Comments on: Miriam Longmore: Iran puts MTAS in its place

By: ibn Sina

ibn Sina — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:46:01 +0000

just a comment on Maya's remarks

most American junior residents DO have to provide significant clinical services – I have worked in both systems UK/USA(Chicago) and US residents see more patients, work longer hours, hardly get any weekends off and NO ONE ever goes off on sick leave!!!

Surgical interns work the hardest but no one complains

By: Andrew Rogers

Andrew Rogers — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:10:50 +0000

What a ridiculous article. Just because a one country (in this case, effectively a democratic dictatorship) happens to have an unfair application system doesn’t mean we should have to accept a slightly-less-unfair system. Academic standing IS important, and frankly, a national ranking exam does seem like a more sensible way of comparing the relative academic abilities of applicants than the current quartile ranking strategy. Combine this with a system where non-academic clinical attributes are also taken into account, then I believe we’d starting to approach a fairer and more balanced system.

By: maya

maya — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:22:33 +0000

What is the big deal about Iran?? India has been having these common entrance exam for over 15-20 years- where after internship one is expected to sit a common entrance exam and put your choices down for you sepciality. Your score, caste, income and lot of other issues come in to the mix before you are given your “residency choice”.
And what about USMLE? Every US doctor and FMG goes through the process of those steps and apply for specialties.
MTAS is still in its infancy and is still teething.
Where as NHS depends quite a lot on the training doctors to provide services to people even sometimes at the cost of training, other countries don’t. But the health isn’t anything to compare with the NHS either. There are positives and negatives on all sides.
MTAS needs to be a little more honest in its approach instead of “appearing” to be equal and fair to all- when it clearly isn’t.

By: Nata

Nata — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:31:07 +0000

I was wondering whether this article has any political agenda behind it. In any case, the comparison between the two systems is not relevant. You cannot compare a bad situation (for UK students) with a worse situation (for iranian students) if you want to have a constructive attitude to make changes for the better in UK. You should always look up for finding solutions and not down.