Being a Doctor in Germany, Nephrology models and der Winterzoo!!!

This Wednesday, in Hannover, we had the opportunity to visit the MHH... I forgot what the letters stand for, in essence it was the Medical Center for Hannover. We met Dr. J Kierstein and he gave us an intersting lecture on the Greman Medical System. In my humble opinion, and I may have misunderstood, I think he talked a bit bad about the system. He described that when Otto von Bismark came to power he instituted reforms of the entire healthcare system. He established a pension fund and universal healthcare insurance. This was the good part of the talkbecause we learned that this system covers everyone and the employer and employee split the cost half and half. In addition should you be unenployed the coverage does not end. Sounds pretty good, no?

Now the bad part: Cost. Every German citizen must pay almost 16% of their income into this "money pool." Doctors treat patients for "free" but they only have an allotted amount of money per patient. If they go over, THEY pay! The patient never sees a bill! This, he said, tends to make the patient want to have everything done! and puts the doctor in a hard financial spot.
Dr. Kierstein opines (got that one from Blood and Guts) that private insurance, which only richer Germans can afford is better because the patient gets billed and the insurance pays. This leads to a more conservative patient. Private insurance patients make the bulk of revenue for physicians who tend to be "nicer" to them than their socially insured counterparts. So in essence the system has more flaws than goods, but it is the way it is in Germany and they have great, free medical care.

He then took us on a tour of the dialysis unit where we learned about the new portable UV dialysis machines. We also saw a dialysis fistula on a patient that agreed to let us come in and feel it. He then left us in the hands of a colleague of his whose name I could not get (sorry).
We had a brief lecture on the new developments in nephrology and experiments on animal models to discover causes of diseases. Kidney diseases are focal, I learned something new. We then took a very brief tour of the labs.

The most fun part of our day was the visit to the zoo! The Hannover Zoo is designed as a theme park. Themed as the African jungle and savanna. Of course it was very snowy and icy, so most of the animals were inside. The head veterinarian took us behind the scenes to see the Hippos (Steffi's favorite animals). Hippos are the most dangerous animals in the African savanna. They can reach speeds of 30kmh (~13mph) and they are very territorial, so they will attack (and outrun) any human. We then visited the rhinoceros. Some brave souls got to feed a very docile female a few bananas. I think it was super awesome that we had the chance to do that! He then took us to the ape exhibit. We saw a crazy (and big) chimp that was very noisy and aggressive, but we also got to see an impressive male silverback gorilla. To end the day perfectly we went to "winter wonderland" where we all sled, or tubed, down some toboggans and some of us skated on and ice rink. This day in Hannover will be unforgettable.