Document Detail


For-profit undergraduate medical education: back to the future?
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20107369     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
One hundred years ago, Abraham Flexner wrote a report that profoundly influenced U.S. medical education. His conclusion-that medical degree (MD)-granting education programs should occur in not-for-profit universities and include hands-on laboratory and patient care experiences in teaching hospitals and clinics-led to the creation of the current model of U.S. MD education. Although this model has served the United States well, it is lengthy and costly. As the United States struggles to deal with a growing shortage of physicians, other models of medical education, including osteopathic medicine and offshore, MD-granting schools, have increased production of graduates. New private colleges of osteopathic medicine, including one accredited proprietary school, are nimble, cost-effective competitors for MD-granting schools. Do these schools portend the establishment of a U.S. for-profit medical education sector in the same way that proprietary universities have become well established in higher education? How should MD medicine respond? Can and should MD educators shorten the time needed to produce a fully trained MD-holding physician? How can MD educators make the training process shorter and less expensive to respond to the nation's physician shortage while maintaining the appeal of MD careers and without compromising educational quality? Models of shorter, less expensive pathways to earning an MD exist and have proven effective. Now is the time for MD educators to debate whether they should apply these pathways more widely. Six recommendations could help realize the goals of shortening and making less costly the training of MD physicians in the United States.
Authors:
T Samuel Shomaker
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges     Volume:  85     ISSN:  1938-808X     ISO Abbreviation:  Acad Med     Publication Date:  2010 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-01-28     Completed Date:  2010-02-23     Revised Date:  2010-04-05    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8904605     Medline TA:  Acad Med     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  363-9     Citation Subset:  AIM; IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Anesthesiology, University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Galveston, Texas, USA. sshomaker@seton.org
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Commodification*
Competency-Based Education
Education, Medical / economics*
Humans
Physicians / supply & distribution
Schools, Medical / economics*
United States
Comments/Corrections
Erratum In:
Acad Med. 2010 Apr;85(4):701

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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