Some "outside" topics to be familiar with for interviews:

[bluesTank]

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So I was trying to make myself a list of topics to read up on and become familiar with for my interviews. Kind of current events, ethical questions that may come up. Anyone have any others? Anything from health care related issues, to specific diseases that may come up or something.

So far I have been researching:

-Health care systems in general
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States

http://cthealth.server101.com/the_case_for_universal_health_care_in_the_united_states.htm


-Stem cell research
http://www.neurosurgerytoday.org/what/patient_e/stem.asp

http://stemcells.nih.gov/staticresources/info/scireport/PDFs/Regenerative_Medicine_2006.pdf <-- good one

http://www.cbc-network.org/enewsletter/index_1_10_07.htm

http://www.tellmeaboutstemcells.org/index.php

-Cloning

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/house_to_vote_w.html

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml <-- Very nice

-Abortion

Difficult to find much for abortion that is informative about the topics themselves, instead of just propaganda containing aborted fetus pictures and super pro-life articles.

-Euthanasia

http://www.togopeacefully.com/DOCTOR.html

http://www.helium.com/tm/465436/against-suicide-doctor-assisted


Any other suggestions?

Thanks

EDIT: Added some websites if anyone was also partaking in this endevor

 

[ekb1701]

Medical malpractice insurance
Providing health services to illegal immigrants
Sex ed versus abstinence
Use of DDT to fight malaria in Africa

A couple of these are kinda out there, but it wouldn't hurt to know about it.

EDIT

High cost of prescription drugs

 

[Bacchus]

HMOs vs PPOs? I don't know the difference or if they're even different :-(. You might be asked about the pros and cons of each. I saw a question listed on another site about this topic.

 

[luckycharms08]

this is a really good list. I don't have anything to add right now, but I just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread 🙂

 

[Captain Fantastic]

The list my pre-med advisor gave me to go over...

• Why do you want to be a doctor?
• Why do you want to go to medical school? What factors have influenced your decision to enter medical school?
• How do your parents and friends feel about your career decision? How have they influenced you in this decision?
• Do you have family members who are doctors? What do they think of the field?
• When did you first decide to enter medical school?
• What qualities do you have that will make you a good doctor?
• What contribution to medicine can you make?
• What type of doctor would you like to be? Why?
• In what type of setting would you like to practice?
• What will you do if you don't get into medical school?
• Are you applying to other professional or graduate schools?
• What experience have you had in biomedical fields? Clinical? Research?
• Have you done hospital volunteer work? Have you gained anything from this experience?
• What is your main interest outside of medicine? Elaborate.
• How do you spend your leisure time?
• In what sports are you active?
• In what social activities do you participate?
• How did you choose your undergraduate college?
• How has your undergraduate experience helped to make you a better person?
• What courses have you particularly enjoyed? Why?
• What subjects are you now studying? Discuss.
• Discuss your summer work experience.
• What additional activities have you pursued during the summer?
• Where have you traveled? Discuss.
• Why did you take a particular course during the summer?
• Why did you drop, fail, or get a particular grade in a certain course?
• Explain discrepancies between grades and MCAT scores.
• How much do you study?
• Outline your study techniques.
• How will you pay for your medical education?
• How do you feel about living and working in the area of this school after graduation?
• How would your plans be affected if medicine is socialized?
• Do you think that college grades and MCAT scores are an accurate yardstick of your aptitude?
• What problems do you expect to arise during your medical training and practice? How will you handle these?
• Why did you apply to this school?
• Do you consider yourself a competitive applicant to this school?
• What do you think of this medical school?
• Explain your lowest MCAT score.
• Did you take an MCAT preparation course?
• Discuss your parents' occupations and backgrounds.
• Explain unique points about your application. Why, for example, did you switch your major? Why did you miss a year of school?
• Do you consider yourself a leader? Why?
• What would you do if you saw a fellow med student cheating on an exam?
• What are your thoughts on abortion? Euthanasia? Socialized Healthcare?
• How would you tell your patient that he has cancer?
• What do you think of affirmative action?
• Would you get out of your car on a highway to help an accident victim? Exactly what would you do?
• If an AIDS patient were bleeding profusely from a laceration, what would you do? What if you do not have gloves? What if you have an open sore on your hands?
• If you find that the professor with whom you have done research has changed some of the data before publication, what would you do?
• How far do you feel a doctor's responsibility to his or her patients goes?
• Would you be willing to be on call 24 hours a day?
• What effect will health care reform have on your decision to become a physician?
• What are the major issues facing the medical profession over the next 30 years?
• What will medicine be like in the 21st century?
• How do you feel about the medical malpractice crisis? How would you solve it?
• What do you think have been the major changes in the field of medicine over the past 20 years?
• If you were an insurance company and could spend several thousand dollars on either a heart transplant for a man or immunizations for one hundred children, which would you chose to do?
• Give an example of an ethical dilemma you faced and explain how you resolved it.
• Do you agree with the requirement that physicians perform a certain number of operations/procedures each year in order to stay certified?
• Have you heard of Dr. Kevorkian - what do you think about what he supports?
• Why is stem cell research a controversial topic?

 

[DickyV]

The list my pre-med advisor gave me to go over...

This is a great list.

I think that a lot of people spend too much time worrying about/preparing for questions on ethics, the uninsured, current research and whatnot. Applicants should remember that the interview is about THEM - not all the issues surrounding medicine today.

 

[Phoenix.]

Great list. Maybe also genetic testing issues (perhaps related to insurance re: genetic predispositions).

 

[Law2Doc]

The question I kept getting was (1) what is the biggest problem facing health care, and, if you were the Surgeon General, how would you address it?
Other common topics are (2) universal health care, (3) patient autonomy issues/rights, and (4) HIPAA related questions.

I personally never got any question on cloning, genetic testing, or stem cell research or euthanasia.

 

[Law2Doc]

This is a great list.

I think that a lot of people spend too much time worrying about/preparing for questions on ethics, the uninsured, current research and whatnot. Applicants should remember that the interview is about THEM - not all the issues surrounding medicine today.

Agreed, but the OP was asking about outside topics to know (in addition to the personal stuff).

 

[xcel]

I interviewed at 11 places last year and I can honestly say I didn't get a single question about that hard stuff (i.e. cloning, stem cell research, HMO's, euthanasia). I got pretty lucky because I didn't prepare at all! Hope you get as lucky as I did.

By the way, my hardest interview was the one school I was accepted to, while the easier ones were waitlists or rejections. Interpret that however you'd like to.

 

[bluesTank]

-Bump-

lots of people been about this, so maybe we could get a running list.

 

[Bartelby]

Thanks for pulling all this together! If nothing else it will be a confidence booster to know about these issues going into interviews.

 

[directdoc]

You need to know not only what's going on in the medicine world, but also the world in general. I got asked questions about world poverty, the war in Iraq, and the first nuclear bomb war. Many times there will be moral/ethical questions such as abortion, religion, etc. I don't know if they are allowed to ask those questions, but they do anyways. Don't make such a big deal about that because there is no right or wrong answer, it is just how you defend your answer. So, yes, educate yourself about stem cell and all that, but don't forget that they want an overall well-rounded person. Have the personality, don't be Miss/Mr. Geek 2007...be able to describe things you ENJOY doing (and doesn't say volunteering is one of them...they'll smell the BS a mile away). Enjoy yourself. I would be lying if I said it wasn't nerve-racking interviewing with the Assistant Dean of Admissions, but when you look back on it, you'll realize it wasn't so bad.