Max Kade Clinical Clerkships
Since 1996, The American Austrian Foundation and the Max Kade Foundation have been awarding 4th-year American and Austrian medical students from our partner medical schools one month clinical clerkships in Austria or the United States. The program aims to supplement the students’ education and broaden their experience by exposing them to a foreign culture and health care system.
In spring 2009, The American Austrian Foundation invited 30 American students to Austria from Weill Cornell Medical College, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine, John Hopkins School of Medicine, University of Toledo College of Medicine, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. From February through May, these students completed one-month rotations at the General Hospital in Vienna.
In the first week of their stay students are introduced to the Austrian Health Care System with a presentation by Univ. Prof. Dr. Manfred Maier, Chairman of the Department of Public Health at the University of Vienna. Students also receive a guided tour of the Josephinum (Museum of the History of Medicine in Vienna). In addition to the daily rotation in the hospital the clerkship offers a broad social event program, such as a visit to a typical Viennese “Heuriger”. Students also attend a weekly German class, which gives them the opportunity to learn and use a new language.
Each week students meet with AAF Observers (physicians practicing in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the former Soviet Union who are invited by The American Austrian Foundation to attend a month-long Observership) at the AAF’s Fellows' Dinner. This gives the students the opportunity to learn about health care not only in Austria, but also in countries in transition. Max Kade students also get the chance to get to know Vienna, one of the leading industrial and commercial locations in Europe.
In fall 2009 and for the upcoming year 2010, The American Austrian Foundation has awarded 10 Max Kade Clinical Clerkships at our partner universities to Austrian medical students from the Medical University of Vienna, Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg and the Medical University of Innsbruck. This exchange program should help students broaden their ways of thinking and gain the ability to organize themselves in a more unstructured environment to what they might be used to in Austria.