. Once or twice a week pairs of students would inter- view and write up a patient. Defending diagnoses later at obkhod froundsl , students were in no other way respon- sible for patient care or psy- cho therapy. My general im- gression was that the distri- ution and frequency of psy- chiatric illness at the Kor- sakov clinic labout 150 pa- tients, was comparable to a similar-sized American Uni- versity psychiatric hospital. Thanking Professor Banshikov for his hospitality was easy, saying goodbye impossible- ' 'Don' t say proshchai,tye Cfarewellj, it's a horrid cus- tom. Do svidanyiya luntil the next timel is much better. Maybe there will be a next time-it depends on you! Maybe you will come back and work as an aspirant in psychiatry! Two nights before leaving Moscow, a professor of biol- ogy and his family toasted me with spirt la double- strength vo ka reserved for holidaysl in their home. Suddenly, the table grew very quiet until the professor broke the silence: We wish you good health and many successes with your work Marshall and I want you to know that we will not sleep well after you have gone. Say borscht, Amerikanskii. This pi ture goes into our SMERSH files Hi-jinks with M!6's at a student conference.