Day #10

Today we first visited the New Maiden monastery which is a historic monastery and cemetery near the center of Moscow  and near First Moscow State Medical University. Buried there are a number of famous 19th and 20th century doctors, writers, and politicians. Boris Yeltsin was buried there in 2007.

We then visited First Moscow State Medical University. This is the premier medical school and residency training program in Moscow. There are approximately 500+ students. Both of our hosts are graduates of this institution. Dimitry's son is currently a student there as well.

(Cord and Daria pose in the rain outside First Moscow State Medical University)

In Russia, prospective physicians enter a medical university for a 6 year training period (this includes what we consider undergraduate and medical school training combined). There are different spots available for enrollment for this training. Some are mostly merit based and others are government supported. Often students will pay money at the start of their training (either officially or unofficially) to reserve a spot at the university. Wealthy students can sometimes pay more to get a spot if they aren't otherwise admitted. Daria tells us that the system is being reformed to be closer to the way that medical university admissions are conducted in Europe, but that it still remains somewhat more complicated.

(Poster about diabetic food disease)

Daria describes that, like many physicians, she chose specialty training (medical endocrinology) at the completion of her medical university training (after 6 years). She then applied for endocrinology "residency" (which is equivalent to our subspecialty endocrine fellowship training). Surgery training would also be extra training (approximately 3 yrs for general surgery). There is no formal endocrine surgery program but surgeons can focus on this in some of the general training programs. Some surgeons will first complete medical endocrine training before pursuing surgery training but this is not common. Students who do not wish to specialize (the majority of students) usually complete around one year of post-graduate medical training in general medicine and then work in a general medicine clinic. Trainees who are interested in research and qualify, like Daria, can take extra time after their residency to pursue a PhD. 

At First Moscow State Medical University, Dr. Sturgeon gave a seminar on management of primary hyperparathyroidism to the residents and students. He was again introduced by Dr. Valentin Fadeyev, who is the head of the Department of Endocrinology. 

(Cord describes a focused parathyroid adenoma resection under regional anesthesia)

The lecture was received with great enthusiasm and there were excellent questions asked by those attending. Many of the students and residents speak english and they were eager to talk with Dr. Sturgeon after the seminar.

(Cord poses for a photo with Dr. Fadeyev and a number of the residents of First Moscow State Medical University)