San Francisco Business Times

Why Kaiser added tech execs to its med school board San Francisco Business Times The roster includes Kaiser medical executives and Silicon Valley technology leaders, including Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe, and Mary Hentges, former chief financial officer of PayPal and CBS Interactive. Dr. Holly J. Humphrey, dean for medical ...

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Why Kaiser added tech execs to its med school board - San Francisco Business Times

At the table (sitting from left to right) UMSL Pre-Professional Advisor and Program Coordinator Joseph Sutherland, UMHS President Warren Ross and UMSL Associate Teaching Professor of biology Marc Spingola sign the articulation agreement between UMSL and UMHS in St. Kitts. There to witness the signing was (standing from left to right) Dr. Thomas Last, Earl Mainer, Dr. Edwin Purcell and Michelle Peres, all of UMHS. (Photos courtesy of Scott Harrah)

University of MissouriSt. Louis students wishing to pursue medical school can look forward to the benefits of a freshly signed articulation agreement between UMSL and the University of Medicine and Health Science in St. Kitts.

The agreement creates a direct recruitment pipeline from UMSL to UMHS, offering qualified students a simplified admission process to the Caribbean medical school. Instead of multiple interviews, qualified UMSL students can do a single interview via Skype.

Applying to medical school can be incredibly expensive, and for the students that meet the requirements but would otherwise be considered non-competitive for mainland schools, this is a very good way to take the stress out of the admissions process, UMSL Pre-Professional Advisor & Program Coordinator Joseph Southerland told The UMHS Endeavour news publication.

The agreement, signed this month, creates a direct recruitment pipeline from UMSL to UMHS, offering qualified students a simplified admission process to the Caribbean medical school.

Southerland and Marc Spingola, an associate teaching professor of biology at UMSL, visited St. Kitts to negotiate and sign the agreement this month.

Interested students must meet a number of requirements to apply for admission, some of which include maintaining a high GPA, taking traditional pre-requisite science and math courses and passing the Medical College Admissions Test. For a full list of requirements click here.

While students complete coursework on the UMHS campus in St. Kitts, stateside clerkships are open to them.

There arent any clerkships in Missouri yet, Southerland said, but there are several in the Midwest, so after their time on the island, they wouldnt be as far from home during their rotations.

On top of the clerkship options, UMSL students considering UMHS will also have access to a modern medical facility.

You can judge a lot about a medical school by the quality of their anatomy lab, and UMHS has a gem, Southerland said. [UMHS President] Warren Rosss commitment to providing his students with up-to-date technology and resources was apparent in all the rooms that we visited. In short, everything they need to be successful is offered on the campus.

UMHS is built on the tradition of the best U.S. universities and focuses on individualized student attention, small class sizes and recruiting high-quality faculty. Its considered a top choice among Caribbean medical schools.

For more information contact Joe Southerland at 314-516-6260 or SoutherlandJ@umsl.edu.

Short URL: https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/?p=69580

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Interested in med school? UMSL signs articulation agreement with UMHS in St. Kitts - UMSL Daily (blog)

While women have made up almost half of graduating medical students since 2004, they represent just 35% of active physicians. Female physicians make 76 cents and female scientists make 90 cents for every dollar earned by men, even after adjusting for age, years of experience, and specialty. Fewer than 20% of medical school deans and department chairs are women.

These and other systemic disparities have prompted the AAMC to launch a bold new initiative on gender equity, calling on medical schools, teaching hospitals, and academic societies to step up their efforts to identify and address the discriminatory practices that have led to stark gender differences in pay, promotion, and representation among specialties, among other areas.

For too long, gender inequities have persisted in our communities, limiting the contributions and the promise of many of our colleagues and learners.

David Skorton, MD, AAMC president and CEO

This week, the AAMC issued a statement and call to action on gender equity, the first in a series of efforts designed to encourage academic medical institutions to take meaningful and effective actions to correct the inequities that have led to manywomen leaving or being forced to abandon medical and scientific careers.

For too long, gender inequities have persisted in our communities, limiting the contributions and the promise of many of our colleagues and learners, David Skorton, MD, AAMC president and CEO, wrote in a letter to the nations medical school deans, teaching hospital CEOs, and academic society leaders. As leaders, you play a critical role in setting the tone and creating accountability for achieving [gender equity] within your institutions and organizations, as well as across your learning environments.

Led by David A. Acosta, MD, AAMC chief diversity and inclusion officer, and endorsed by the AAMC Board of Directors, the initiative calls oninstitutionsto address seven types of inequities in four primary areas: the physician and scientific workforce, leadership and compensation, research, and recognition.

Women continue to be underrepresented in the physician and scientific research workforce despite near parity in entering and graduating students. Indeed, women have comprised almost 50% of medical school graduates since 2004, but they make up just 35% of the physician workforce. Likewise, women represent half the graduates of STEM programsbut represent less than 25% of STEM faculty.

Within medical specialties, women represent far higher numbers of physicians entering primary care specialties than nonprimary care specialties. For instance, 63% of pediatricians are women, compared to just 18% of cardiologists and 5% of orthopedic surgeons.

We know that many women are pushed out of medical and scientific careers because of gender bias, harassment, and abusive cultures that actively exclude them, says Diana Lautenberger, a research director at the AAMC who is co-leading the gender equity project under Acostas leadership. Its time for our profession to change the narrative so that we can address these issues head-on.

Women are not promoted as quickly or to the same levels of leadership as men. While women are the majority of faculty at the instructor level, their numbers decline at each subsequent rank of assistant professor, associate professor, full professor, department chair, and dean. About 18% of department chairs and deans are women.

Women are offered less in starting salary, negotiated pay, and other forms of compensation (e.g., resources and bonuses) than men despite equal effort, rank, training, and experience. A recent AAMC reportfound that women in clinical departments make 76 cents on the dollar compared to men. That same report found that women in basic science departments earn 90cents on the dollar compared to men.

The exclusion of women from, and the concentration of men in, leadership positions creates extreme power differentials in academic medicine. These power differentials have an impact on the culture and climate of an institution and make it that much more difficult for women to reach parity in pay and promotion, Acosta says.

There is a gender gap in authorship of peer-reviewed publications, especially in high-impact journals. Indeed, women are much less likely to be first or second authors on the papers they publish, and their work appears less often in prestigious journals. This could be partly because editorial boards are overpopulated by men, and partly because most submitted papers are reviewed exclusively by men.

Male researchers receive more research funding than their female peers. While men and women receive grants at about the same rate, the amount awarded to women is consistently less than that given to men.Again, this could be partly because grant review panels consist mostly of men.

Women and racial and ethnic minorities also receive less mentorship and guidance when applying for grants, says Laura Castillo-Page, PhD, senior director of diversity policies and programs at the AAMC and co-lead of the gender equity project with Lautenberger. We need to do a better job of ensuring all women, including women from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, are given the time to pursue research and the guidance to publish that research in the most prestigious journals.

Women receive less recognition through honors, speaking invitations, and awards than their male counterparts. Female faculty are less likely than men to receive awards from professional societies, be invited to speak about their research, or be introduced with their professional titles.

Leaders need to be intentional in recognizing the contributions of all and think critically about who they mentor and sponsor, says Lautenberger. Often, minoritized groups are not just ignored, but penalized, because theyre not in the club.

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AAMC launches new initiative to address and eliminate gender inequities - AAMC

A central promise of regenerative medicine is the ability to repair aged or diseased organs using stem cells (SCs). This approach will likely become an effective strategy for organ rejuvenation, holding the potential to increase human health by delaying age-related diseases (1). The successful translation of this scientific knowledge into clinical practice will require a better understanding of the basic mechanisms of aging, along with an integrated view of the process of tissue repair (1).

The advent of SC therapies, now progressing into clinical trials, has made clear the many challenges limiting the application of SCs to treat disease. Our duty, as scientists, is to anticipate such limitations and propose solutions to effectively deliver on the promise of regenerative medicine.

Degenerating tissues have difficulty engaging a regulated repair response that can support efficient cell engraftment and restoration of tissue function (2). This problem, which I encountered when trying to apply SC-based interventions to treat retinal disease, will likely be an important roadblock to the clinical application of regenerative medicine approaches in elderly patients, those most likely to benefit from such interventions. I therefore hypothesized that the inflammatory environment present in aged and diseased tissues would be a major roadblock for efficient repair and that finding immune modulators with the ability to resolve chronic inflammation and promote a prorepair environment would be an efficient approach to improve the success of SC-based therapies (2, 3).

Immune cells, as sources and targets of inflammatory signals, emerged naturally as an ideal target for intervention. I chose to focus on macrophages, which are immune cells of myeloid origin that exist in virtually every tissue of the human body and which are able to reversibly polarize into specific phenotypes, a property that is essential to coordinate tissue repair (3, 4).

If there is an integral immune modulatory component to the process of tissue repair that has evolved to support the healing of damaged tissues, then it should be possible to find strategies to harness this endogenous mechanism and improve regenerative therapies. Anchored in the idea that tissue damage responses are evolutionarily conserved (5), I started my research on this topic using the fruit fly Drosophila as a discovery system.

The fruit fly is equipped with an innate immune system, which is an important player in the process of tissue repair. Using a well-established model of tissue damage, I sought to determine which genes in immune cells are responsible for their prorepair activity. MANF (mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor), a poorly characterized protein initially identified as a neurotrophic factor, emerged as a potential candidate (6). A series of genetic manipulations involving the silencing and overexpression of MANF and known interacting partners led me to the surprising discovery that, instead of behaving as a neurotrophic factor, MANF was operating as an autocrine immune modulator and that this activity was essential for its prorepair effects (2). Using a model of acute retinal damage in mice and in vitro models, I went on to show that this was an evolutionarily conserved mechanism and that MANF function could be harnessed to limit retinal damage elicited by multiple triggers, highlighting its potential for clinical application in the treatment of retinal disease (2).

Having discovered a new immune modulator that sustained endogenous tissue repair, I set out to test my initial hypothesis that this factor might be used to improve the success of SC-based therapies applied to a degenerating retina. Indeed, the low integration efficiency of replacement photoreceptors transplanted into congenitally blind mice could be fully restored to match the efficiency obtained in nondiseased mice by supplying MANF as a co-adjuvant with the transplants (2). This intervention improved restoration of visual function in treated mice, supporting the utility of this approach in the clinic (7).

Next, my colleagues and I decided to address the question of whether the immune modulatory mechanism described above was relevant for aging biology and whether we could harness its potential to extend health span. We found that MANF levels are systemically decreased in aged flies, mice, and humans. Genetic manipulation of MANF expression in flies and mice revealed that MANF is necessary to limit age-related inflammation and maintain tissue homeostasis in young organisms. Using heterochronic parabiosis, an experimental paradigm that involves the surgical joining of the circulatory systems of young and old mice, we established that MANF is one of the circulatory factors responsible for the rejuvenating effects of young blood. Finally, we showed that pharmacologic interventions involving systemic delivery of MANF protein to old mice are effective therapeutic approaches to reverse several hallmarks of tissue aging (8).

A confocal fluorescence microscope image of a giant macrophage shows MANF (mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor) expression in red.

The biological process of aging is multifactorial, necessitating combined and integrated interventions that can simultaneously target several of the underlying problems (9). The potential of immune modulatory interventions as rejuvenating strategies is emerging and requires a deeper understanding of its underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms.

One expected outcome of reestablishing a regulated inflammatory response is the optimization of tissue repair capacity that naturally decreases during aging (3). Combining these interventions with SCbased therapeutics holds potential to deliver on the promise of regenerative medicine as a path to rejuvenation (1).

PHOTO: COURTESY OF J. NEVES

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Joana Neves

Joana Neves received undergraduate degrees from NOVA University in Lisbon and a Ph.D. from the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. After completing her postdoctoral fellowship at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California, Neves started her lab in the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon in 2019. Her research uses fly and mouse models to understand the immune modulatory component of tissue repair and develop stem cellbased therapies for age-related disease.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF A. SHARMA

FINALIST

Arun Sharma

Arun Sharma received his undergraduate degree from Duke University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Having completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard Medical School, Sharma is now a senior research fellow jointly appointed at the Smidt Heart Institute and Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His research seeks to develop in vitro platforms for cardiovascular disease modeling and drug cardiotoxicity assessment. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/367/6483/1206.1

FINALIST

Adam C. Wilkinson

Adam C. Wilkinson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He is currently completing his postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University, where he is studying normal and malignant hematopoietic stem cell biology with the aim of identifying new biological mechanisms underlying hematological diseases and improving the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/367/6483/1206.2

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Aging eyes and the immune system - Science Magazine

Among the 1,985 former students and faculty members featured on our Gies College of Business-powered UI at 150 & Beyond website: the Class of 2003s SHAILA KOTADIA, director of culture and inclusion at Stanfords School of Medicine.

The UI is where Shaila Kotadia earned the bachelors degree in cell and structural biology that led to positions at two of Americas most distinguished academic institutions.

Its also where she got a keepsake from Campustown.

Going to the U of I meant getting freedom. And one choice I wasnt allowed, even away from home, was having my belly button pierced, says the Cal-Berkeley STEM equity planning director-turned-Stanford Medical School director of culture and inclusion.

I remember there was this trendy store on John Street that my friends and I would sometimes shop at and they had piercings. So, one day, gripping the hands of my friends friends I still have today too tightly, I experienced the pain of freedom.

Recently, I had a baby and the piercing had to come out. But I still have a scar to keep the memory alive.

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UI at 150 & Beyond: 'Going to the U of I meant getting freedom' - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

The AMA Members Move Medicine series profiles a wide variety of doctors, offering a glimpse into the passions of women and men navigating new courses in American medicine.

On the move with: Irraj Iftikhar, a medical student at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.

AMA member since: 2017.

What inspired me to pursue a career in medicine: As a child, my exposure to medicine was annual physicals and occasional colds, until the day I found myself in the emergency department, bleeding profusely and needing stitches.

Amazingly, when I think back, its not the pain or fear that I remember. Its the warmth, kindness and silly jokes that my doctor used to distract me. It was then that I realized that most people dont go to a physician on their best day. Instead, they go when they are worried, hurt, frustrated and confused. In pursuing medicine, I hope to be able to make those difficult days better for my patients, just like that doctor did for me so many years ago.

How I move medicine: By using my unique voice to advocate for myself, my peers and my future patients. I aim to empower others to do the same by emphasizing that advocacy and change can start anywhere, even with one person making one change. Medicine is ever evolving, and I believe that the best way to create positive change is making sure that there are avenues for everyones voice to be heard.

Career highlights: Organized medicine is a great way to get involved in making changes on many different levels. Since joining the AMA, I have been involved in my school, state and regional AMA Medical Student Section leadership.

Something I find particularly important is making it more accessible for people to have their voices heard. As advocacy chair for my region, one way Im working toward this is by creating the infrastructure for our schools to be able to hold annual voter-registration drives. It is a change that can have a wide impact and can help so many more voices have a say in what occurs in medicine and society as a whole.

Advice Id give to those interested in pursuing a career in medicine: My advice would be to find a dream to strive for and a why to keep you grounded. Having a dream keeps you motivated as you move through your career. And knowing why you want to achieve that dream will be a valuable reminder when things get tough.

How I give back to the community: By staying involved in the community I am serving. Through my local free clinic, I have been fortunate enough to connect with a family interested in implementing healthy lifestyle changes. By bringing them a healthy meal every other week and spending time with them, I was able to learn about their culture, their challenges and their hopes, all while helping them make healthy adjustments.

Experiences such as this remind me that every person has a unique situation to consider, and this helps me be a better advocate for every patient I interact with.

Aspect of my work that means the most: The bond that is created with every patient that I interact. I strive to leave every patient feeling confident that I am really listening to them and that I will advocate for them. I hope to never take for granted their willingness to share their lives with me.

My hope for the future of medicine: That, even as technological innovations in medicine continue to be implemented, we still allow time for a physician to simply listen to what the patient has to say. Additionally, I hope that there will be a time when no patient is forced to decline treatment simply due to cost.

VisitMembershipMovesMedicine.comtolearn more about other AMA members who are relentlessly moving medicine through advocacy, education, patient care and practice innovation, andjoin or renewtoday.

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Irraj Iftikhar: Connecting with patients on their worst days - American Medical Association

That describes Dorothy Lakin, 93, whose recent medical history includes heart failure, macular degeneration, falls, colon cancer and heart valve surgeries, and a stroke.

Shes had a zillion trips to the E.R., one after another, said her daughter Mary Ellen Lakin, 70, who lives in Newton, Mass. I thought, lets see if theres a way to make her life easier.

Mary Ellen Lakin found her way to Dr. Laura Nelson Frain, a geriatrician at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, who has gently steered mother and daughter through the past year. She reduced the number of medications Dorothy Lakin took and the specialists she saw, stayed in touch with Mary Ellen and sent a geriatric nurse-practitioner to make house calls.

Its less of Lets order this med, lets order that procedure, more of a holistic approach, Mary Ellen Lakin said. Her mother recently entered hospice care.

Nevertheless, given the numbers, were not going to address this growing older population through some miraculous influx of specialized geriatricians, Mr. Petriceks said.

Leaders in geriatrics agree, and while they continue working to bolster their numbers, theyre also adopting other strategies. Dr. Mary Tinetti, chief of geriatrics at the Yale School of Medicine, has called for geriatricians to serve as a small, elite work force who help train whole institutions in the specifics of care for older adults.

The most important thing geriatricians can do is make sure all their other colleagues understand these patients needs, she said, including nurse-practitioners, physician assistants, therapists and pharmacists.

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Older People Need Geriatricians. Where Will They Come From? - The New York Times

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) The number of women enrolled at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine is increasing.

A 2019 study by the Association of American Medical Colleges said for the first time ever there are more women then men in medical school. The national average for females in medical school is 50.5%

The study said 45.7% of USD students for the 2019-2020 school year are women.

The national average is 50.5%. Thats an increase of 49.5% from 2018. The average was 46.9% in 2015.

While the percentage of women enrolled in medical school increased in the U.S., fewer women than men are applied to USD for the 2019-2020 school year.

USD had 836 applicants for the 2019-2020 school year. Of the applicants, 47.6% were female and 52.4% were male.

The number of female versus male applicants is similar at some neighboring medical schools.

The University of Iowa had 3,879 applicants. Of those applicants, 44.7% were female. The university has a 50-50 split between female and male students for the school year.

The University of North Dakota medical school had 1,718 applicants. Of those, 47.2% were women. Women made up 41.6% of the enrolled students.

Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, had 6,375 applicants and 45.3% of those were women. Of its enrolled students, 50.6% are women.

The University of Nebraska in Lincoln had 1,590 applicants and 45.7% were women. Of its enrolled students, 49.2% are women.

The University of Minnesota Mayo Medical School in Rochester had 7,265 applicants and 46.2% were women. The universitys enrollment is 51% female.

The University of Minnesotas overall medical school program other than Mayo had 5,561 applicants and 49.6% of those were female. Women made up 54.2% of the enrollment.

The overall makeup of the 142 residents at USD Sanford is 72 female students and 70 male students.

Although there are more women in medical school, chances are when they graduate they will earn less than men.

Studies show that in most categories of medical practice, if not all, women make less than men.

In many cases of research, its the doctors themselves reporting the pay to reveal the inequities.

A 2019 study by Doximity, an online network of medical professionals, said that on average male doctors earn $1.25 for every $1 earned by women.

USD said that of its female residents, 16 chose family medicine or psychiatry while 13 chose internal medicine or pediatrics. The rest chose specialties of pathology, cardiovascular, general surgery, geriatrics, transitional year or family medicine.

South Dakota had 2,121 active doctors, including 674 female doctors, in 2018, the 2019 State Physician Workforce Data Report said. The most were in family medicine/general practice at 188. Eighty-one were in internal medicine, 62 in obstetrics and gynecology, and 58 in pediatrics. The remainder were in other practices, except none were practicing in cardiovascular care or orthopedics.

A 2019 Medscape study showed the male primary care physicians earn 25% more than females. The income was $258,000 compared to $207,000 for women.

The gap did decrease in specialty pay from 36% in 2018 to a 33% difference between men and women. Men were paid $372,000 in specialty practice compared to $280,000 for women.

Specialty practices were identified as plastic surgery, orthopedics, internal medicine and similar. Medscape said while women tended to choose lower paying specialties than higher paying ones such as plastic surgery, orthopedics, cardiology and urology, that doesnt explain the overall disparity in specialty pay.

Additional research by Dr. Malgorzata Skaznik-Wikiel, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and others show similar pay gaps between female and male doctors.

Several studies prompted the Association of Women Surgeons to release a formal statement on the gender pay equity gap. Women in academic medicine make 90 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. Although this salary gender gap is not as large as the 82 cents per dollar noted in the overall US Economy 21 it reflects inequities in compensation, and must be addressed. If change continues at the current slow rate, women will not reach pay equity with men until 2152, the statement said.

But there are some indications that doctors who practice in rural areas, including South Dakota and in neighboring states, may be getting paid more than those who practice in some urban areas.

Research called Income and Age Profiles of Urban and Rural Physicians in the United States conducted through the University of Chicago shows that rural physicians have higher incomes, lower housing costs, and shorter commutes than urban physicians.

A 2018 study by Merritt Hawkins on healthcare recruitment said the Midwest and Great Plains ranked high when it came to pay for psychiatry, family practice, radiology and internal medicine, which were listed as top areas of recruitment. The salary list did not breakdown male versus female pay. Merritt Hawkins is a physician recruiting and consulting firm.

Despite higher pay, rural areas have about a third fewer physicians per capita than the nation as a whole, the University of Chicago study said. And most rural doctors are men.

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More women in med school; still get paid less than men - KELOLAND.com

Illustration: Davide Bonazzi.

This spring during her maternity leave, Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, updated progress reports to the NIH on her research into asthma among kids living in urban areas, reviewed grant applications and abstracts for the American Thoracic Society, flew to Chicago to present an abstract at an American Society for Clinical Investigation meeting, and drove to Baltimore to give an oral presentation of her research at a Pediatric Academic Society meeting. When an opportunity presents itself, its really hard to say no, says the pediatric pulmonologist and mother of three. Junior faculty members are expected to have exponential growth in this early part of our careersbut it overlaps with when were raising young families.

And yet, says Dr. Lovinsky-Desir, compared with the shorter leaves she had after her older two children were born, the 13-week parental leave policy instituted across Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) in January 2018 was a significant benefit. While it was still hard to come back to work, especially leaving a new baby with a cold, it was really nice to have that extra month of bonding time with her, she says.

In 2017, for the first time, more women than men enrolled in VP&S. This past year, women were the majority of both medical school applicants and enrolled students nationwide. Racial and ethnic diversity likewise continues to increase among medical students, with nearly 50% of medical students in the United States identifying as non-white. And while great strides have been made in diversifying the ranks of academic medical facultyboth at Columbia and across the countrywomen and people of color remain under-represented at the highest levels of academic ranks, administration, and leadership. To address the issue, VP&S administrators have dedicated recruitment, hiring, and programmatic efforts to expanding the pipeline of women and underrepresented minority faculty to serve the educational, clinical, and research missions of VP&S and to take on leadership roles.

Diversity at all levels of medicine, including students, trainees, faculty educators, researchers, and practitioners, is critically important to educate students to understand medical problems that quickly and easily cross global borders; to deliver culturally sensitive health care to a population that is multicultural, multinational, and multilingual; and to bring new and different research perspectives to the research agenda, says Anne Taylor, MD, vice dean for academic affairs. American medical education, practice, and research can only remain the best by using the full intellectual capital derived from recruiting the most committed, accomplished, and talented workforce from every segment of our population.

The effort at VP&S got a substantial boost in April 2018 when Lee Goldman, MD, dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine and chief executive of CUIMC, convened two faculty committeesone dedicated to the particular career challenges faced by women and the other to those of underrepresented minoritiesto develop recommendations that would strengthen ongoing efforts to promote opportunities for career success at VP&S for all faculty. Dr. Goldman reviewed the recommendations submitted jointly by the two committees and accepted them in full this year. While the recommendations were developed by advisory committees, their implementation will position VP&S to be the best place for academic medical faculty to flourish, says Dr. Taylor, whose office provided administrative support for the committees.

Convening the committees was part of the medical schools ongoing efforts over the past decade to be sure that career development needs of all faculty are met. These efforts also recognize that women and underrepresented minority faculty face additional unique challenges to career development that require more professional development efforts. Earlier efforts have resulted in measurable progress. Among VP&S faculty 47% are women, compared with the national average of 39%. Even at the highest ranks, 29% of VP&S full professors are women compared with 25% nationally, and 35% of the medical schools tenure-track faculty are women, leading Columbias peer group of medical schools. Racially and ethnically diverse people make up 20% of the faculty at VP&S, with 11% (compared with 8% nationally) from groups traditionally underrepresented in the professoriate.

In recent years, the academic tracks were restructured to create a transparent, objective basis for academic advancement and to minimize arbitrary and potentially exclusionary promotion practices. Parameters of equity, such as numbers of women and diverse faculty in leadership positions and on key committees that review candidates for promotion and honors, are closely monitored to assure a balanced representation of the faculty, and salary equity between men and women is regularly measured. To ensure continued efforts, VP&S committed $50 million to programs to recruit and support women and diverse faculty.

Chief among the recommendations Dr. Goldman endorsed to promote the success and retention of new recruits and current faculty is creation of an Office for Women and Diverse Faculty. All of our programs are driven by faculty interest and faculty demand, says Dr. Taylor. Hired in late 2007, about 18 months after Dr. Goldman became dean, Dr. Taylor now holds the John Lindenbaum Professorship of Medicine and also serves as senior vice president for faculty affairs and career development for CUIMC. From that vantage point, she sees implementation of the committees recommendations as the latest advance in the work with which she was charged when she joined Columbia.

When I came to the medical school, there were no professional development programs for faculty, says Dr. Taylor. VP&S hires some of the most gifted faculty members in the country, so it is our responsibility to support their career success and satisfaction. Her office now oversees orientation programs; leadership and management training, including sessions for all women and diverse faculty cohorts; workshops focused on career development and academic advancement for educators, researchers, and clinicians; and workshops focused on teaching skills, negotiation skills, and management of research teams. Working with women faculty, Dr. Taylor helped to develop the Virginia Kneeland Frantz Society for Women Faculty. Implementation of the advisory committees recommendations will allow for expanded professional development programs but importantly will offer the opportunity to create further changes in the overall culture and climate around diversity and equity.

When Hilda Hutcherson, MD, arrived at Columbia in 1981, she was the first African American woman resident in obstetrics & gynecology. On this campus, there were few African American residents at the time in any department, or even faculty members, she recalls. When I started as an assistant professor in 85, there were no programs to encourage minorities or women to pursue academic medicine. Now a professor of obstetrics & gynecology and senior associate dean for diversity and multicultural affairs, Dr. Hutcherson served on the Committee for Faculty Diversity and Inclusionand she is pleased that the committees work has been so enthusiastically endorsed by the dean. When the list of recommendations was put together, I dont think anyone was thinking wed get 100%, she says. Im so happy that Dr. Goldman took all of the recommendations.

In the absence of formal programs to support her own career development, says Dr. Hutcherson, informal relationships were key to her success. During her early years on the faculty, Gerald E. Thomson, MD, now the Samuel Lambert and Robert Sonneborn Professor Emeritus of Medicine, took note of her passion for encouraging students from diverse backgrounds and urged her to consider formal opportunities to mentor others. It wasnt something I was pursuing at first, says Dr. Hutcherson. Dr. Thomson thought I would be really good and a natural fit and encouraged me to applythats how I ended up in this position. She not only transformed what was once a small office dedicated to recruitment of underrepresented minority medical students into an office with a broader set of programs that support all medical center students, she founded and leads the Kenneth A. Forde Diversity Alliance, which is dedicated to recruiting, retaining, and recognizing a diverse community among students, residents, faculty, and alumni.

Informal associations like that with Dr. Hutcherson and Dr. Thomsonwhereby higher-ranking professionals in the field champion the career trajectories of junior facultyplay a critical role in sustaining diversification of leadership of academic medicine, says plastic surgeon Christine Rohde, MD. These relationships, which differ significantly from the peer-to-peer mentorship and networking many professionals already enjoy, are important but should be supplemented by formal mentoring and sponsorship opportunities available to all, says Dr. Rohde. The Office of Faculty Professional Development, Diversity & Inclusion led by Clara Lapiner, MPH, promotes mentorship and sponsorship for faculty within departments but also has made sponsorship of faculty for outside career development part of its mission.

A sponsorship opportunity from the Office of Faculty Professional Development, Diversity & Inclusion provided funding support from the Virginia Kneeland Frantz Society for Dr. Rohde to attend an AAMC mid-career development training program for women faculty. Since the program began in 2016, 29 women and 20 underrepresented faculty have received funding support to attend AAMC career development seminars. Faculty who have received such support share what they have learned with others. At the end of that course I wrote a list of the things I wanted to try to do in my work life and some were very, very specifictalking to a particular individual about things I wanted to achieve in the futureand others were more general about how I could grow, contribute, increase visibility, says Dr. Rohde. Sponsors have really put me forward for things I wouldnt have thought of myself.

As vice chair of faculty development and diversity for the Department of Surgery and chief of microvascular services at CUIMC, Dr. Rohde now has opportunities to mentor and sponsor colleagues earlier in their careers, with a particular eye on cultivating diversity among those being recommended for leadership. There are scholarships geared toward women, underrepresented minorities, and Ill find people in my department who are eligible, encourage them to go for it, talk to people who will nominate them, she says. And as a Chinese American mother of three, she chooses to take on highvisibility rolesas co-chair of the Women Physicians of NewYork-Presbyterian, as a leader in her professional societies, as a member of the deans advisory committee for women faculty, and now as she applies for a full professorship, a pursuit relatively rare among female surgical faculty. Im very conscious of what I do and what that means for other people who may want to follow my career path in academic plastic surgery, she says. The kids are watchingif we say diversity is important, but the field is not, I think they pick up on that.

Pathologist Richard Francis says he has seen significant shifts in the institutional culture at VP&S since he was a student in the MD-PhD program and since he was hired as faculty in 2011. I feel like it is sincere, the idea of making this a better place for people to work, for patients to be seen, for people to receive their education, says Dr. Francis, who directs the Special Hematology and Coagulation Laboratory and served with Dr. Hutcherson on the deans advisory committee for faculty diversity and inclusion. I dont get the impression that its just lip service, but real follow-through where you can see differences.

He sees particular promise in the deans endorsement of the faculty recommendation that all departments offer training in detecting and fighting implicit bias the unconscious attitudes and stereotypes that can affect behavior. It feeds back into interviewing students, residents, faculty, he says. People need to understand how they view people, how that affects who they recommend, and how they approach trainees and job offers.

In his own career, he has found connection through programs like a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which expanded his access to mentors. As you get further along, having people to mentor you who are more like you, look like you, have gone through things that youve experienced matters more.

To provide that kind of access among the residents he meets in clinical rotations, Dr. Francis keeps lines of communication open, often helping trainees process their own encounters with implicit bias. Much of that work boils down to acknowledging and validating painful experiences. Sometimes he shares insights from his own journey or offers advice. Its not that someones trying to disrespect you, says Dr. Francis. Theyre updating their schemasometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt and theres friction in that process.

Diverse perspectives advance the kind of problem-solving central to academic medicine, Dr. Francis notes. Acknowledging the friction that can sometimes emerge and working through difficult processes are critical steps for achieving the potential a diverse workforce promises. You have to do something to foster that environment, make sure everyone has an equal voice, that they know that what they have is something of value, he says. Everyone needs to know that their perspective will be heard.

As chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine since January 2018, Angela Mills, MD, has hired 34 new faculty. Among them are 21 women and nine people of color. Diverse teams are smarter, and teams that are both gender and culturally diverse are more likely to introduce innovations, says Dr. Mills. Both as problem solvers and as educators, she says, leaders in academic medicine must innovate. Yet implicit bias often interferes with the recruitment and retention of a diverse team. To reduce that risk, Dr. Mills has standardized as much of the process as possible by requiring that nominating committees define hiring criteria in advance and search committees develop a panel of questions each candidate must answer. What we ask candidates and how we evaluate them is really important when were talking about diversity, she says. Without clearly defined criteria, people tend to redefine characteristics of what theyre seeking to promote male candidates, less diverse candidates.

As a member of the deans advisory committee for women faculty, Dr. Mills brought to the table her personal experience as a first-generation college student, woman, and mother of two rising through the ranks of emergency medicine, as well as her scholarship on the gender gap in her field. In February, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine published her analysisco-authored with colleagues at Harvardon gender differences in faculty rank among academic emergency physicians in the United States. Later that month, she gave a VP&S grand rounds lecture on the gender gap in academic medicine. Nationally, Dr. Mills notes, more than 50% of medical students are women. Among all residents, 46% are women; in emergency medicine, however, only 37% of residents are women. And the number keeps falling off, she says. The question is how do we promote emergency medicine as a specialty that supports women, promotes women, and allows women to successfully transition into academic medicine if they choose?

She has found that the new 13-week parental leave policy helps recruitment. I use that as a selling tool, and Ive had just as many men as women take parental leave, she says. Its a great benefit to all parents. She also is optimistic about the potential of #SHEmergency, a professional development group that fosters community and develops methods for awareness of gender bias among female-identified residents and emergency medicine faculty. The groups article, #Shemergency Presents: Recruitment & Retention of Female Residents, appeared this summer in AAMCs journal, Academic Medicine. We developed specific events where residents and faculty partner on strategies and plans to combat disparitieseverything from mentorship to speaking invitations, awards and recognition, salaries.

Like Dr. Francis and Dr. Rohde, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir credits an early career development award for providing the professional connections and coaching she needed to take a tactical approach to her own career advancement. In my regular circles on the academic campus, often Im the only woman of color, she says. Its important to see people in leadership who look like you, who have gone through similar experiences. If theyve made it, I too can make it.

Among members of the deans advisory committee for faculty diversity and inclusion, the power of solidarity and connection made the idea of an Office for Women and Diverse Faculty particularly attractive, says Dr. Lovinsky-Desir. As the odd person out, sometimes your voice gets lost. Its a little harder to speak up, she notes. If theres a space where we can unite, uplift one another, I think it will empower us as we go back into our teams.

This article originally appeared in the 2019 VP&S Annual Report.

Already, says Dr. Lovinsky-Desir, she sees other changes emerging from the recommendations advanced by the deans advisory committeesa powerful, self-reinforcing effect both on campus culture and the advancement of women and minorities across VP&S. She was recently invited to serve on a search committee. Not only was she able to lend her perspective on the search itself, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir was fascinated by the insights she gleaned about what search committees prioritize when assessing candidates for senior leadership positions. We often dont get that as junior faculty, women, minorities, she says. I learned so much about what features are valued in a person in senior administrative leadership, and that perspective will enhance my growth here as a junior faculty member.

Read more:
The Future Is Now: A Diverse and Inclusive Faculty - Columbia University Irving Medical Center

The key to medical school admissions success is careful planning based on correct information. Research the schools in which you are interested. What are their admissions requirements? Keep in close contact with your pre-med advisor. Are you taking the proper classes now? With thorough research and thoughtful questions, you will benefit from the great amount of information that is available to you. By proactively seeking information, you will avoid the aggravation, disappointment, and delays that come upon finding out that you do not meet all of the necessary prerequisites.

During your pre-medical education, you will be required to fulfill certain coursework prerequisites. In addition, you should select other courses in the sciences and humanities to supplement this core curriculum, enhancing your education and your application to medical school.

Most schools agree on the basic elements for pre-medical education. Minimum course requirements include one year each of biology, general (inorganic) chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and related lab work for each. In addition, about two-thirds require English and about one quarter require calculus. A small number of schools have no specific course requirements.

Bear in mind that since the MCAT covers material from the commonly required courses, you will need to include those courses in your program of study whether or not they are medical school prerequisites. Nevertheless, many students are surprised to learn that the list of courses required by medical schools is so small. The best sources for admissions requirements for specific medical schools are theMedical School Admission Requirements(MSAR) and theOsteopathic Medical College Information Booklet.

These classes are nearly universal pre-med requirements, including basic science classes that are familiar to most science majors.

Medical school prerequisites are selected by the particular program, and so there are some classes that are not required at all schools but are required at most or some. For details regarding specifically which classes are required for each school, check theMSAR website.

While science majors are certainly more common, medical schools stress their interest in well-rounded students with broad-based undergraduate backgrounds. In fact, regardless of your major, your undergraduate transcript is a vital part of the admissions decision.

If you are a science major, one approach is to broaden your education by considering at least some social science and humanities electives. If you are not majoring in a science, your work in both science and non-science courses will be evaluated. However, with fewer courses on which to judge your science ability, your grades in the core science subjects will take on greater importance. So consider taking at least some additional science courses, such as biochemistry, cell biology, or genetics.

Bottom line? Dont choose a major because you think it will get you accepted to medical school. Choose a major in a subject in which you are really interested. You will do better and have a more enjoyable time throughout college.

According to a recent survey of medical schools, knowledge of health care issues and commitment to health care were among the top five variables considered very important to student selection (the other four were med school interview ratings, GPA, MCAT scores, and letters of recommendation).

You should consider being active in health care activities as much as possible as a premed student. If nothing else, these experiences will help you articulate in your personal statement and interviews why you want to pursue a career in medicine.

Your pre-med advisor is instrumental in helping you decide if medical school is right for you and assessing your chances for admission. In addition, he or she will be particularly helpful in guiding you to the schools whose curricula and student profiles best match your qualifications and interests. Finally, your pre-med advisor will have specific data about medical school requirements, how students from your school fared in the admissions process, and where students with similar academic backgrounds and MCAT scores were accepted.

In many undergraduate institutions, the pre-med office handles the letters of recommendation. In some cases, they simply relay the letters to the medical schools. Yet in other cases, the pre-med advisoror committeewrites a letter to the admissions offices on your behalf. Its imperative that you get to know your advisor and that they get to know you.

Medical school applicants often fail to acknowledge the importance of working withtheirinstitutions premed office. Going it alone means that you wont benefit from networking contacts and relationships the premed office has with a number of admissions offices where theyouve applied. Often admissions officers ask whyapplicants haventusedtheir premedical offices resources. So be very mindful to have the full support of your premedical office if such a resource is available to you.

Medical school admissions committees select applicants who have demonstrated intelligence, maturity, integrity, and a dedication to the ideal of service to society. One way they assess your nonacademic qualities is to look at how you have lived your life prior to completing your medical school application. To this end, you have an opportunity to submit a description of up to fifteen activities, club memberships, leadership roles, honors, awards, and jobs within the AMCAS Primary Application. Furthermore, many committees will ask you to submit a more comprehensive list of the extracurricular activities with which you have been involved.

While not all admissions committees consider them in the application process, many value the nature and depth of your extracurricular activities as significant factors in your admissibility to medical school.

Read the original:
The Prerequisites for Medical School - Kaplan Test Prep

Analysis of 36 UK medical schools by the Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) found significant gaps between institutions in the overall amount of GP teaching in their curricula.

In the medical school with the greatest focus on GP teaching, 19% of teaching overall was within general practice or by GPs, compared with just 3.9% in the medical school with the lowest proportion of GP teaching. On average,9.2% of medical schools' teaching was GP-based.

A near five-fold variation was seen in the average number of sessions assigned to GP teaching per student in curricula at different medical schools. GP-based sessions per student ranged from 65.3 to 313 - equivalent to 6.5 weeks to 31.3 weeks.

Meanwhile, the average payment per session for clinical GP teaching was 58.74 per student per session, but payment varied from 32.21 to 120.00 across the UK.

Three quarters of medical schools experienced difficulty in recruiting GP teaching practices, citing poor pay for clinicians, difficulty where placements were not in blocks, or where students had excessive travel.

Two medical schools' curricula were found to include none of a list of key topics recommended by Health Education England (HEE) to encourage doctors into general practice. Just 14% said they delivered sessions on all recommended topics from the HEE list.

The findings follow a BJGP study last month, which revealed that the actual cost of teaching undergraduate medical students in general practice was almost double what practices receive for placements.

The SAPC report, which examined the exposure of undergraduate medical students in the UK to general practice, found that the number of GP teaching sessions in undergraduate schools has plateaued since 2002. This was despite perceptions among educators that GP sessions had increased over the past five years.

Medical schools established before the start of the 21st century had a significantly lower percentage of GP teaching than the percentage in newer medical schools: 8.3% vs 12.9%, the report found. While, the number of compulsory sessions of practice-based GP teaching varied between schools, varied between 248 and 27.

Dr Hugh Alberti, who is sub dean for primary and community care at the University of Newcastle, said variation in the amount of time given to GP teaching was down to both cultural and historical reasons, with hospitals traditionally seen as the natural learning arena for medical graduates.

But he said it was important that attitudes changed if more students were to be attracted into working in general practice.

The arguments for having more students in general practice are very simple; its good for the students because they get high quality teaching and its good for general practice because more students are likely to become GPs because theyve had more time in that area.

If we dont get more students into practices, were not going to get more students becoming GPs and were just going to continue the recruitment problem.'

He added that practices were currently 'making a loss on average' from training students. 'If it costs them 110 [to train a student] and were paying them on average 55, then practices are potentially making a loss,' he said.Until we make it cost neutral for them, then its always going to be a challenge.'

Health secretary Matt Hancock announced last month that more than 3,500 doctors had been recruited to GP specialty training this year. But the RCGP has warned thatthe NHS needs to train 5,000 GPs a year to keep patients safe.

See original here:
Huge variation in time and money for GP-based teaching in medical schools - GP online

I am the lead author of a peer-reviewed manuscript that details how U.S. medical school diversity initiatives are leaving us behind. This is a summary of the article, which was published in Academic Medicine, and a call to action to improve our representation and the health of our communities

U.S. medical education diversity initiatives were born out of the Civil Rights Movement in an effort to increase the representation of African Americans in the physician workforce. Over the last 50 years, these efforts have evolved to include other minority groups that are underrepresented in medicine, and efforts to specifically identify and recruit African-American students have become obscured. African Americans thus remain significantly underrepresented in medicine, accounting for just 6 percent of graduates from U.S. medical schools and 3 percent of U.S. medical school full-time faculty.

Further complicating matters, demographic shifts resulting from recent immigration of black people from Africa and the Caribbean have both expanded the definition of African-American medical students and shifted the emphasis from those with a history of suffering under U.S. oppression and poverty to anyone who meets a black phenotype. Thus, while the majority of blacks in this country are African Americans defined as blacks born in the United States whose ancestors suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws over half of black students entering medical schools are members of other black subgroups, i.e. African, Afro-Caribbean, and mixed race. African Americans have now become underrepresented amongst the underrepresented.

Besides being emblematic of a glaring scholastic achievement gap, why does all of this matter?

African Americans have a higher age-adjusted death rate than whites for 9 of the 15 leading causes of death in this country, and the life expectancy for African Americans (74.8 years) continues be lower than white Americans (78.5 years). The life expectancy for African-American men is 71.5 years.

Medical literature has consistently shown that black patients rate their healthcare experience as higher when paired with a black physician. This in turn has been proven to yield greater utilization of health services and improved compliance to plans of care. It can thus be asserted that the underrepresentation of African Americans in healthcare is a public health problem, and any health disparity initiative aimed at improving the health of African Americans should include African American physician pipeline programming at the core.

Diversity initiatives in U.S. medical school need refocusing. Educational environments with students of varying experiences and a myriad of backgrounds are certainly valuable, but identity-oriented initiatives that seek to improve African-American student presence and right societal wrongs should be underscored. In doing so, medical school admissions committees must consider and contextualize the genealogical heritage and ancestral legacy of minority students, particularly blacks.

Additionally, the corrosive effects of financial and social deprivation of African Americans should be considered, including those from high-income, two-parent homes. Simply competing for any phenotypically black student that clears lowered academic thresholds is incomplete and contributes to African Americans being underrepresented in medicine.

The responsibility should not fall solely on medical school admissions committees, which are largely white. The African-American community also needs to be called into action to adequately prepare African-American students to compete in the mainstream.

Here are some detailed solutions.

Academic expectations for African-American boys and girls need to be raised. The bar needs to be much higher than staying out of trouble and having good manners. Strong classroom performance, high standardized test scoring, and achievement of professional and STEM-based graduate degrees should be routine and normalized as opposed to seeming foreign.

We need to start educating African-American boys and girls outside of traditional school systems, which have largely proven to be insufficient in terms of helping us make collective academic progress. Just as athletic teenagers rely on AAU and club sports teams alongside their high school teams for preparation and showcasing of talent, schools should simply augment the academic efforts of African-American children. This is not uncommon amongst many Indian and Asian populations in the United States. Parental efforts and programs that teach and stretch the core academic potential of African-American youth should be created and prioritized.

African-American youth need immersion into the language of U.S. standardized tests. Once thought to be primarily related to economic status, race has become a greater predictor of SAT performance than parental education and family income. Blacks continue to lag behind all minority groups in ACT and SAT scoring, the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), and other graduate school entrance exams. Reading assignments for African-American adolescents and teens should routinely include publications such as Time Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Familiarity with National Public Radio and related content should also be incorporated.

Collegiate selection needs to be more intentional. Parents and high school students need to look towards schools that have a proven track record of successfully preparing African-American students for academic success. The medical school application process is very complex, and medical school admissions committees look for specific scholastic and extracurricular profiles. The American Association of Medical Colleges lists the institutions with the highest numbers of African-American applicants to U.S. medical schools each year. Parents and high school students should reference this regularly in looking for and selecting the right institution of higher learning.

Finally, African-American students should be guided, mentored, and supported through college, medical school, residency, and beyond. Pre-medical and other students destined for graduate and professional school require nuanced financial support and experiences to be successful applicants for the next level. Pipeline programs should include parental education on the type of support African Americans need to clear hurdles along the way.

These are simple solutions, but they require a deliberate investment and collective effort. None of it is showy. None of it looks good on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. It does not make for good pictures or hashtags. Its not magic. Much like medical school admissions committees, our community-based efforts need to be about impact and not optics.

Dr. Kenneth Poole Jr. is the medical director of Patient Experience for Mayo Clinic Arizona, chair of the Mayo Clinic Enterprise Health Information Coordinating Subcommittee, and a member of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine admissions committee. He is a North St. Louis County native and a product of the Mathews Dickey Boys and Girls Club, Hazelwood Public Schools, Lutheran North High School, and Tennessee State University. The views expressed above are his own and do not represent those of the Mayo Clinic.

See the article here:
Impact and not optics: How we can increase the number of African Americans in medicine - St. Louis American

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No. Kaplan consultants work with you to enhance your original work. Theyll help you brainstorm, polish your work, and help you position yourself for the greatest effect. But dont forget, medical school is a very personal choiceits important that the schools understand who you are as a person. And Kaplan medical school admission consultants can help you do that.

You've got this, our medical school admissions experts are here to help. Our consultants are experienced guides and mentors with a thorough knowledge of the medical school admissions process. They'll help you navigate your unique journey to medical school so you can apply and interview with confidence.

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Consulting with Kaplan since: 2005

Education: BA, Princeton; MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; MPH, Columbia University

Background: Private practice, Author of textbook; Instructor, UCLA Extension and USC Keck School of Medicine

At Kaplan, Claudia has enabled countless college students, nontraditional applicants, and repeat applicants to achieve admission to their top-choice schools. With experience as a Princeton Regional Alumni Interviewer, Claudia provides expert insights into the admissions process of highly selective programs, from what makes a powerful and polished personal statement to how to shine at your interview.

Consulting with Kaplan since: 2006

Education: MD from University of Louisville School of Medicine

Background: Former member of the Faculty-Student Liaison Committee, Interviewer for Medical School Admissions, Residency Program Director, University of Texas - Houston School of Medicine

Heather is a board-certified physician who interviewed for medical school admissions while she was a medical school professor. She has expertise developing a unique personal statement that clearly underscores the applicant's strengths for admission. She can provide feedback about what a physician reader will think about a personal statement. She teaches her clients the difference between writing for the personal statement and writing for the secondary essays. She has professional experience interviewing applicants for medical school and residency at the world's largest medical center. She has prepared applicants for many interview formats, including traditional, MMI, group, and panel.

Consulting with Kaplan since: 1998

Education: BS from University of Connecticut

Background:

Tom served as the chief admissions officer at several different medical schools including the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Hahnemann Medical College (now part of Drexel University), and the University of Iowa College of Medicine. He also served as Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Admissions at the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

Tom estimates that he has reviewed over 60,000 medical school applications and has read at least 200,000 letters of recommendation during his long career in admissions.

Consulting with Kaplan since: 1997

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Jesse R. Borges is Senior Graduate Admissions Consultant and Trainer with Kaplan. He has spent more than 25 years in the field of educational / professional advancement, is now beginning his 19th with Kaplan, and has personally advised 2,000 applicants of widely varying racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, from every geographic region of the U.S. and the world.

Education: BA from the University of California San Diego, JD from the University of San Diego

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Maria has recently retired from a long and illustrious career in graduate education at the prestigious University of California, San Diego where she was both the Assistant Dean for Recruitment, Admissions and Financial Aid at the School of Medicine and the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Special Initiatives at the Rady School of Management. She is a recognized expert in the areas of medical school admissions, higher education assessment, evaluation and accreditation. She also served on the AAMCs National Committee on Diversity and served as Chair of the National Committee on Admissions. While she enjoys working with all applicants, Maria says she has always found it most rewarding to work with the non-traditional student and reapplicant to achieve their goal of becoming a physician. As a life-long lover of writing, she also enjoys working with students to craft compelling personal statements and essays.

Mr. Luten has served as the Director of Student Affairs of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry where he coordinated recruitment activities, minority affairs, advising of all student organizations, financial aid, student residency and tutorial/retention services.

Educationally, Mr. Luten has completed all requirements, except the dissertation, for the PhD in Higher Education Administration from Michigan State University, and has achieved both the Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Ohio State University. Most recently he is an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Admissions Committee of the Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry. His passions are graduate and professional school advising, - dental, law, MBA and medicine - with a particular interest in the oral health profession, diversity programs in health career education and student success.

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During his first year of medical school, Raj was elected to the Board of Trustees at the University of Vermont, a position that allowed him to work directly with the Administration at the College of Medicine. This only added to his knowledge of the application and student selection processes. He used his knowledge to successfully assist prospective applicants gain admission to medical schools. He accomplished this by understanding that medical schools determine candidacy based on the concept of an applicant being the right "fit."

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Medical School Admissions Consulting | Kaplan Test Prep

You will find the medical schools in Illinois exceedingly competitive with other state offerings. Applicants will need at least a bachelors degree if not a masters degree and an acceptable Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, to be considered for med school. Students can expect the core to last 4 years with degrees being conferred as a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) or a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.). Following this phase, you will be assigned an internship and residency with approved medical facilities. Next, you will need to successfully pass the written and practical examinations before applying for licensure. Get additional information about the process to earn a degree in medicine on our med school degree page or the PreMed portal.The best med schools in Illinois are searchable with our tools or by using the list of top med schools below. Get the support and resources you need to find top rated med schools in Illinois or similar medical career paths in the field such as immunology, toxicology, cytotechnology, and genetics.

The Illinois medical schools listed below are accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which is an organization that provides accreditation for medical education nationwide.

Schools are sorted by size with the largest medical schools first, based on the number of medical student graduates per year.

Visit the website for University of Illinois at Chicago at http://uic.edu/

Visit the website for Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science at http://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/

Visit the website for Northwestern University at http://www.northwestern.edu

Visit the website for Loyola University Chicago at http://www.luc.edu

Visit the website for Rush University at http://www.rushu.rush.edu/

The medical school is located on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Medicine Campus in Springfield. Visit the website for Southern Illinois University Carbondale at http://www.siu.edu

Visit the website for University of Chicago at http://www.uchicago.edu

Physicians can work in many types of specialties which may cause a large range in salary expectations. Here is a list of average annual salaries for general practitioners working in major cities in Illinois.

+473% Above State Median Income

+492% Above National Median Income

Doctor's in Illinois take home an average 105.43 per hour. Annual earnings for Doctor's working in the State of Illinois average $219,280 which is 473% above the state median income and 492% above the national median income for all occupations. Employment for a Doctor makes up just 0.02% of the working population in Illinois and is limited due to the specific qualifications required along with the schooling involved in this career path. The increasing demand for qualified Doctors coupled with the educational barrier to enter the field is met with a steady supply of eager college graduates anxious to make a long-lasting impact in the lives of others in and around Illinois.

Notes: Tuition & fee amounts are for both Illinois in-state residents and out of state students, unless noted otherwise. The tuition information displayed is an estimate, which we calculated based on historical data and should be solely used for informational purposes only. Please contact the respective doctor school for information about the current school year.

Source: IPEDS Survey 2012-2015: Data obtained from the US Dept. of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Data may vary depending on school and academic year.

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Best Medical Schools in Illinois | Top Med Schools

Going to medical school today takes more than ambition, good grades in biology in college, and an appetite for hard work. It takes a willingness to incur a crushing amount of debt. Student debt in general is in crisis in this country. All told, borrowers owe $1.5 trillion, more than people owe in credit card debt or car loans.

People have borrowed money to attend medical school for decades, but the scale of the debt has skyrocketed in recent years, along with just about every other cost in health care. The average medical student now graduates with a debt burden as big as a home mortgage.

Now, one of America's top medical schools, NYU in New York, has come up with a radical solution.

It's a tradition on the very first day of medical school, the so-called white coat ceremony, a rite of passage for 24-year-old Joe Babinski and his hundred classmates at New York University.

Joe Babinski: It's kinda this transition point where you go from being a potential student to a member of the medical community even if you're at the bottom rung of the ladder still.

Lesley Stahl: (LAUGH) Yeah.

Joe Babinski: And it's-- it's a pretty significant experience. It marks the beginning of your journey, so to say.

As he began that journey, Joe was expecting to take on a great burden.

Lesley Stahl: How much debt did you expect you'd be taking on?

Joe Babinski: I anticipated taking on about $200,000.

Lesley Stahl: I can't imagine starting life with that on your shoulders. But a lot of medical students, a lot of young doctors have that. Most?

Joe Babinski: I would say most.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: Graduating medical school, 85, 86 percent of students have debt.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is chair of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He says the prospect of so much debt prevents many people who could be great doctors from even applying to medical school.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: Most of us think that it really deters people from-- middle class and lower income families. They look at 200,000. It seems like a huge mountain to climb. And it gets scary.

Lesley Stahl: And it compounds because you're not paying it off.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: Correct. And--

Lesley Stahl: So the interest grows. It gets worse. And that's a burden. I would think it-- it--

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: Well--

Lesley Stahl: --diverts attention from medical school as well if you actually--

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: I think people are stressed by it.

Third-year NYU med student Elaine De Leon has felt that stress from day one.

Lesley Stahl: Could your family afford medical school?

Elaine De Leon: Definitely not. (LAUGH) Definitely not.

Her family is originally from the Dominican Republic. Her dad is a retired chef. Her mother died years ago. She agonized over her dream of being a doctor because of the cost.

Lesley Stahl: How much did you have to borrow for your first year?

Elaine De Leon: I borrowed $76,000 and if I were to pay that off in-- on a ten-year plan it would be $100,000 by the time I paid it off.

Lesley Stahl: Wow. And that's just your first year.

Elaine De Leon: That's just my first year.

Lesley Stahl: It's unfathomable.

Elaine De Leon: Yeah. But I think that ultimately, like, a life of serving is more important to me. And that's really-- what-- what, like, cinched it, that I-- I needed to pursue this despite the debt that I would be accruing.

Elaine's ambition is to be a primary-care doctor treating poor people, but she says that the debt burden forced her to consider a different choice.

Elaine De Leon: Of course you hear the, like, s-- prime specialties where you get paid the most so you hear dermatology, you hear surgery, you hear all of these things. And so it's easy when you're coming in to be, like, well, I paid a lot of money to be here, like, I should really get my money's worth and try to pursue these more lucrative specialties.

Lesley Stahl: Even if you're not interested.

Elaine De Leon: Exactly. Or at least consider them.

Dr. Rafael Rivera is dean of admissions at NYU Medical School.

Lesley Stahl: What are the better paying specialties?

Dr. Rafael Rivera: Generally speaking, some of the surgical specialties tend to pay well. Neurosurgery. You know, orthopedics pays well. The fields that tend to pay a little less are fields like pediatrics, and general internal medicine, family medicine. And--

Lesley Stahl: And those are the doctors we have lacking. We don't have enough of those doctors.

Dr. Rafael Rivera: By 2030, we'll have a shortage of up to 49,000 primary care docs.

That huge shortage, that distortion of the medical profession, is directly linked to the mountains of debt. And on the day of that white coat ceremony last August, NYU decided to do something about it. Something dramatic. After all the first-year students had filed back to their seats, Ken Langone, chairman of the board of trustees, and his wife Elaine, let everyone in on a secret.

Ken Langone: "As of this very moment, the NYU school of medicine is now a tuition-free medical school. All"

Joe Babinski was sitting in the front row, without a clue that was coming.

Joe Babinski: And they announce that they are supplying full-tuition scholarships for every student.

Lesley Stahl: Did you think you heard them right?

Joe Babinski: I-- I took a picture of the slide on my phone because I-- I didn't want them to remove it and take it away. (LAUGH) So I was like, "I'm-- I'm documenting that this is happening." (LAUGHTER)

Lesley Stahl: But did you get it right away? We were there. And there was a sense of, "Did I hear that right?" (LAUGH)

Joe Babinski: I-- I still don't think I get it.

Sitting a few rows away, joe's parents, a municipal employee and a retired cop, had a similar "Did he just say what I think he said?" reaction.

Joe's Father: "Oh My God"

This was the real-time reaction of another father.

DAD: "Oh My God Oh!"

Dr. Rafael Rivera: At first, I see students looking around at each other.

Lesley Stahl: Did I hear what he said?

Dr. Rafael Rivera: Yeah. There were-- there were gasps, there was some quiet, there was some screaming. And then all of a sudden, the chants started getting louder and louder. And before you knew it, the-- the audience had erupted into cheers of joy.

NYU's free tuition applies not just to first-year med students, but to every current student in every class. They do still have to pay their own room and board, but for these students, it's a gift worth more than $200,000 each.

Ken Langone: And these kids went nuts. One father yells out, "I told you you picked the right place!" (LAUGHTER)

Ken Langone made his fortune as a co-founder of home depot. He and Elaine donated $100 million toward the free tuition initiative, and he helped raise the additional $350 million needed to make it a reality.

Ken Langone: Well, that's my job here.

Lesley Stahl: To go out and ask other people for money

Ken Langone: Oh, I go out, and I look at somebody nice like you, and I grab you by your ankles, and I shake you.

Lesley Stahl: (LAUGH) The money comes out--

Ken Langone: And, when you promise me there's no more nickels, I turn you right side up. But seriously? I have two jobs here. I'm a cheerleader, and I'm a fundraiser.

Lesley Stahl: Tell us how this came about.

Ken Langone: Bob Grossman, when he became dean, I sat him down. I said, "All right, boss, what are we gonna do?" And he said to me, "One of the things I would love to have happen is for, one day, for us to be tuition-free." (UNINTEL)--

Lesley Stahl: He said that right in the beginning?

Ken Langone: Eleven years ago--

Lesley Stahl: When he first came? Ok.

Ken Langone: Eleven years ago. I said, "You know what, Bob? Let's do it."

It took more than a decade, but NYU now has the endowment to offer free tuition to every med student, in perpetuity.

Ken Langone: When we announced it, a mother, a pediatrician, came up to me, 30 years out of medical school, and she told me she was still paying off her medical school debt.

And she said, "This morning, when I woke up and I knew I was coming here," she said, "I was convinced I would be in debt when I died to help my son become a doctor." These are great people. So, we just say, "You know what? Let's do what we can to help make it easier for them."

Lesley Stahl: Do you think this is gonna make you a better doctor?

Joe Babinski: I think without a doubt it'll make me a better doctor.

Lesley Stahl: Really? How does it affect that?

Joe Babinski: For one, I won't be working while I'm in school. I can focus on learning the medicine and being good at it.

Lesley Stahl: And that pressure isn't on your shoulders.

Joe Babinski: There's none.

Ken Langone: I think about the mindset of a kid saying, "Somebody did something for me. Now, I've gotta do something for somebody." Okay? Think of that.

Lesley Stahl: Yeah.

Ken Langone: That's a big thing.

NYU's no-tuition model replaces what had been a patchwork system of scholarships and financial aid. Now, every med student is on full scholarship with absolutely no strings attached.

Lesley Stahl: This model says anybody who comes to NYU medical school will come tuition free as opposed to just the kids who need the money.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: Right. I like the-- a model which I call forgivable loans. That you basically say to every student, "We're loaning you all of medical school. And if you go into primary care or one of these other specialties that needs doctors. Or you go practice in a rural community, like in South Dakota, or you go into an inner city community that's underserved, we're gonna forgive your loan. On the other hand, you decide you wanna go into one of those lucrative-- specialties, ophthalmology, or dermatology, or orthopedics, you're gonna have to pay it back with interest. And I think that's a more effective way of getting the goals society wants than giving everyone-- tuition free.

Whatever the model, changing the "face" of the medical profession is a huge challenge. Consider this: there are no more African-American men in medical school today than there were 40 years ago.

Right now, more than half of all medical students come from the richest 20 percent of American families, only about 5 percent from the poorest 20. This means that wealthy areas have lots of doctors, and lower income areas don't.

Lesley Stahl: I know of so many communities in-- in poor areas that don't have a doctor at all. No doctor. Is there anything in this program that encourages people to go out there?

Dr. Rafael Rivera: If you are from a rural background, you do tend to go back to practice in a rural setting more often than people who are not from a rural background. If you are from an underrepresented minority group, similarly, you also tend to go back to inner city underserved areas.

Since the announcement, applications to NYU have boomed, especially from minorities.

Elaine De Leon: I think just the idea that a lot of people who come from backgrounds like mine, low income, without parents who are able to afford medical school, I think that it's a huge draw. And I think that it's a needed draw for the patient population that's served by NYU students. I think that there's a lot of folks at Bellevue, where I work, this is just anecdotal but I would say at least 60 percent of the patients are Latinos and this is an excellent way to draw the right people to the right institution.

Lesley Stahl: How's your Spanish?

Elaine De Leon: Very good. (LAUGH)

Lesley Stahl: Excellent.

Elaine De Leon: Excellent.

Lesley Stahl: So they can-- you can really communicate with them.

Elaine De Leon: Yeah.

Elaine De Leon is in the final year of an accelerated three-year med school program, one year less than the norm. But when we saw her on the day of the announcement

Elaine the day of the announcement: "You're not going to believe the news that just came out."

calling her dad to give him the news, you wouldn't know she was saving just one year of tuition.

Elaine De Leon: Already I felt like one of the luckiest medical students in the country because I am in the three-year program, I'm already decided on primary care, I'm already going into this residency program here. And then all of a sudden it's, like, oh, and by the way, (LAUGH) like, your last year is free. And it's like, it was just this incredible feeling of freedom.

Read the rest here:
Tuition-free medical school: How the NYU School of ...

Dozens of first-year medical students will receive their white coats in an official ceremony later this week at the SIU School of Medicine.

The schools curriculum has long been a leader in training doctors, and leaders recently took on the challenge of reinventing some aspects of that training to make the students stronger.

WSIU InFocus: SIU Medical School's New Third Year

Our third year was a traditional one, which looked like most of the other 154 medical schools in the United States.

Doctor Jerry Kruse is Dean and Provost of the SIU School of Medicine.

In essence, it was divided by departments, and we had six clerkships that ranged anywhere from six to ten weeks.

But while that curriculum which included shadowing residents, attending lectures, and taking tests was producing competent doctors, Kruse and others wondered if they could do better particularly when it comes to making young physicians more comfortable in a clinical setting.

What we found out when we studied this, is that the students were actually only seeing patients two to three hours per day, were doing the lectures which we found were ineffective, and then were worrying about taking the test to get their grade and pass the second part of their boards.

And the test scores in the third year showed students werent gaining as much ground in making diagnoses and planning treatment protocols.

In year three, the clinical decision making skills of the residents didnt improve. We had predicted they would improve more in year three than year one and two, which were not heavy clinical years.

So, Kruse and his team went back to the drawing board. They developed a curriculum that gave students more one-on-one time with teachers and coaches, and increased the clinical training in the first two years of medical school.

And then, in year three, we would actually help them learn how to be a doctor, to socialize into medicine, and give them more opportunities to determine what their career path should be.

SIU has long been a leader in clinical training especially early in the academic career of its students.

Problem-based learning is a hallmark of the School of Medicines training and Kruse says that is only being made stronger.

We have a course called Introduction to Clinical Medicine in the first two years, which teaches them all of the nuts and bolts skills that they need to take care of patients, and do physical exams, take histories, write orders, and use electronic records, and all of those things.

In addition to that class, there is a virtual program where medical students are presented with twelve different complaints in twelve different scenarios a potential for 144 different diagnoses. The can share their thoughts, and get immediate feedback from experts.

Which leads them to the *new* third year.

So now, the new third year, instead of being six rotations that are six to ten weeks long, there are eight rotations in eight different specialties, that are four weeks long.

And inside those rotations, there are no longer lectures or tests. Just intensive one-on-one time with patients, under the guidance of doctors and teachers helping students reach the proper diagnosis and treatment.

Once the first set of rotations is complete, third year students spend five weeks studying medical humanities and taking the Senior CCX a test normally given to fourth year students.

So, the students did as well as they've ever done on that Senior CCX - even moving it up early into the third year. I think it might be the second highest score ever recorded. ~SIU School of Medicine Dean Dr. Jerry Kruse

They then spend 15 weeks in a more individualized program aimed at preparing students for their potential specializations.

Kruse says outcomes and feedback so far have been very positive better test scores, and more prepared students entering the medical field. He says while there is some criticism for removing some of the so-called Shelf tests previously given, he stands by the new way of doing things.

Many medical schools throughout the country have used the SHELF examinations as a grading mechanism, for their rotation they were never meant for that, ever. So Im glad were not doing those. I dont think theyre appropriate, anyway.

Kruse says the students are more confident, and more prepared for the future which is the goal.

They see twice as many patients, they get two to three times as many procedures, they do well on the tests, they feel better about getting into their career choice, they feel like theyve socialized into medicine better.

So now, Kruse is taking the new curriculum on the road. Hes visiting other medical schools, talking with faculty and administrators about what SIU is doing and the results theyve found.

Ive been asked three times. Two times, it was an astounding discussion. Just what youd want to have in an academic environment: pros, cons, ideas going back and forth, but really positive energy. In essence, its like a pat on the back. Thank you for thinking of this. This will make us rethink what were doing and get the discussion started. In one of them, it was a total negative reaction. One negative comment after another. But thats what you expect, too, when you bring new ideas, I think.

Kruse says hes taking comments from those presentations and discussions and using them to make SIUs program even stronger something he says will benefit this years incoming students as well as their future patients.

Continued here:
WSIU InFocus: SIU Medical School Reinvents Doctor Training - WSIU

A little vacant lot in the Allentown historic district that sits directly across from University at Buffalo's new medical school is becoming a magnet for offers from real estate developers.

The grassy plot at 942 Main St. which has an overgrown community garden, a bench and a decorative stone wall that proclaims "Allentown" is worth only $29,861, according to city property records.

But because of the uptick in developer interest surrounding the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and nearby neighborhoods, an owner of the 32.5-foot-by-118-foot parcel says he's received offers hovering in the $500,000 range.

Dino Scouras, the co-owner of the Towne Restaurant in Allentown, co-owns the lot with his brother and sister.

In the last two months, the siblings have received three offers for the vacant lot, said Scouras.

"I'm not surprised by the interest," said Scouras, who owns it along with his brother Paul, and sister, Eleni Konstantopoulos. "That corner is jumping out at everybody."

Scouras said the family is open to offers on the parcel, along with another vacant corner lot it owns at Park and Allen streets which he can see kitty-corner through a window at the Towne restaurant, a 46-year neighborhood fixture at Allen and Elmwood Avenue.

"We're not sure if we'd want to build to suit, or sell the property outright," Scouras said of the 942 Main St. property. "We're open to offers."

Asked if the family would consider developing it for its own business interests, he said: "We're keeping all our options open."

For years, the corner lot has had four large, white stones to provide a unique, decorative element to the corner. The planting bed and decorative stone wall were created by University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning students, guided by professor Brad Wales.

More:
Vacant corner lot by new UB medical school drawing developers' interest - Buffalo News

When the University of Vermonts medical school opens for the year in the summer of 2019, it will be missing something that all but one of its peer institutions have: lectures.

The Larner College of Medicine is scheduled to become the first U.S. medical school to eliminate lectures from its curriculum two years from now, putting it at the leading edge of a trend that could change the way the next generation of physicians learn their profession. (The medical school at Case Western Reserve University also has a no-lecture curriculum, established when the school opened in 2004.)

As anyone who has fallen asleep during a three-hour lecture class can attest, taking notes from a sage on a stage isnt as effective as other ways to absorb information, and research confirms this. The main reason for the traditional method seems to be, well, tradition; medical professors and other teachers have been doing it this way for centuries.

Retention after a lecture is maybe 10 percent, said Charles G. Prober, senior associate dean for medical education at the Stanford University School of Medicine. If thats accurate, if its even in the ballpark of accurate, thats a problem.

Instead, medical schools across the country are experimenting with various forms of active learning dividing students into small groups and having them solve problems or answer questions. In addition to improving retention, the approach more closely mimics the way work is accomplished in the real world.

It creates a stickier learning environment where the information stays with you better and you have a better depth of understanding, said William Jeffries, senior associate dean for medical education at Vermonts Larner College of Medicine, who is leading the effort.

The trend at medical schools is just part of a reform movement in the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) that emphasizes active learning instead of lecturing. Research supports the approach. When a team of researchers analyzed 225 studies that compared active learning and lectures in these fields, they found that test scores improved about 6 percent for students in active learning classes and that students in lecture classes were about 1.5 times more likely to fail than their counterparts in active learning classes.

Their 2014 analysis, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also found that active learning is effective in all class sizes, though best in smaller groups.

The Larner school has moved most quickly toward the new approach, funded by a $66 million gift from Robert Larner, who graduated from the medical school in 1942. The money will be used to build facilities more suitable for small group instruction and train faculty in the new approach, Jeffries said.

Under the Larner model, students do their homework the night before class, rather than after it. They study the material in texts and online before a class, then take a short quiz to gauge how well theyve learned it. After that, they break up into groups of six and attempt to solve a medical problem, then discuss their conclusions, led by a professor who acts as both a facilitator and an instructor, Jeffries said.

Youre expected to learn the information prior to attending (a class), he said. You do your homework first. Then you come and work, usually in groups, to solve a problem based on that knowledge.

The role change is not easy and sometimes it shows. Collin York, who will graduate from the school in 2020, said he strongly favors active learning. But the main complaint I have is when active learning sessions arent run particularly well, the atmosphere becomes a little chaotic. Classes can get noisy, and students attention shifts quickly from problem to problem. Instructors sometimes struggle to maintain control, he said.

If the class is run well, you genuinely do not have to revisit that material, he said.

York said he also feels a responsibility to learn material before each class so he wont let his classmates down when its time for problem solving. The real meat of these sessions, if you ask me, is really in the reasoning through different answers, he said.

With so much material including recordings of lectures now online, medical students are making the transition easier, Prober said.

When you go into a lecture in medical schools across the nation, you will find a minority of students actually present, he said. Medical students are adults. One generally believes that adults try to make decisions that are in their best interests. They have seemingly made the decision that it is not in the lectures.

See the article here:
Medical school without the 'sage on a stage' - Daily Republic - Fairfield Daily Republic

When the University of Vermont's medical school opens for the year in the summer of 2019, it will be missing something that all but one of its peer institutions have: lectures.

The Larner College of Medicine is scheduled to become the first U.S. medical school to eliminate lectures from its curriculum two years from now, putting it at the leading edge of a trend that could change the way the next generation of physicians learn their profession. (The medical school at Case Western Reserve University also has a no-lecture curriculum, established when the school opened in 2004.)

As anyone who has fallen asleep during a three-hour lecture class can attest, taking notes from a sage on a stage isn't as effective as other ways to absorb information, and research confirms this. The main reason for the traditional method seems to be, well, tradition; medical professors and other teachers have been doing it this way for centuries.

Retention after a lecture is maybe 10 percent, said Charles G. Prober, senior associate dean for medical education at the Stanford University School of Medicine. If thats accurate, if its even in the ballpark of accurate, thats a problem.

[First year doctors will be allowed to work 24-hour shifts]

Instead, medical schools across the country are experimenting with various forms of active learning" dividing students into small groups and having them solve problems or answer questions. In addition to improving retention, the approach more closely mimics the way work is accomplished in the real world.

It creates a stickier learning environment where the information stays with you better and you have a better depth of understanding, said William Jeffries, senior associate dean for medical education at Vermont's Larner College of Medicine, who is leading the effort.

The trend at medical schools is just part of a reform movement in the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) that emphasizes active learning instead of lecturing. Research supports the approach. When a team of researchers analyzed 225 studies that compared active learning and lectures in these fields, they found that test scores improved about 6 percent for students in active learning classes and that students in lecture classes were about 1.5 times more likely to fail than their counterparts in active learning classes.

[Heart doctors are listening for clues to the future of their stethoscopes]

Their 2014 analysis, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also found that active learning is effective in all class sizes, though best in smaller groups.

The Larner school has moved most quickly toward the new approach, funded by a $66 million gift from Robert Larner, who graduated from the medical school in 1942. The money will be used to build facilities more suitable for small group instruction and train faculty in the new approach, Jeffries said.

Under the Larner model, students do their homework the night before class, rather than after it. They study the material in texts and online before a class, then take a short quiz to gauge how well they've learned it. After that, they break up into groups of six and attempt to solve a medical problem, then discuss their conclusions, led by a professor who acts as both a facilitator and an instructor, Jeffries said.

You're expected to learn the information prior to attending [a class]," he said. You do your homework first. Then you come and work, usually in groups, to solve a problem based on that knowledge.

The role change is not easy and sometimes it shows. Collin York, who will graduate from the school in 2020, said he strongly favors active learning. But the main complaint I have is when active learning sessions arent run particularly well, the atmosphere becomes a little chaotic. Classes can get noisy, and students' attention shifts quickly from problem to problem. Instructors sometimes struggle to maintain control, he said.

If the class is run well, you genuinely do not have to revisit that material, he said.

York said he also feels a responsibility to learn material before each class so he won't let his classmates down when it's time for problem solving. The real meat of these sessions, if you ask me, is really in the reasoning through different answers, he said.

With so much material including recordings of lectures now online, medical students are making the transition easier, Prober said.

When you go into a lecture in medical schools across the nation, you will find a minority of students actually present, he said. Medical students are adults. One generally believes that adults try to make decisions that are in their best interests. They have seemingly made the decision that it is not in the lectures.

See the original post here:
Medical school without the 'sage on a stage' - Washington Post

USC faced a choice five years ago: Keep Dr. Carmen Puliafito at the helm of the Keck School of Medicine or replace him.

As dean, Puliafito had brought in star researchers, raised hundreds of millions of dollars and boosted the schools national ranking all critical steps in USCs plan to become an elite research institution.

But what might have been an easy decision to renew his appointment was complicated by a groundswell of opposition from the medical schools faculty and staff.

Keck employees had complained repeatedly about what they considered Puliafitos hair-trigger temper, public humiliation of colleagues and perceived drinking problem, and many were adamant he be removed, according to current and former university employees as well as four letters of complaint reviewed by The Times.

Thomas Meredith / For The Times

USC President C. L. Max Nikias reappointed Puliafito to a second term in 2012.

USC President C. L. Max Nikias reappointed Puliafito to a second term in 2012. (Thomas Meredith / For The Times)

The people who spoke to The Times include a former USC administrator who handled personnel grievances, the medical schools former human resources director and prominent faculty members.

As a representative of USC, the Dean is an embarrassment to our School and the University, one Keck professor wrote in a March 2012 letter to the university provost.

Still, USC President C.L. Max Nikias opted to reappoint Puliafito, giving him a new five-year term with an annual salary of more than $1 million.

Puliafitos problems escalated. As The Times has reported, he partied with a circle of addicts, prostitutes and other criminals who said he used drugs with them, including on campus.

Late Friday, hours after the newspaper informed USC it was preparing to publish this story, Nikias sent a letter to the campus community acknowledging that the university received various complaints about Dr. Puliafitos behavior during his nearly decade-long tenure as dean.

Rebecca Sapp / WireImage

Then-Dean Carmen A. Puliafito, left, Dr. Inderbir Gill, actress Shirley MacLaine, actress Annette Bening and actor Warren Beatty at a USC event at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel in May 2009.

Then-Dean Carmen A. Puliafito, left, Dr. Inderbir Gill, actress Shirley MacLaine, actress Annette Bening and actor Warren Beatty at a USC event at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel in May 2009. (Rebecca Sapp / WireImage)

Nikias didnt provide details of the complaints but wrote that the university took disciplinary action against Puliafito and provided him professional development coaching. He didnt specify when.

The president also offered his first public account of the circumstances of Puliafitos abrupt resignation in the middle of the spring 2016 term, writing that he stepped down after Provost Michael Quick confronted him with new complaints about his behavior.

Do you have information about USC's former med school dean? We want to hear from you

Puliafito, now 66, was allowed to continue representing USC at official functions and remained on the faculty and hospital staff.

Nikias said Friday that at the time of the deans resignation, no university leader was aware of any illegal or illicit activities, which would have led to a review of his clinical responsibilities.

Over the last two weeks, Nikias and other university leaders have said they were stunned by the revelations about the former dean.

But interviews with two dozen of Puliafitos former colleagues suggest that complaints about his behavior were widespread and that at least some reached USCs upper management. The colleagues said Puliafitos conduct hurt morale and posed a risk to the schools reputation.

There were complaints about his demeanor, behavior and manner, said Jody Shipper, who headed USCs equity and diversity office for more than a decade. She left in 2015.

James Lynch, who was the medical schools human resources director for five years, said employees came to him fairly regularly about misbehavior by Puliafito, including rudeness and suspected drunk driving.

Many of the people who worked for him complained about the difficulty of just being around him, Lynch said.

Current Keck dean Dr. Rohit Varma told a gathering of medical school students this month that Puliafito had received treatment for alcoholism.

Puliafito did not respond to a request for comment. He previously told The Times he resigned of his own accord to pursue a job in private industry.

Concerns about him were contained in lengthy written evaluations in 2012 that were assembled to help determine Puliafitos fitness for a second term.

Everybody I knew trashed him, and he still got [re]hired, said former USC ophthalmology professor Dr. Kenneth L. Lu, who moved to UCLA in 2014.

Many faculty members and staff agreed to speak about Puliafito on the condition of anonymity, citing concerns over their careers. Since The Times report, USC has hired a crisis management firm to handle press inquiries and instructed employees at Keck not to speak to the media. The school also asked that doctors at an affiliate, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, refer all Times inquiries about Puliafito back to the university.

Several interviewed said they were speaking out of a desire to help the institution they loved. Most expressed shock at reports of the former deans drug use.

Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

Faculty and staff members at the USC Keck School of Medicine complained repeatedly about Puliafito's behavior during his tenure as dean, a Times review found.

Faculty and staff members at the USC Keck School of Medicine complained repeatedly about Puliafito's behavior during his tenure as dean, a Times review found. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

In 2007, then-Provost Nikias, who became president three years later, chaired the committee that selected Puliafito, a renowned ophthalmologist, as medical dean. Many of his new colleagues initially found him brilliant and noted his easy rapport with patients and students. He struck them as extremely hardworking and committed to elevating Kecks national profile.

In my mind, anytime I saw him, he wanted to make this school grow, said Bill Watson, a former vice president for development who worked with the dean from 2010 to 2013.

He was prone to anger, however, many former colleagues said. Minor inconveniences sent him into screaming, red-faced rages at staff meetings, they said.

The F-word was in every other sentence, said one former professor. She said she heard a high-ranking Keck administrator vomit in the ladies room after one dressing-down by the dean.

Lynch, the former human resources director, confirmed that Puliafito upbraided that administrator on several occasions. It was certainly challenging, and she ultimately left, he said. Reached by The Times, the woman declined to comment.

One Keck physician said some on Puliafitos support staff consulted her professionally to cope with how the dean treated them.

I literally put people on medical leave for stress related to working with him, the physician recalled.

Others were concerned that he was drinking too much at USC events.

The dean was a heavy drinker, Lynch recalled. He was fond of martinis. He would have several.

He said he never saw Puliafito do anything particularly outrageous but fielded multiple complaints from a female staffer disturbed that he was driving home from the events at which hed been drinking.

She was concerned he might get in an accident and hurt himself or someone else, Lynch said. He didnt want to confront the dean because he thought it would be counterproductive, he said, but he told the woman, If you are concerned, why dont you mention it to him?

Lynch, who was human resources director from 2009 to 2014, said he encouraged faculty and staff to complain directly to Puliafito themselves and did not pass on Keck employees complaints to the university administration.

It never occurred to me to do it, he said.

While Puliafitos personal behavior was distasteful, Lynch said, he was an absolute genius who was improving the medical school.

Hes kind of a pain in the ass, but he gets results, he said, adding that he felt administrators shared that view.

One senior faculty member said he phoned the provosts office after an encounter in which Puliafito seemed to be intoxicated.

An administrator in the office who took down his complaint, he said, thanked him for making the report and assured him it would be reviewed at the highest level.

He said he was not told the outcome and assumed it was being handled confidentially.

Puliafitos behavior caused some of his colleagues to leave. The medical schools admissions dean, Erin Quinn, who had been at USC since the early 1980s, stepped down from a position that I loved in 2011 because I couldn't work under Dr. Puliafitos leadership team.

It had changed from previous deans and compromised my values, she said.

When Puliafitos first term was nearing an end, then-Provost Elizabeth Garrett asked Keck faculty to complete written evaluations of his tenure a standard university practice and, in the provosts words, a crucial part of our evaluation of a deans effectiveness in leading the school.

Puliafito submitted a 19-page self-evaluation in which he listed myriad accomplishments. He noted that he had raised more than $500 million in contributions, recruited prominent researchers from Harvard, Stanford and other prestigious schools and pushed Kecks ranking in U.S. News & World Report up five spots to No. 34.

Professors were given the option of completing an anonymous online survey or writing letters. Some wrote lengthy responses filled with specific examples of Puliafitos shortcomings and urged the administration to replace him, according to interviews.

The Times reviewed four of these evaluations.

His presence has created a very negative atmosphere at KSOM which has alienated a large number of faculty and chairs and created a siege mentality, in which faculty and staff are constantly worried about their welfare and ability to maintain a productive environment in which to work, one professor wrote.

Another longtime faculty member described the dean as unpredictable and given to erratic behavior.

A major, overarching problem at the KSOM is that the Deans lack of effective and collegial leadership have resulted in a very low level of faculty morale, the professor wrote.

A USC employee who has seen the faculty evaluations filed in 2012 said a large number were highly negative and detailed in their criticism of Puliafito. Many of the others highlighted his strengths and weaknesses. The overall feedback showed that he was a polarizing figure at the school, the employee said.

When Garrett announced in June 2012 that Nikias had rehired Puliafito, no one could believe it, another senior faculty member recalled.

In a letter to the faculty and staff, Garrett said she had discussed employees feedback with the dean, including the matters on which some of you believe he could pay additional attention or that may require a different approach.

I am certain he will move forward with your suggestions firmly in mind, she wrote.

Nikias declined to speak about the complaints made against Puliafito. Garrett left USC to become the president of Cornell University in 2015; she died last year.

Puliafitos conduct became even more troubling in his second term.

The Times investigation published earlier this month found that the dean spent long hours partying with a group of younger addicts, prostitutes and other criminals in 2015 and 2016, and brought some to his Keck office in the middle of the night.

USC colleagues recalled that, during the same period, Puliafito was often absent during working hours.

His staff would say, I dont know where the dean is. I will try to call his cellphone, said a university administrator who regularly had business with Puliafito.

Los Angeles Times

In a Friday night letter to the USC community, Nikias said Puliafito was put "on notice for being disengaged from his leadership duties" in November 2015.

In a Friday night letter to the USC community, Nikias said Puliafito was put "on notice for being disengaged from his leadership duties" in November 2015. (Los Angeles Times)

In November 2015, Provost Quick put Puliafito on notice for being disengaged from his leadership duties, Nikias wrote in his letter to the university community Friday.

In March 2016, the dean was with a 21-year-old woman in a Pasadena hotel room when she overdosed. The woman, Sarah Warren, told The Times she and Puliafito resumed using drugs as soon as she was released from the hospital.

A witness to the overdose phoned Nikias office March 14 and threatened to go to the press if the school didnt take action against the dean.

Nikias said in his Friday letter that two receptionists who spoke to the witness did not find the report credible and did not pass it on to supervisors.

Just a few days earlier, Nikias said, two university employees had come forward with separate complaints about the dean. They told Quick that Puliafito seemed further removed from his duties and expressed concerns about his behavior.

The Provost consulted with me promptly and, as a result, confronted Dr. Puliafito. He chose to resign his position on March 24, 2016, and was placed on sabbatical leave, the president wrote.

On the Keck campus, the timing of Puliafitos resignation on a Thursday in the middle of the school term with no advance notice seemed suspicious.

Everybody read it as cover story, said one senior faculty member. But, he added, there was a sense of relief.

Nikias and top USC officials honored Puliafito and praised his leadership a few months later at a campus reception. He continued to practice medicine at USC clinics.

In his Friday night letter, Nikias wrote that school officials didnt hear about the overdose until they received an unsubstantiated tip months after Puliafito stepped down as dean.

When we approached Dr. Puliafito about the incident, he stated a friends daughter had overdosed at a Pasadena hotel and he had accompanied her to the hospital, he wrote.

The president also said that in March, The Times did provide the university with detailed questions about, and a copy of a 911 recording from the Pasadena hotel incident. The recording was immediately referred to the Hospital Medical Staff, a committee that assesses clinical competency, Nikias said. In the 911 call, Puliafito describes himself as a doctor and the woman who had the overdose as his girlfriend.

The clinical competency committee determined that there were no existing patient care complaints and no known clinical issues, the president said.

It wasnt until The Times published its report that the school barred Puliafito from seeing patients and the state medical board launched an investigation of him.

On Friday, USCs crisis management firm released a letter from the chairs of 23 Keck departments. Addressed to USCs board of trustees, it affirmed their support for Nikias and Quick.

harriet.ryan@latimes.com

paul.pringle@latimes.com

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

sarah.parvini@latimes.com

adam.elmahrek@latimes.com

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Complaints of drinking, abusive behavior dogged USC medical school dean for years - Los Angeles Times