The experiment in medical education at the City College of New York

Abstract

Described is a program leading to the B.S. and M.D. degrees in six or seven years which integrates the physical sciences with the basic medical sciences and emphasizes the humanities and social sciences as a necessary component of the physician's education. The selection process is designed to identify young men and women who will become primary care physicians in underserved urban communities. At the end of the fourth year it was shown that the graduates were comparable with second-year medical students as measured by national examinations. It is suggested that the changes made in the premedical curriculum merit general consideration inasmuch as the course work is more pertinent to the practive of medicine and offers a sound education for other health careers for those unable to continue their medical training.