Yearbook 01


Claudia Kaiser
Home Institution Herz- und Diabeteszentrum NRW, Universitätsklinikum der Universität Bochum Host Institution University of Illinois at Chicago, Institute of Government and Public Affairs Mentor: Robert Rich, Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign Clinical Rotations 1) Internal medicine, clinical epidemiology 2) Neurology 3) Surgery E-Mail claudiakaiser@web.de
Research Topic see Abstract
Personal Reactions to the U.S. Experience After always avoiding the States, due to proved and unproved prejudices, I was extremely impressed and really delighted by my experiences during my rotations in the hospital and doing research at the university. Since I am very fond of Europe, I mainly applied to the program for the opportunity to explore clinical epidemiology, still a fairly unexplored field for medical students within continental Europe and certainly for me! However, I discovered a new and interesting world. I must admit that the hospital rotations are as pleasant as the research experience was. During the first months in Internal Medicine, I learned a lot of helpful skills and met interesting people. The manner in which the medical students are treated, the responsibility they are given, and the excellent teaching provided by the faculty in the hospital convinced me to extend my stay for an additional four months.
Greatest Difficulties Encountered Due to a combination of being located at the IGPA office in Chicago and having my supervisor in Urbana-Champaign, I experienced difficulties receiving the IAP-66 in time to apply for my visa. However, everything was solved, three days prior to my scheduled flight.
Helpful Hints for Future Students 1) Try to get funding in US dollars. It is not pleasant to be confronted with a DM/Euro income with the expenses you have to face in the U.S. 2) If you plan a clinical rotation, make sure the medical school knows about your arrival, especially for "PJ" purposes. 3) If you are not familiar with the medical abbreviations, try to get a book to memorize them in advance. It makes life a lot easier.
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Abstract on Research Topic:
The Comparison and Analysis of Health Care Reform Approaches

Authors:
C. Kaiser, R. Rich

Institutions at which research was done:
Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign and University Hospital Medical Center, UIC, and VA Hospital - Westside, both in Chicago, Illinois.

Outline of the project:
Due to several reasons, I was not involved here in the States in molecular biology, a subject with which I am relatively familiar and which is the subject of my Ph.D. thesis in Germany. I am more familiar with it, at least, than with clinical epidemiology. However, I was given the opportunity to experience a completely new field.
The German health care system has always been a major issue. Germans grow up with the knowledge that they have one of the most highly developed health care systems in the world. While a lot of people still believe in the value of our system, there are undeniable hard facts that contradict this opinion. Germany ranks second worldwide in health care expenditures, about $2339 per person. However, the conclusion, "the more spent, the better the system" is, unfortunately, not true. There is only one country spending more on health care than Germany and that is the United States. The United States has 40 million uninsured patients. Even patients with heath insurance often experience a lack of accessibility to quality health care. However, both countries are confronted with a serious lack of efficiency and must find new approaches to provide health care for the people.
From an economic perspective, the pure cost problem is easy to solve, but as we all know, healthcare is more than economy. All over the world people try to solve the problem by combining high-tech medicine with a reasonable cost of insurance. Even if most people would proclaim that the two countries and their health care systems are not comparable, we must face the fact that Germany and the United States can learn from each other.
In my project in the States, I tried to familiarize myself with and evaluate the American idea of health care and health care reform, and to compared it to the German system. Combined with this approach, I looked at the planned reforms in Germany from an out-of-country perspective.

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