The 61 percent match rate for international students may understate the problem, some experts say, because it does not account for medical students who receive no interview offers. With those students included, the match rate for international medical students may drop as low as 50 percent.

Residency program directors said that in recent years they had increased their efforts to look at candidates holistically. Straight As in college and perfect test scores does not a perfect applicant make, said Dr. Susana Morales, an associate professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. Were interested in diversity of background, geographic diversity.

Some international medical students struggling to match have looked for alternative pathways into medical work. Arkansas and Missouri are among the states that offer assistant physician licenses for people who have completed their licensing exams but have not completed residency. Unmatched doctors, eager to use their clinical skills to help in the pandemic, said that they had found the opportunity to serve as assistant physicians particularly meaningful during the crisis.

After she failed a first attempt at a licensing exam, then passed on her second try, Dr. Faarina Khan, 30, found herself shut out of the matching process. Over the past five years, she has spent more than $30,000 in residency application fees. But with an assistant physician license, she was able to join the Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team in the spring, helping out in medical facilities where staff members had tested positive for coronavirus.

Hospitals need to realize that there are people in my position who could show up to work in the next hour if were called, Dr. Khan said. I didnt go to medical school to sit on the sidelines.

Legislation allowing for similar licensure is being considered in a handful of states. This position typically pays about $55,000 per year much less than a physician might earn which makes it challenging to pay off loans, but it allows for medical school graduates to keep up with their clinical training.

Dr. Cromblin, in Prattville, Ala., felt a similar urge to join the Covid-19 frontline in the spring. She had defaulted on a loan and had little in her bank account, but as soon as she received her stimulus check she bought a plane ticket to New York. She spent the month of April volunteering with the medical staff at Jamaica Medical Center in Queens.

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I Am Worth It: Why Thousands of Doctors in America Cant Get a Job - The New York Times

The Indiana University School of Medicine, an anchor on the IUPUI campus for decades, will move the bulk of its classrooms and operations into a new $245 million building on the expanded Methodist Hospital campus in 2024.

The IU Board of Trustees approved the new site, which is west of Senate Avenue and just south of the IU Neurosciences Research Building and the IU Health Neuroscience Center on 16th Street.

The move will take place in conjunction with IU Healths massive, downtown consolidation of its Methodist and University hospitals onto one campus, the university said Feb. 5.

IU Health unveiled the new campus plan last summer. It will expand the Methodist Hospital campus by eight blocks, or 44 acres.

Operations at Methodist Hospital and IU Health University Hospital, which is 1.5 miles southwest of the IUPUI campus, will be consolidated into the new $1.6 billion hospital when it opens in 2026. The future use of the two current hospitals is still under evaluation.

IU Health said combining operations of the two hospitals will eliminate costly duplication of medical services and help provide more accessible, cost-efficient care.

The oldest portion of Methodist Hospital dates to 1908, while University Hospital opened in 1970.

All along, the goal of the huge new urban campus has been to incorporate the medical school alongside the new hospital. IU has said for more than a year that it planned to move to the expanded campus, about two miles north of its current location. But details of its exact new location were sketchy until this month.

The move will uproot much of the medical schools traditional operations. All classroom instruction for medical students will go to the new campus, as will graduate training programs in the clinical sciences for residents and fellows, spokeswoman Katie Duffey said Monday in an email to IBJ.

Some administrative offices also will move to the new campus, but IU has not yet determined if the dean and associate deans will move, Duffey said.

Most research labs and related facilities associated with doctoral programs will stay put on the IUPUI campus or on other sites, she said.

Construction is planned to begin in 2022, and the medical school is aiming to take occupancy in late fall 2024.

IU said the new site for the medical school will provide flexibility and scale to accommodate medical education facilities as well as future research facilities. It is referring to the new campus as an academic health center.

This state-of-the-art facility, a critical part of the academic health center project, will transform how we prepare researchers and health care professionals to face the health challenges that lie ahead, said Jay Hess, dean of the medical school, in a written statement.

The new medical school will be about 350,000 square feet and include classrooms, teaching and research labs, offices, and related support space.

IU said it will request $75 million in state funding. The remainder of the $245 million project will be funded by the IU School of Medicine and private grants.

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IU medical school gears up for move to expanded Methodist Hospital campus - Indianapolis Business Journal

Stressing the humanity in medical humanities

UCI center offers compassionate perspectives on health and disease

by Jim Washburn

Suffer well may not be as inviting a salutation as Live long and prosper, but it was ideal for the title of a seminar series launched by the UCI Center for Medical Humanities in the fall of 2019. The idea around Suffer Well was to have speakers explore ways that suffering can become a portal to a more fulsome understanding of the human experience, says center director James Kyung-Jin Lee. To the extent that we can, we should alleviate suffering, but suffering can bring you a unique connectivity with other human beings. Albert Schweitzer, who himself suffered chronic illness even as he cared for other people, spoke of that as a brotherhood of those who bear the mark of pain.

Unfortunately, the series was truncated because of the pandemic. But, Lee notes, the surfeit of suffering caused by COVID-19 has brought a sense of immediacy to other topics the Center for Medical Humanities covers in its curriculum and research: How does a doctor find a positive, honest way to talk with a terminally ill patient about death? What can be learned from the journals of patients who have trod that one-way path? Do the racism and sexism of earlier medical practices echo through the pandemic response today?

Such dark tones are only part of the palette that the medical humanities bring to the study of illness, wellbeing and the states in between. Programs in medical humanities are not uncommon, but they generally exist within medical schools and are limited in scope. UCIs center, officially inaugurated in 2018 after gestating as an initiative for a few years bridges the School of Humanities, the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and the School of Medicine via a unique, interdisciplinary approach to health that encompasses research, curriculum development and community engagement. It has also offered undergraduate minor and graduate emphasis programs since 2016 and 2018, respectively.

Insofar as medicine is interested in the care of human bodies, Lee explains, the humanities and the arts also ask questions about bodies and embodiment but ask them in different ways that can shed new light on what stories our bodies tell.

Lee is an associate professor in UCIs Department of Asian American Studies. Hes also an Episcopal priest, which as much as anything spurred his passion for medical humanities. His pathway to priesthood included more than 400 hours of chaplaincy internship at a downtown Los Angeles hospital.

He recalls walking the halls of the oncology and surgery wards, talking with the patients, families and hospital workers. Im trained as a literary critic, but I was thoroughly ill-equipped to attend to the stories I witnessed there, Lee says. There was a whole other set of observational and analytical tools that I needed to develop in order to really be present for those very difficult stories that I had the privilege of hearing.

Lee became director of UCIs Center for Medical Humanities in 2019. He succeeded founding director and history professor Douglas Haynes, who along with family medicine professor Johanna Shapiro and the deans of the involved schools (Georges Van Den Abbeele and Tyrus Miller, humanities; Michael J. Stamos, medicine; and Stephen Barker, arts) were the prime movers in bringing the center into being.

While Haynes is now UCIs vice chancellor for equity, diversity & inclusion, his continuing work as a historian has included tracing the evolution and codification of the medical profession in the British Empire and the U.S.

He says the centers inception was a confluence of many things. Development of the proposal for it started around the time the Affordable Care Act was implemented, which elevated attention to healthcare in general and prompted people with research interests in health, healing and well-being to begin asking new questions.

We didnt know how large a community was forming here or how intersecting their interests were until we started having brainstorming sessions about the center, Haynes says. Its consequential when you get faculty who are very habituated to their own schools and professional disciplines to feel sufficiently open to the value of interdisciplinarity that theyre willing to step into this uncomfortable space that had never been done before.

The conditions for the center were there, he adds, but it made all the difference when Chancellor Howard Gillman, who was UCI provost at the time, launched an interschool excellence initiative. He created a very significant incentive to explore the possibilities, and thats what moved us forward, Haynes says.

The campus event announcing the center in 2018 included dramatic reenactments of scenes from Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. Since then, courses and research have varied widely, from how issues of health and medicine have been depicted on the theatrical stage from ancient Greece to the present day to how the nuclear age shaped impressions of health and medical care.

Sometimes the courses hold up an unflattering mirror to the history of medicine, in which the practices leading to medical developments were often no more advanced than the prejudices of their times. For example, Lee says, the foundations of obstetrics and gynecology in the 19th century emerged principally through the work of physician James Marion Sims, who performed experiments on enslaved women, obviously with no notion of consent. You have to wonder if history like that, Tuskegee and other events factors into the generalized skepticism toward vaccinations in Black communities today.

History professor Adria Imada, who teaches both undergraduate and graduate medical humanities courses, sometimes draws from her book An Archive of Skin, An Archive of Kin: Disability and Life-Making During Medical Incarceration, about the forced sequestration of persons with Hansens disease (leprosy) in Hawaii.

She also uses media and film in her classes, some taken from the arts, such as paintings, and others that might be framed as art, such as news footage from 1990 of people leaving their wheelchairs to crawl up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to demonstrate their lack of access. That may not have been on a theatrical stage, Imada says, but it was definitely a political stage, and it had profound outcomes in the fight for disability rights.

Insofar as medicine is interested in the care of human bodies, the humanities and the arts also ask questions about bodies and embodiment but ask them in different ways that can shed new light on what stories our bodies tell.

Many of the medical humanities students are looking toward careers in medicine. Dean Wong 19 pursued the medical humanities minor while majoring in psychology & social behavior. He says the course descriptions in the medical humanities syllabus were what made him choose UCI over other universities.

Wong now works at the UCI School of Medicine as a medical student coordinator, is one of the organizers of a Flying Samaritans medical clinic in Mexico and hopes to eventually earn a medical degree. He says his classes in medical humanities prepared him more than he had imagined.

Says Wong: Some of the memoirs that we read were very raw and made me realize that this is life for many people their struggles as patients dealing with the inequities of the healthcare system. It really made me want to become a voice for those people.

Originally published in UCI Magazine, Winter 2021

Images:Adria Imada teaches a Medical Humanities 1 course;UCI Center for Medical Humanities director James Kyung-Jin Lee; andFounding director and history professor Douglas Haynes. Photo credits: Steve Zylius / UCI

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Stressing the humanity in medical humanities - UCI News

PEORIA (HOI) - Two Peoria physicians collaborated with local libraries to shed light on a documentary titled 'Black Men in White Coats'.

The documentary highlights the systemic barriers preventing black men from becoming doctors and the consequences it could have on society.

Two students from the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria shared their thoughts on the documentary, and what they believe can be done to close the gap.

"This is a movement that can be life changing for the black community," Lukman Faniyi said.

According to the documentary 'Black Men in White Coats', only 2 percent of American doctors are black men, and fewer applied to medical school in 2014 than in 1978.

Medical student Lukman Faniyi says the black community has high rates of chronic diseases, and a movement like this could help increase the number of black doctors and eventually lead to change.

"Like every single department, I don't see people like me, that has to be a problem," Faniyi said.

Faniyi is an immigrant from Nigeria, he says there, he didn't have limitations, because everyone in his country was black, but in his programs now, it's rare to see other black men.

"You hear first black neurosurgeon, first black orthopedic surgeon, first black this first black that, I feel like that should be in the past. I'm surprised that's a thing," Faniyi said.

Faniyi believes we need to start by adjusting education, allowing different avenues for black youth. His colleague Charissa Carroll agrees.

"It's a very narrow narrative of what success can be like, we need to start widening that narrative, making it accessible to venture off into different paths," Carroll said.

Carroll says, we as people like to see someone who is like us, and we're more likely to take their advice when we can relate to them.

"Black men are probably a little more weary taking advice from people who aren't black men because they can't understand that struggle, they can't understand their daily living habits," Carroll said.

Faniyi and Carroll say the documentary was inspiring, and they hope to see a change in the future.

"It was eye opening, disheartening, sometimes a little discouraging, because you think you are moving forward and helping your community move forward, but there is a whole lot more work to do," Carroll said.

Both students say they want black youth to know it's important to have mentors along the way to guide you and push you to keep going.

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Area medical students respond to lack of black men in medical field - week.com

Just 10 years ago, Rowan University could describe itself as a well-regarded state university with a nationally ranked engineering program and a proud history as a teachers college.

Today, Rowan is a dramatically different institution: an R2 public research university and a model for strategic change. For two years running, Rowan has been recognized by The Chronicle of Higher Education as the nations fourth fastest-growing public research university.

Enrollment nearly doubled between 2008 and 2020, the result of a careful investment in research, while remaining focused on building high-quality undergraduate programs designed to meet the needs of a fast-changing world.

To get here, Rowan broke norms, operated like a business and maintained a laser focus on controlling costsfor both the University and its students.

Affordability is critical, said President Ali A. Houshmand, Ph.D. As a state institution, we have the obligation to provide access, affordability and a quality education to everybody.

Unique partnerships, creative thinking

Through unique partnerships with two community colleges, Rowan University forged new pathways toward a bachelors degree at a significant cost savings for students, without sacrificing quality.

In turn, Rowan shared its name and reputation with the independently operated colleges, now Rowan College of South Jersey and Rowan College of Burlington County.

Creative thinking also fueled a public-private partnership between investors, Rowan University and Glassboro, home to the Universitys main campus.

Out of 26 acres of mostly privately owned student rental properties came Rowan Boulevard, a mixed-use cityscape that rapidly met the Universitys need for modern student housing and academic space, while attracting new businesses and visitors to a revitalized downtown. Today, that bold investment and public-private partnership has raised local tax revenues for that space from approximately $200,000 a year to more than $4 millionall through private investment.

In 2012, New Jersey passed legislation to restructure its medical and health sciences educational system, designating Rowan as its second comprehensive public research university. That summer, Rowan opened Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, N.J., the states first new medical school in 35 years.

Dedicated to urban health care and community service, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University has been ranked among the top 10 most selective in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. In 2019, the school won the prestigious Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Engagement from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the accrediting body for U.S. medical schools.

In 2013, in accordance with state legislation, the University integrated the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, N.J. Rowan is now one of only three universities in the country offering both the M.D. and D.O. degrees, doing its part to address the looming physician shortage by producing more than 250 new physicians each year.

Nurturing research

Spurred to further innovate, Rowan expanded its research division, attracting fast-rising faculty interested in solving real-world problems through applied research. Ten of its researchers are recipients of the National Science Foundations CAREER Award, among the countrys most prestigious recognitions for early-career faculty.

The Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering continues to rank among the nations best engineering programs and is now 17th in its category, according to U.S. News & World Report. In just three years, nine projects from engineering faculty earned national funding from the NSF Innovation Corps program, designed to bring researchers ideas to the marketplace.

In 2018, Rowan received classification as a Carnegie R2 doctoral university with high research activity, a distinction shared with just 135 universities of 4,300 institutions of higher education. Its academic programs now include 90 bachelors, 48 masters, two professional and eight doctoral degree programs. More graduate programs are under development.

Throughout its growth, according to Georgetown Universitys Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, Rowan University never lost sight of its mission to prepare undergraduates for the workforce, particularly first-generation students.

By seeking new sources of revenue, affiliating with other colleges, and looking for ways to grow enrollment without taking on the added cost of building and maintaining more than it had to, Rowan was able to carefully manage the bottom line, the report concluded.

Undeterred by the onset of the pandemic, the University aggressively planned for the safety and well-being of the University and opened in fall 2020 with a hybrid learning model, as well as housing for 4,100 students who opted to live on campus. In the earliest days of the pandemic, faculty and student researchers raced to produce face masks and intubation shields for local health care providers in desperate need of personal protective equipment.

Continuing along that effort, the University recently pivoted on short notice to open a COVID-19 vaccination center staffed with student and faculty volunteers. About 2,400 front-line health care workers received their first dose during its first two weeks of operation.

Right where we want to be

In the Universitys recent accreditation review, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education gave Rowan glowing remarks in all areas, stating that Rowan is a model for institutional transformation. Unsatisfied with incremental growth and change, the institution continues to press forward, leapfrogging traditional thinking and innovating higher education.

While planning for the future, the University remains ever mindful of its roots: an institution founded to prepare its students for much-needed jobs. As a top 100 public research university, Rowan is an economic driver in its region, focused on practical research and creating new pathways to fit students of every backgroundso that every student can obtain a higher education degree and an opportunity for a better future.

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Fourth-fastest growing: Right where we want to be - Rowan Today

Students at Stanfords School of Medicine pulled off a University endorsed, socially distanced happy-hour event on Feb. 5 a model, students say, for how future student gatherings could take place on campus while still following safety guidelines.

As opposed to bending the rules, they worked directly with administrators to plan an in-person happy hour event that took place on Feb. 5. The event in total drew around 150 participants, split up into groups of no more than six students.

Omair Khan, a first-year medical school student and a social chair of his class, said careful planning, contact tracing and collaboration with the medical school administrators led to what he believes was a safe event.

Weve tried to think and come up with new innovative ways to make communities, he said.

The event stands in contrast to multiple recent campus gatherings that took place in violation of University and county health directives. This includes reports of ongoing rule-bending among GSB students and 100-person outdoor parties, and the University hit a new record for weekly student COVID-19 cases in January.

Such gatherings were cited in a controversial memo by Associated Students of Stanford University executives that recommended the University not open to juniors or seniors for spring quarter.

According to Khan, participants had to pre-register with a group of up to six other students prior to the event and indicate their preferences for drinks and snacks. Khan and his fellow social chair Andrew Berneshawi M.D. 24 then sent individual emails to each group confirming their members and preferences and determined staggered pickup times for food.

Khan said that they also had to coordinate which outdoor location each group went to after picking up their food to avoid groups being too close to each other and potentially merging into a larger group.

Its logistically been challenging because normally we just meet up at a field in a non-COVID era with a bunch of drinks and just kind of have a free-for-all, Khan said. It is a little more back-end work, but I think its worth it for the better so people dont screw this up by hosting a super spreader.

Medical school spokesperson Becky Bach confirmed that the event was allowed. She wrote in a statement to The Daily that small, outdoor, socially distanced, masked academic advising gatherings are permitted if individuals have completed a Health Check screening. Students are expected to stay in groups of 15 or fewer students and one student is assigned to track attendance.

Students who attended the event said that they thought it was a safe way to get to know their peers better and bond as a class, which they said was especially important given the recent passing of their classmate.

First-year medical student Brian Sweeney said the classmates death shook the entire med school pretty hard. He thinks that implementing safe in-person events helps provide community and an outlet to talk that students need.

Sweeney added that everyone at the event wore masks when they were not eating and tried to maintain distance. He also said that the vast majority of medical students have been vaccinated.

It doesnt give us any more leeway than the rest of the students here, he said, but it does give us kind of that added level of security.

Matt Grieshop, a second-year med student who also attended, agreed that the event was important for students wellness. He said that the gathering provided an opportunity for mentorship, referencing second-year students meeting with first-years to guide them through their studies.

He recalled hearing two first-year students tell each other its so nice to meet you in person while walking by another group. With sadness in his voice, he commented that it took until February for words like those to be said.

Contact Sam Catania at news at stanforddaily.com.

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School of Medicine students manage 150-person event with social distance can other parts of campus do the same? - The Stanford Daily

Two appointments have been announced that will strengthen the education mission at Columbia Universitys Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Monica L. Lypson, MD, MHPE, a national leader in medical education now at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., has been named vice dean for education. Jonathan (Yoni) Amiel, MD, who served as interim co-vice dean for education since January 2020, has been appointed to a new role as senior associate dean for innovation in health professions education at VP&S. The appointments were announced by Anil K. Rustgi, MD,interim executive vice president and dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine.

In making the announcement, Rustgi thanked Amiel and Lisa Mellman, MD, for their leadership as interim co-vice deans for education. Both are exceptional leaders, administrators, educators, mentors, and physicians whose commitment to VP&S and Columbia University is inspiring.

Mellman, the Rudin Professor of Psychiatry at CUMC, will continue her position as senior associate dean for student affairs.

In Amiels new role, he will convene stakeholders across VP&S, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and the university to envision the emerging new roles of health care leaders (and those outside of health care) and design the interdisciplinary training they will need to lead change; integrate faculty development for educators in the health professions in partnership with the Office of Faculty Professional Development, Diversity and Inclusion, the Provost's office, and our clinical partners; mentor faculty in educational innovation and scholarship; and represent Columbia in national organizations (including the AAMC), foundations, and government to help shape policy in health professions education.

This position will build on Columbias unique institutional resources in health care, business, law, journalism, and beyond to establish VP&S as a national leader in cutting-edge health professions education.

Amiel, associate professor of psychiatry and senior associate dean for curricular affairs, is a leader in the field of competency-based medical education and holds important leadership positions with the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. A graduate of Yale College and VP&S, he joined Columbias psychiatry faculty in 2011 after serving as chief resident in psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Lypson is professor of medicine, vice chair for faculty affairs, and director of the general internal medicine division at GW. At GW, she supports the academic careers of faculty members in the department by developing programming that helps each individual navigate professional development.

Before joining GW, Lypson coordinated a Department of Veterans Affairs education program as director of medical and dental education. Until she joined the VA, she was a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she also served as assistant dean for graduate medical education and interim associate dean of diversity and career development.

As vice dean for education at VP&S, Lypson will oversee all aspects of the MD program, including admissions, financial aid, student affairs, curricular affairs, and student research. She has pledged to help foster a diverse and inclusive learning environment and to work collaboratively across CUIMC to ensure that learners engage in interprofessional didactic and clinical educational activities that address societal needs and promote equitable, high-quality health care for all patients.

Lypson, a graduate of Brown University, received her MD degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and her master of health professions education degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is board-certified as a general internist who completed her training in the internal medicine-primary care residency program at Harvard Medical School and as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Chicago.

Her research interests include health professional trainee assessment, historical and contemporary trends in medical education, academic leadership, and the underrepresentation of minorities in academic medicine. Several of her invited presentations and papers have focused on clinical performance assessment of medical students and residents and on faculty development on issues of diversity and narrative assessment.

She has pursued multiple professional development programs, including the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program at Drexel University. She has been an Aspen Health Innovator at the Aspen Institute in Washington since 2018. She currently is president-elect of the Society of General Internal Medicine.

She is the new associate editor for the journal Academic Medicine and recently co-authored an article titled Learning From the Past and Working in the Present to Create an Antiracist Future for Academic Medicine.

Columbia and VP&S are fortunate to have identified a candidate of Dr. Lypsons caliber, enthusiasm, and vision to fill this important role of vice dean for education, says Rustgi, who appointed a search team led by Rita Charon, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Medical Humanities & Ethics at VP&S.Our medical school will only become stronger with Dr. Lypsons leadership.

I am honored to be appointed vice dean for education and look forward to applying my career-long work that focuses on the continuum of learning and workforce development for the diverse teams of the future, says Lypson.The vice dean must ensure that Columbia graduates are ready for the practice and science of medicine now and over the arc of their careers, and guarantee a diverse and inclusive learning environment across the continuum to assure equitable and quality health care for all patients.

My scholarship has been driven by my interactions with students and the educational environment and highlights discovery and health system science to articulate innovative strategies for learning. At Columbia, I will work collaboratively to ensure that learners across the Columbia University Irving Medical Center campus engage in inter-professional didactic and clinical educational activities, and that learning is addressing societal and patient needs.The Vagelos Education Center emphasizes simulation, arts, humanities, and inter-professional education and helps situate VP&S as a leader in cutting-edge health professions education.

Lypson will join Columbia June 1.

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Leadership Appointments Announced at Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons - Columbia University Irving Medical Center