Paraplegic seeking advice about medical career

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BAMAlama

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So I am a recently injured para. I'm currently undergoing rehab and therapy and seeking to advance my education in pursuit of a medical career. I am unsure what I want to do as far as a neurology physician or scientific research. I want to help people and make a difference but unsure on where to start or what to strive for. I'm looking into online courses but don't know if that will put me in the right direction. Within the end of the year I will be moving to Florida and be able to physically attend school. Any suggestions would be helpful.

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Medical schools write technical standards for matriculants. The physical capabilities of the acceptable students will commonly be described on their websites. It is not uncommon for such abilities to include assisting at surgery, delivering a baby and performing emergency procedures such as CPR. Go to the websites of schools to which you might apply and check these out.
 
I generally don't comment on things that I don't have personal experience with (I'm not disabled), but here are a couple of articles that may be of use to you. The first is from The New York Times and the second is from Western University of Health Sciences, COMP, an osteopathic medical school in Southern California that is more friendly to persons with disabilities than many schools (this is about a blind student at COMP; they also employ a man with severe Tourette's Syndrome).

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/25/h...d-medical-students.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

http://www.westernu.edu/cdhp-resources-profiles-lawler

You should contact both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) to see if they have put out any recent guidance to their respective medical schools (AMA for allopathic/MD schools; AOA for osteopathic/DO schools). For a long time discrimination against applicants with disabilities was the norm (and upheld in court, I believe--I'm not an expert on this topic though), but I think that this is changing (thankfully).

Dr. Leonardo Noto
 
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