[MGSA-L] Trends in medical education: Innovative synergies vs inertia and obstructionism

[Christos D. Katsetos]

St. George's University of London and the University of Nicosia have recently 
launched an innovative international medical degree program with the 
collaboration of highly reputable teaching hospitals in the UK and Israel.
http://www.nicosia.sgul.ac.cy/
http://www.nicosia.sgul.ac.cy/res/pictures/sgul-unic.pdf

The main teaching hospital for the St. George’s, University of London program at 

the University of Nicosia is Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, a 
university-affiliated tertiary referral hospital that serves as Israel's 
national medical institution in many clinical specialty disciplines. 
http://www.nicosia.sgul.ac.cy/clinical-placements.html http://eng.sheba.co.il/

An antithesis to this innovative concept is the outdated and protectionist 
university system in Greece. Medical education is no exception and the problem 
is compounded by a chronically ailing National Health Service.  

Recent  attempts aimed at reform were met --among other things-- by an 
entrenchedculture of student  obstructionism as articulated in the recent 
op-ed by Professor Achille Gravanis at the University of Crete Medical School.
http://www.patris.gr/articles/197452

Ascribing the students' grievances and crusade solely to the country's 
unbearable financial debacle nowadays is an oversimplification. This culture of 
loyalties subsumed within a partisan political system goes back to the hay days 
of Greek euphoria and irrational exuberance during the "prosperous" 1980s. 
And yet, there is another side to the argument and indeed one cannot turn a deaf 
ear 
to the frustration and despair of the new generation of Greek students with 
shuttered dreams...  

http://www.patris.gr/articles/197624?PHPSESSID=65fincbt8od9ji5qs1vkdte6j1
http://www.patris.gr/articles/197624/130296

Christos D. Katsetos, MD, PhD,  FRCPath
http://www.drexelmed.edu/Home/AboutOurFaculty/ChristosKatsetos.aspx
http://www.stchristophershospital.com/find-a-physician/120