Working in medicine – Leyla Yologlu has long dreamed of this career. The 26-year-old, whose family immigrated from Turkey to Germany before she was born, came into contact with medical issues and problems from an early age. “Because of the language barrier, I often went to the doctor’s appointments,” says Yologlu. In her environment, she met and intensively supported many people with chronic illnesses. “That had a big impact on me from the beginning,” she says.
Yologlu is in her sixth semester of studying medicine at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. She is a recipient of a 4,000-euro scholarship from the “Medical Excellence” program, which financial services provider MLP supports students in human, dental and veterinary medicine. In addition, three special scholarships will be awarded in the areas of “family medicine”, “neurosciences” and “pediatric hematology/oncology”.
After graduating from high school, Yologlu completed training as a surgical assistant from 2018 to 2021 at the Augusta Clinics in Bochum and the adjoining Augusta Academy. “Even during my training, I had the feeling that I had arrived,” he says. “I felt very comfortable in the clinical environment and quickly became fascinated by surgery and anatomy.”
After training comes studying
However, during his training he realized that he would not be able to work as an assistant in the long term. “I wanted more and I wanted to be more involved in solving problems with what I was doing.”
He started studying medicine in Düsseldorf in the winter semester of 2021/22. This is a model course: the semesters are divided into blocks, which creates a connection between the preclinical and clinical parts at an early stage. “This makes the study much more practical; you come into contact with diseases very early on,” says Yologlu.
The first state exam is scheduled for September, which in the Düsseldorf model course only takes place in the third rather than the second year of study. After completing his studies and gaining relevant clinical and specialist experience, Yologlu can easily imagine himself working in family medicine as a specialist in general medicine or internal medicine. “Home medical care is extremely important, it is of primary importance and therefore of central importance.”
Founding a health education start-up
In addition to her labor-intensive studies, Yologlu is currently in the process of founding her own health education startup. “In the clinic and in daily practice, resources are scarce, time pressures and staff shortages mean that detailed discussions often cannot take place,” she says. The problem is that for many patients, questions only arise after the doctor’s appointment where they received their diagnosis. “It is often difficult to schedule a follow-up appointment quickly;
The goal of the start-up, called ManageMed, is to capture and support these patients, including from an emotional point of view. “We want to create an interface between medical care and pastoral care, which is particularly important for chronic diseases,” says Yologlu. The offer also aims to respond to the growing overload of doctors’ surgeries, emergency rooms and psychotherapy practices. “In this context, I think it is very important to find solutions to give patients a point of contact for the most important of all issues: their own health.”
Parallel study of economics
She admits that it is difficult to establish a foothold in the healthcare industry with a project like this. “My vision is that one day we will get to the point where doctors will recommend us and health insurers will pay for these services,” she says.
In view of her initial project, the medical student, who receives funding from the German National Academic Foundation, intends to start a parallel study of economics at Hagen Open University from the winter semester 2024/25.
With the 4,000 euros he receives from the MLP “Medical Excellence” scholarship, Yologlu wants to fulfill a long-held dream: a stay abroad in an English-speaking country. It has not yet been decided whether he will use this stay for an internship, traineeship or research work. Yologlu has not yet started concrete planning – now the state exam is coming up.