Recently, there has been a number of articles on reducing the length of medical training to help ease the physician shortage. And our medical curriculum is due for a major overhaul. Its foundational document, the Flexner report, was released over 100 years ago, and our medical needs and knowledge have changed. Shortening medical education may provide a “bonus” in easing the anticipated shortage of physicians but may have more significant unanticipated consequences.
The bonus
While estimates vary, we are expected to need an additional 100,000 physicians beyond our current capacity to graduate physicians by 2030. Currently 90,000 complete medical schools annually from U.S. schools so by reducing medical school one year we would have a one-time “bonus” of an additional 90,000 graduates and resolve our problem without having to expand the number of training positions open our capacity. Medical school does not feature summer vacations; it is a year-round activity — so to reduce time spent, you have to either make the little ones learn faster or learn less. And you can’t skip education physicians need and use daily, the tools of the trade, like the knowledge of our body’s systems, physiology or how to diagnose various diseases or even the practical arts, like how to do a physical examination.
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