Meet the Recipients

November 28, 2006
The Lucidicus Project is proud to award its fifteenth MISDK today to Patrick F., an undergraduate student at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Patrick is in his junior year and to date has a nearly perfect grade point average as a biochemistry major with a minor in zoology. Upon graduating, he plans to attend medical school, possibly in Iowa as well. Patrick is very interested in the moral and economic aspects of modern medicine and has expressed a keen respect for the goals of The Lucidicus Project.

November 19, 2006
The Lucidicus Project is proud to award its fourteenth MISDK today to David R., a first-year medical student at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in East Lansing, Michigan. David spent his undergraduate education studying chemistry, although he has always been interested in resolving the alleged ethical dilemmas posed by the business aspect of medicine. Coming from a liberal arts college, he has had exposure to various ideologies, of which he has found Ayn Rand's the most intriguing. With the very real possibility of socialized medicine in the United States, David finds that he increasingly needs a principled defense for himself as a physician. He hopes the materials in the kit will help him decide—and perhaps someday advocate for—how medicine ought to be practiced.

October 17, 2006
The Lucidicus Project is proud to award its thirteenth MISDK today to Matthew E., a MS-III at St. Christopher's Iba Mar Diop College of Medicine, located in Luton, England. Matt is from New York and studied biology and chemistry as an undergraduate. He also has done graduate work in biology, psychology, and business. Matt believes that ethics and economics are an important part of understanding medicine, and that these topics do not receive enough attention by the general public or the medical community. He has even less confidence in the government's ability to understand them. He is looking forward to reading the materials in the kit.

October 13, 2006
The Lucidicus Project awarded its twelfth MISDK today to a first-year student at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, in Baltimore, Maryland who would prefer to remain anonymous. This student has been following the issues facing the United States healthcare system and is concerned that the current system is not working, but has not yet determined what a better system would entail. This student is looking forward to learning about the economic and philosophic aspects of healthcare in order to make an informed decision about how to practice personally and how to shape the system as a whole.

October 6, 2006
The Lucidicus Project awarded its eleventh MISDK today to Kelli W., a first-year student in optometry at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Lately the college has been having seminars on the structures of various healthcare systems, which has inspired debate between students on the balance between economics and the delivery of care, including the alleged "conflict of interest" facing providers. Kelli is looking forward to learning about how the rational egoist perspective answers these questions and others.

October 3, 2006
The Lucidicus Project awarded its tenth MISDK today to Cheryl L., a first-year medical student at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport (LSUHSC-S). Cheryl is familiar with the fictional work of Ayn Rand, but has not yet studied how the ideas of rational egoism and the free market can be applied to the field of medicine. She is concerned about the future of healthcare in the United States, especially in light of the nation's move toward socialized medicine. She also hopes to gain from the MISDK some insight around the idea that there is more to healthcare than sacrifice and service.

September 28, 2006
The Lucidicus Project awarded its ninth MISDK today to Laura M., a first-year medical student at Emory University. Laura has had a long interest in medicine, and in recent years has started to read philosophy. Upon entering medical school, she found that many professors are vocal in their support of socialized medicine, and that all of the student organizations on campus subscribe to the notion of a "right to free healthcare." Laura is looking forward to learning about how rights can be defended against such views.

September 26, 2006
The Lucidicus Project awarded its eighth MISDK today to Vivek J., a fourth-year medical student at the VCU School of Medicine at the Medical College of Virginia. Vivek is particularly interested in a career in medical education. He learned of The Lucidicus Project from a friend who studies Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

September 25, 2006
The Lucidicus Project presented its seventh MISDK today to Bhavik P., a pre-med junior studying at Rutgers University. Bhavik recently became aware of how intertwined ethics is to medicine after taking a course in the subject as a sophomore. Now that he understands the topics in ethics better, he would like to learn more about how capitalism addresses these issues in medicine.

September 22, 2006
The Lucidicus Project awarded its sixth MISDK today to Conor S., a third-year medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University. For a long time, Conor has believed that a government run, national health plan was the only solution. However, as of late, he has become skeptical of nationalized healthcare and interested in learning about other models that may make more sense.

September 19, 2006
MISDK No. 5 was presented to Thom R. today by The Lucidicus Project. Thom is a medical student from Kentucky who became interested in medicine at an early age for both the scientific aspect and the chance to help other people. Upon entering medical school, he discovered the near-chaos of competing interests of business, government regulators, and activists whose goal is to socialize medicine. Thom is a proponent of the trader principle (the concept of coexisting with other people by trading value for value), and is interested in learning more about the case for capitalism from the books and materials in the kit.

July 11, 2006
MISDK No. 4 was awarded to Julio B. today by The Lucidicus Project. Julio is a medical student in Brazil who fell in love with medicine at an early age. Last year, he placed extremely highly in the entrance exam, only to find out that the medical education system into which earned entry was quietly under reform. (In order to educate a cadre of young doctors for the Brazilian universal public health system, medical schools have been gradually transformed "to train students in conformity to this new system of healthcare.") Julio is very interested in learning about both the moral and economic case for capitalism. Someday, he would like to practice medicine in the United States.

January 30, 2006
MISDK No. 3 was awarded to Mark K. today by The Lucidicus Project. Mark is a Canadian citizen studying medicine in his first year of a six-year MD program in Poland, where he is also active in the student council and student parliament. Mark says that, in some ways, he is proud of the socialized medical system of his native Canada, but at the same time he has his doubts. He is open to learning about the philosophic and economic principles of capitalism, and especially eager to consider the moral case for capitalism as presented in Atlas Shrugged.

January 10, 2006
MISDK No. 2 was awarded to Mickey B. today by The Lucidicus Project. Mickey is a second-year medical student. Prior to enrolling in medical school, he earned a bachelor's degree in finance, a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), and he spent some time working in industry. His business background, he says, has helped him to understand some of the business issues in healthcare. It has also alerted him to the dangers of healthcare controlled by the government.