Digg me!!!!

http://digg.com/health/Routine_Miracles_with_Dr_Conrad_Fischer_Rheumatology

This is my link to one of the videos on Digg. It is a VERY big deal to have this sent out to as many people as possible. Use your facebook username and password.

Please put this on your facebook. Please spread the word: THIS is the best it has EVER been in medicine!

THESE ARE the ‘Good Old Days!”

http://digg.com/health/Routine_Miracles_with_Dr_Conrad_Fischer_Rheumatology

Before a little while ago this woman would have been left to suffer and be invisible. This is like a resurrection!

Digg it, please and put a comment!

Daddy Loves you!!!

Remember that I will try to take care of you the best I can during the interview season. It is a time of high anxiety and fear. More of that fear comes towards me than most people, such as the woman who applied to 200 programs last year and did not match (failure on step 2, IMG, >10 years since graduation) ‘that is just so you do not think this will happen to you.

 

Keep your eye on WHY you went to medical school, and this will diminish fear.

Letters of Recomendation NOT necessary to apply!

Attention Anxious ones!!!

You are TOTALLY justified in being anxious about your application, I understand.  You do NOT need to have your LOR’s in order to apply!!1 In fact, you can apply and even be invited to interview and then LATER the letters go in.

You have no idea how many people have delayed letters.

Faculty letter writing is a chore. Seriously, even committed people have to spend a 15-20 minute time biopsy to write a good one. I have written hundreds, if not thousands of letters and it is HARD to make them sound unique.

Here:

1. Remind the writer every 3-4 days.

2. Go very gentle.

3. Start with ‘I know you are really busy”

GoodLuck!~

Conrad Fischer’s World tour begins!

I have some availability in:

San Diego California September 20/21

Los Angeles Sep 21

SanFrancisco Sep 25

Seattle Sept 29/30

Houston October 5-7

Chicago Oct 9/10  Oct 20-22

Detroit Oct 14/15

Columbus Ohio Oct 26

Toronto Oct 27

Boston Oct 29

Columbia Missouri Oct 30

All of these places have presentations scheduled, however, since this is a FIRST ever national tour I want to PACK the days to reach the maximum number of people.

The Fisch is coming to Washington DC on Sept 18

Hi All,

I do NOT just want to do a presentation at  a kaplan center, which I am doing on friday the 18th. Please send me a message directly or by email at

conrad.fischer@downstate.edu
I will come to YOUR hospital or Medical school free of charge to present on the board review topic of your choice. I Can also do “Grand Rounds” in medical education.

I will be announcing other dates. If you are not in those cities, then send the message to your friends. As long as I am nearby, I want to be maximally useful.

The Patients are coming but the doctors are not!

In a week, I will co-present on “Routine Miracles” with the priest with whom the ideas of the book were developed.

I spoke to dozens of patients last night and every single one of them that is in town will come. They were enthusiastic, grateful for what had been done for them medically and excited to share their stories with others. Ten to twenty of them at minimum will be there.

This was delightful.

I invited all of the physicians and experts who are in the book to celebrate THEIR work, to have them face to face with the grateful appreciation of human beings whose lives they had improved

*Sight to the blind

*Hearing to the deaf

* The dead brought back to life

* The woman with the ‘issue of blood’ stopped

*The orthodox lady whose life is centered on having children, but got incapacitating arrhythmias every time she was pregnant-CURED!!!

Overwhelming,

The Doctors?

Not ONE of them is coming. Most did not even acknowledge the repeated invitation. It is an event for them. To ‘Feel the love’ . Even at its most crass and commercial, it is for THEM to generate referrals for themselves.

No interest. In fact, avoidance.

This is why I wrote ‘Routine Miracles”. There is an emotional disconnect on the part of our faculty, our senior physicians, a hole in their hearts. The patients see what they received as a “miracle’.  “Oh my!!! I would LOVE to come!!!”

The doctors see it as ‘Routine”.

What can we do?

U.S. Surgeon working in Afghanistan walks in with “Routine Miracles”

the guy laughs at all my jokes. It is hard for me NOT to like someone like that.  He is a goofy, happy seeming guy. really relaxed and easy going.

He walks in today with a copy of “Routine Miracles” today into a step 3 class “I don’t want to seem like a groupie, but I got the book in Barnes and Noble last night. I just wanted to be the first to come  into class with it”

After class he tells me that he spent seven months in Afghanistan working as a surgeon. He is in the middle of surgical residency and he took his year of research that is typical in a good surgical residency as time in Afghanistan.

“We could not go out to help people without them shooting at us and trying to blow us up. We try to help people, but they just don’t want us there. they feel we brought the troubles with us with the invasion”

I ask who, which group, he went with. “The Army”

Apparently decency and goodness take all forms

I am surprised that he agrees with me about healthcare reform. We spend a minute agreeing that for the military, resources are unlimited. but there is this odd sense of insufficiency in terms of covering people for healthcare.

The happy guy who put his life on the line for his duty.

He doesn’t seem like a ‘Groupie”, but if I could have ‘Groupies’, courageous men and women who put their asses on the line for duty with a good sense of humor is precisely the type of groupies I would like to have.

Timing of your application

PANIC!!!!!

I know! It is September second, and you think that if you don’t get your application in over the next 24 hours you will be doing a residency in misery in outer obscurity.

NOT TRUE!!!!

you have time. Some program directors will not even be looking at their applicants for a few weeks. You have time.

For those who do not have step 2 results yet, it is okay! it is much better to wait a little longer to get a good grade than to apply with a weak grade. You are going to have to live with that grade for a long time.

Do advanced degrees help?

The Question:

“Does having additional academic degrees improve your chances of residency if your usmle scores are so-so?

For example a lot of students get an MPH, or a masters to help them get into medical school. do these degrees carry over into residency selection?

ANSWER:

Extra degrees are a VERY GOOD way of getting around a mediocre step 2 score. They are measurable, reporducible and have clear value. It is not like ‘research’ that does not result in a publication. AN MPH or MBA willhelp, and if you do not get what you want right away it  will increase marketability.

How to get residency despite low step 2 score

QUESTION:

“matriculated from Ross University this year and have taken Step 1 and scored in the 88/212 but I did not score well on Step 2 76/186.  So as of right now I am primarily studying for Step 3 to try and rectify the situation and possibly take it at the end of this year.  Besides from that what else can I do to increase my chances of acquiring a residency spot in Internal Medicine this upcoming application period?  How can I convey to the residency programs that I will be a good fit for them?”

ANSWER:

You are correct to try to use step 3 to correct the impression of you. This is Very,very,very difficult since you need to get an interview in order to show yourself.and it is very hard to get an interview if you have not gotten the right grade.

The other thing is to spend time at a place that is possible for you to get into for a residency. Are there any places that really liked you when you rotated there?

Just remember, there is no point in spending time at a place that will NEVER accept you!