Medicine, Culture to Culture

Tobias Else, M.D., from Hamburg, Germany, is a clinical resident in internal medicine/endocrinology. At the U-M since 2003, Else has pursued research in telomere physiology and its role in carcinogenesis, in the lab of Gary Hammer, M.D., Ph.D. Else was a Garry Betty Scholar from 2007 through 2008 — a program supporting international scientists who come to the U-M for training in adrenal cancer research.

“In Germany after you study medicine, you go directly into the specialty you want and basically start working the first day, learning from colleagues. There aren’t many opportunities to combine research and patient care as I do here. Things are changing, and Germany is more and more progressing to the American way.

“German medicine is absolutely divided. Either you’re a doctor in an inpatient facility, or you have your own practice and provide only outpatient care. It’s unfortunate … as an inpatient doctor, you see people when they come to the hospital, you take care of them, but you never see them again.

“At least until recent years, Germany had a very hierarchical, authority-driven medical system. I’m impressed here at Michigan — I’m still waiting for the mean attending.”

—Tobias Else

Interview by Rick Krupinski | Photo by J. Adrian Wylie