New Site
Posted by enrico | Under General Wednesday Jul 20, 2005It’s finally here–the new benzo.org, now also known as mexicomedstudent.com. benzo.org will always be my domain, but I thought I’d register a new name which reflects what will almost inevitably be the ‘theme’ of the new site. It was never my intent to start a medical school blog, but it would be nearly impossible to not have that be at the forefront since that’s what my life will be consumed by. Add that to the fact that I’m in a foreign country and well, I’d be crazy not to let the content just write itself. 
In a soon-to-be written post, I’ll recap what’s been happening these last few months and why I haven’t been writing, but for now, I want to launch this puppy for real. Keep coming back and checking to see what might be new. I am still playing with Drupal and especially with the CSS of the site, so expect some changes and hopefully no outages (!) over the coming weeks.
And again, if you are reading this, thanks for being a dedicated follower of my nearly non-existent site. You are either very loyal or very bored.
Dear Enrico,
It is interesting to read your experiences as a US citizen studying medicine in Mexico. I am a bit troubled by your perception regarding teaching based on personal experience. I believe it to be the best way to teach medicine in the classroom and the wards. Why do I say this? Let me tell you.
I am a graduate of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, who came to the US over 25 years ago. I brought with me all my clinical experiences. What did I do with them, I set out to prove them, and in many instances I did. In doing so, I published the results in international peer-reviewed journals.
One should stay away from the belief that only American journals have the right information. Actually that is far from the truth. Non-American journals also have excellent information. However, evidence-based medicine is not perfect. It becomes a powerful weapon when it is partnered with experience.
That said, I do not want you to believe that I am defending my position as one of those “old professors”. Indeed, I am retired from academia. However, I had postgraduate training not only from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, but from US universities such as Johns Hopkins and The University of Texas, in both biomedicine and medicine. I was on faculty at US medical schools, and even was one of the authors of a very popular Medical Boards review software. Neither do I have anything against US medical journal or any scientific journal for that matter, especially since I am still a reviewer for several of them. Finally, I am not truly retired, since my current job entails discussing ways to improve the management of patients with various disorders, serving as a resource to many other physicians.
What I really wanted to convey to you, is something you mention in a negative way. The perfect medical education is when your professors teach from experience in the wards, but you are required to read the textbooks and the journals. Examinations should cover knowledge from types of sources. Finally, a medical education from Mexico should serve you well in the US. Just consider that my Alma Mater provides more physicians to the US than any other university in the world, US universities included.