Industry Trends

Modern Education for Modern Medicine

Medical class​It is impressive that in just 100 years, humans have invented and discovered such things as the automobile, television, airplane, space travel, cell phones, and a whole host of medical treatments. It could easily be said that the 20th century saw the most inventions and progress than any other century in history.

Yet, over the last 100 years, the way medical students have been trained has largely stayed the same. Some of the nation’s most prominent medical programs have taken notice. As a result, a number of schools are revamping their curricula to better prepare emerging physicians for today’s healthcare issues and challenges.

In a recent interview with Fox News, Charles Lockwood, MD, MHCM, dean of The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine, expressed why such a shift is necessary.

“If you think the last 10 years have been quite a change, really when we begin to be able to sequence people’s entire DNA, and identify every conceivable illness that they’re going to have, and begin to design prevention along those lines―it’s going to require a very different mindset for docs.”

With a vastly different healthcare arena and patient population from those that existed 100 years ago, today’s medical providers require modern clinical skills—procedures, treatments, preventative measures, and medications—for their medical specialties. And to interact appropriately with their patients, they are also expected to have appropriate communication skills, medical business understanding, and command of modern technology.

According to a recent article on the The University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) website, the 150-year-old institution is also following this trend. “The curriculum is being redesigned from the perspective of what kind of doctor we need to meet the demands of practice in the 21st century,” said Catherine Lucey, MD, vice dean for education at UCSF School of Medicine. She explained some of those demands include persistent problems of safety, quality, patient satisfaction, and waste in healthcare delivery.

Lockwood also expressed the importance of today’s physicians knowing the true cost of healthcare. “Every test that they order, they need to understand exactly what that costs, every imaging procedure, every test that they do has a cost, and they need to understand what it is, and is it absolutely necessary or is there another way to get that information?”

This shift in medical education isn’t just happening at the university level. The American Medical Association (AMA) announced recently that it will award $11 million to select universities making real changes in modernizing their medical school curricula. With major backers like the AMA, American clinicians are set to revolutionize modern medicine in a way never before seen.

About the author

Amy Coelho

Amy Coehlo has more than 10 years of combined experience in the areas of journalistic and technical writing, public relations, brand management, marketing and communications.

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