A career dedicated to helping women
Medicine, research and feminism – just three of Rahel Schmidt’s many interests. Her career goals are to work as a doctor and conduct research on women’s diseases that, while common, are still often stigmatised. For her outstanding achievements, the medical student has been awarded a Werner Siemens Foundation Excellence Scholarship.
Rahel Schmidt makes a very relaxed impression. At noon, she completed her last exam for her master’s degree and now, just a few hours later, she’s cycling to the LAC cultural centre in Lugano. Not, however, to celebrate with her fellow students – she’s here to have her photograph taken. “It’s no problem,” the twenty-four-year-old future doctor says. “I’ll just be a little late.” Besides, she’s looking forward to the session with the photographer. “I’ve been meaning to send my mother a new photo for a while now,” she says, laughing. Open-minded, curious and deeply interested in the world around her – these are the traits that have brought Rahel Schmidt so far in her young life.
As a child in Therwil, in the Canton of Basel Landschaft, her dream was to be a vet. Then, for her school-leaving project, she decided to examine antibiotic resistance using archival data from a medical lab. It was there she discovered her fascination for the laboratory and the world of research. She was later invited to present her findings during the morning report at a hospital – and to spend a few days shadowing the infectious disease specialist on duty. “I saw first-hand what research findings mean for patients. And that piqued my interest even more,” Schmidt says.
Synthesising molecules, researching viruses
After earning her school-leaving certificate, she interned at the physical chemistry department of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Aargau, where she learned how to use the spectrometer, synthesise molecules, plan experiments and interpret findings. “That, too, was really interesting,” she says. By then, however, she had already lost her heart to the field of medicine: while working as a volunteer in a rudimentary clinic for mothers and children in Zimbabwe she made a life-changing experience. “One night when the midwife and I were on duty, two babies were born at the same time,” she says. Finding herself responsible for one of the newborns, she cleaned the baby, conducted an initial health check and returned it to the mother as soon as possible. “That’s when I knew I was going to be a doctor.”
For her bachelor's degree in medicine, Schmidt enrolled at ETH Zurich, partly because the programme there focuses on foundational subjects in the natural sciences; for her master’s degree, she decided to go to Lugano. The move to southern Switzerland was a little hasty, as she recounts with a smile. Originally, she had wanted to improve her Italian skills before beginning her studies. But then the pandemic broke out and she was given the opportunity to write her master's thesis on the coronavirus in Bellinzona, at the Istituto di Ricerca in Biomedicina. “I had to start immediately – it made for some very long days,” she says.
In the meantime, her Italian has improved so much that she’s able to communicate with patients, doctors and her fellow students with no problems. “Studying in Lugano is amazing,” she says, pointing to the lake and the mountain panorama with Monte Boglia, Monte Brè and the San Salvatore. She also thinks the (fairly new) medical school is outstanding. Only forty-eight students are enrolled in her class – most from German-speaking Switzerland. “We have a student-to-instructor ratio that other universities can only dream of.”
A wealth of ideas and plans
Rahel Schmidt has received a Werner Siemens Fellowship from the Swiss Study Foundation, which is responsible for awarding the annual scholarship to ten outstanding students in STEM subjects, medicine and pharmaceutical sciences. The scholarships are excellence grants that enable talented and ambitious students to focus on their studies and develop their interests. Schmidt is grateful for the support: she appreciates the opportunity to get to know interesting new people and topics, but also points out that the tuition fees in Lugano are high. “Thanks to the scholarship, I can pursue all my volunteer projects without having to worry about money.”
And they are numerous. During the first wave of the pandemic, Schmidt and her partner launched the “Students4Hospitals” project. Working with a large team, they placed more than one hundred students in healthcare institutions that were short of staff. Also during the pandemic, she and “Reatch” – a think tank established by young scientists in Switzerland – organised a panel to discuss vaccinations; various projects for Reatch continue to keep her busy. She also served as public relations officer at this year’s FemTechnology Summit, a meeting for start-up leaders, doctors and researchers committed to promoting women’s health and well-being.
This is where Rahel Schmidt’s main interests – medicine, research, feminism – intersect. She’s particularly interested in the field of gender medicine, which explores and treats diseases and disorders that present differently in men and women. Schmidt gives the example of heart attacks: whereas men generally first feel a tightening sensation in the chest that often spreads to their arms, the only symptom in a woman may be nausea.
A clear vision
Because men have traditionally dominated medicine – and still do, to a degree – many women’s diseases have received little attention. This is true of endometriosis, which causes severe abdominal pain in some women during menstruation. “About ten percent of all women suffer from endometriosis,” Schmidt says. Nevertheless, not much is known about the condition. “That has a lot to do with our social norms.” By investigating these kinds of stigmatised diseases, Schmidt sees a way to unite medical practice and research in her career.
Next year she plans to complete her MD thesis and take the state board examination in Lugano, and in December 2023, her training as a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology at the cantonal hospital in Zug will begin. “It won’t leave me much time to do research,” she says. Afterwards, however, she can imagine writing a PhD thesis. She’s already begun discussing her plans with a professor at Inselspital Bern and the director of studies of the medical school at ETH Zurich.
At the cultural centre in Lugano, the photographer has finished taking pictures, the journalist has asked his questions, and Rahel Schmidt points to the other side of the bay where, she says, her fellow students are already celebrating in Parco Ciani. Most people would probably feel a little impatient knowing that the party was going on without them. But not Rahel Schmidt, who is tranquillity personified. She calmly takes her bike, hops on and cycles away.
For more information, see:
> Immunisation in times of the pandemic (in German)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlJHF7EmgVQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chF5via2mhM
