Rating the Social Mission of Medical Schools
While "the basic purpose of medical schools is to educate physicians to care for the national population. Fulfilling this goal requires an adequate number of primary care physicians, adequate distribution of physicians to underserved areas, and a sufficient number of minority physicians in the workforce."In a new study released in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the researchers took a fresh look at the ranking of American medical schools according to these three criteria, labelling this new metric the 'social mission score'.
They summarized their conclusions in this way: "Medical schools vary substantially in their contribution to the social mission of medical education. School rankings based on the social mission score differ from those that use research funding and subjective assessments of school reputation. These findings suggest that initiatives at the medical school level could increase the proportion of physicians who practice primary care, work in underserved areas, and are underrepresented minorities."
"A diverse, equitably distributed physician workforce with a strong primary care base is essential to achieve quality health care that is accessible and affordable, regardless of the nature of any future health care reform."The full text article is accessible through your EBSCO login or click on the title.
Online access includes a Facebook discussion as well as PowerPoint slides for teaching.
(2010). The Social Mission of Medical Education: Ranking the Schools. Annals of Internal Medicine, 152(12), 804-811. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Labels: medical education, medical school ranking, minority physicians, primary care physicians, shortage of doctors, social mission
posted by Ann Celestine @ 10:29 AM
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