Medical schools in crisis

Abstract

The medical schools of the United States are in crisis because of poor teaching methods, misdirected training of medical students, and failure to respond to the needs of the population. Much of the increased cost of medical care can be blamed on high technology and the type of training provided in the medical school. Students are trained in hospital care and use of technology to forward treatment rather than in the ambulatory and family practice care they will use later in their careers. Medical schools are to be blamed for teaching specialty medicine and thus providing large numbers of unneeded surgeons and other specialists. In addition, too many physicians of all sorts are being trained; this raises the cost of medical care to the population as a whole. Proposals are made to limit the number and kind of specialties, to restrict medical school enrollments, to train medical students in ambulatory environments, and to reorient medical care from the hospital to less costly environments. With the DRG regulations and pressure from government, medical schools must alter their curriculum in order to meet the challenges of the future.