Abstracts Online

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Undergraduate Preparation

A Survey on the ‘Premedical Syndrome’

Robert M. Sade, M.D., Glenn A. Fleming, Ph.D., and G. Robert Ross, Ph.D.

Abstract  The "premedical syndrome" has been widely discussed but only anecdotally described. To learn whether the syndrome exists in the South Carolina schools and which traits compose it, the authors surveyed faculty members and students of 13 undergraduate colleges in the state. Premedical students were perceived as differing from nonpremedical students in being excessively competitive, academically overspecialized, overachieving, more highly motivated, more highly self-disciplined, goal-oriented, and proud of their career choice. The perception by students and faculty members of the premedical syndrome may have important effects on the undergraduate curriculum and students’ choices of major areas of study. Only three percent of the premedical students who responded to the survey were majoring in the liberal arts, and only nine percent of the nonpremedical students were majoring in the natural sciences. These data suggest that the natural science departments in United States colleges may have become training grounds for premedical students to the exclusion of others. Modification of medical school admissions policies may be able to reverse some features of the premedical syndrome and some of its effects.

V4-4-1

Is There Any Place for Basic Sciences Education in Health Professional Training?

R.L.B. Neame, M.B., Ph.D.

Abstract  The conventional structure of undergraduate medical education makes the implicit assumption that a "sound basis" in the understanding of the basic science disciplines is an essential prerequisite for starting clinical studies. It further assumes that the context within which the facts are presented is appropriate to this purpose and that demonstration of basic science knowledge is sufficient for the commencement of clinical studies. The precise structure of the preclinical phase of the medical course varies slightly from medical college to medical college but in general remains not unlike that described by Abraham Flexner more than 70 years ago, with the exception that it now packs many more facts and details into a similar space. The time has come to question the assumptions and to review the objectives of studying the basic medical sciences and the competencies that a student needs in order to progress to clinical studies. The author in this article reviews the available data and concludes that there is a substantial need for reform of the aims, content, and context of the learning in medical school preceding the clinical years.

V5-2-1

Impact of Undergraduate Courses on Medical Student Performance in Basic Sciences

Stephen D. Canaday, Ph.D. and Carol J. Lancaster

Abstract  Many students planning to apply to medical school take undergraduate courses (for example, biochemistry, embryology, histology, and vertebrate anatomy) covering concepts that are taught within the medical school curriculum. Do these students perform better in similar courses in medical school than students without prior exposure? In the study reported here of 310 medical students, approximately 50 percent had taken biochemistry, 50 percent had taken a course dealing with vertebrate anatomy, 25 percent had taken embryology, and 25 percent had taken histology as undergraduates. In comparisons of the students with prior exposure to these courses and those without prior exposure, no statistical difference was noted in cumulative grade point averages for the first year in medical school or in the students’ scores in three of the four individual medical courses examined. In addition, there was no significant difference in the academic performances in the four courses between the students in the upper and the lower quartiles of the class. Implications regarding undergraduate preparation of medical school applications are discussed.

V6-2-1

Predictive Validity of Pre-Medical Health Care Experience for Clinical Performance

Jerry A. Colliver, Ph.D., Gerry R. Schermerhorn, Nancy M. Calvert, and Stephen J. Markwell

Abstract  The number of months of practical experience in a health care setting prior to medical school was found to have significant although weak relationships with faculty ratings of subsequent clinical clerkship performance. Although small, the correlations between premedical experience and clinical clerkship performance were generally larger than the correlations of the more commonly used admissions indicators, GPA and MCATs, with clinical performance. Even with pre-medical experience statistically adjusted for age, the findings remained.

V6-3-1

Course Work and Grades of Pre-Medical Students at Two Liberal Arts Colleges

Gwendolyn L. Lewis, Ph.D.

Abstract  Choices of courses and academic performances of pre-medical students were investigated at two liberal arts colleges. Four hypotheses tested related to the areas of science concentration in the students’ overall academic programs, breadth of the programs, depth of study in subjects outside science, and the grades achieved in all areas. Altogether, 345 students from the classes of 1982 and 1983 were studied. Pre-medical students were compared with non pre-medical students and other students majoring in biology, chemistry, or other health-related subjects had similar distributions of course credits by academic division and studied a greater breadth of subject matter than did other students. In contrast, the other students tended to study one subject outside their major in greater depth than the pre-medical students and other students majoring in biology and chemistry, and these subjects were usually in an academic division that did not include their major departments. The students from the two colleges who were admitted to medical schools achieved higher grades than either rejected applicants or nonapplicants from the colleges.

V7-3-2

The Pre-Medical Undergraduate Chemistry Requirement

Barbara Y. Stewart, Ph.D.

Abstract  Information from 106 medical schools indicates that 92 percent of these schools will accept a one semester course in biochemistry to complete the entrance requirement of two years of chemistry with laboratories. Students in colleges whose chemistry departments offer only a one semester introductory inorganic chemistry course may complete the one year inorganic requirement with a semester of biochemistry. Thirty-six (34 percent) of the responding medical schools agreed to accept only three semesters of chemistry. Forty-five of the ninety-eight schools (46 percent) replied that a laboratory was a necessary part of all chemistry courses.

V8-1-2

Clinical Observation Program for Health Pre-Professions Students

T. G. Jackson, Ph.D.

Abstract  A Clinical Observation Program was introduced in 1977 as a part of the Health Pre-Professional Program at the University of South Alabama. This course gives the student clinical exposure to the health care areas of medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy and veterinary medicine. The way this program is administered and the value of such a program is discussed.

V8-2-2

Prediction, Preparation and Success of the Rural Student

Charles R. Englund, Ph.D.

Background  Bethany College is a small church-related college in Lindsborg, Kansas. Lindsborg is a city of 3,200 located 75 miles north of Wichita, and Bethany is a college of 750 full-time students. The college and the town are somewhat famous for having presented Handel’s Messiah on Palm Sunday and Easter for over one hundred years with a chorus of 400 students, townspeople and area farmers. The last two years the Messiah was shown nationally on public television. Bethany would be classed as a semi-selective college, drawing 63 percent of its students from Kansas, 16 percent from Colorado, and five percent from Nebraska. Most of these students are from small-town or rural high schools. To understand what is meant by a small-town or rural high school, consider the following: The consolidated school district in which Bethany is located has a high school of about 250 students. The school district itself has more square miles of area than the five boroughs of New York City! The population becomes even more sparse in western Kansas and eastern Colorado. (Some of these schools are forced to play eight-man football since they don’t have enough for a regulation team.)

V8-3-1

Making Doctors Human

Connie Leslie, Lisa Drew, Evan Chuck and Mitchell Horowitz

Universities Revise Both Preparation And Curricula For Med Schools

. . . Alcoholics, down-and-outers, weren’t supposed to have eyes that sparkled. Mary’s did . . . I wanted to hold her, to tell her that a bad dream was ending, that we were going to make her problem our problem. But we weren’t. She had come to the wrong place to be helped. The emergency room would provide only "episodic" care focusing on today’s symptoms. Livers, not lives . . .

V8-3-2

Academic Qualifications and Nonacademic Characteristics of Science and Nonscience Majors Applying to Medical School

Rhea L. Dornbush, Ph.D., Paul Singer, M.D., Edward J. Brownstein, M.D., and Steven Richman, Ph.D.

The traditional undergraduate preparation for medical school has been a science major, most commonly biology or chemistry. Medical educators and commentators have repeatedly expressed the desirability (1) and advantage (2) of accepting students into medical school who have been broadly educated in college with balanced studies in the natural and social sciences and the humanities. Although Noralou Roos and University of Manitoba colleagues, in a paper presented at the 1976 Conference on Research in Medical Education of the Association of American Medical Colleges, demonstrated that nonscience majors were not more patient-oriented than science majors, there has been little further study of this aspect of medical school applicants’ characteristics. It has, however, been shown that there is no bias against nonscience majors in the admissions process (3) and that there are no consistent differences among science and nonscience majors in admissions qualifications, such as Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores and grade point average (GPA), or in academic performance in medical school as measured by scores on the national Board of Medical Examiners examinations and GPAs (4-6). These studies were based on matriculating classes and may represent highly select groups.

The authors’ purpose in the present study was to examine academic qualifications and nonacademic characteristics among students with different undergraduate majors in a larger, less selective group, specifically in an applicant pool invited for interview.

V8-4-1

Your Students  Our Students:  Counseling Suggestions for Medical School

Dorothy H. Air, Ph.D. and Carol Banks Setter, Ph.D.

Introduction  The traditional role of the pre-medical advisor is to disseminate information about medical school requirements and application process, aid students in undergraduate course selection, provide resource information for exploring career options, and counsel students regarding their ability to succeed in medical school. Of these primary responsibilities, it is the last one which proves to be a problematic one.

There are a number of factors which contribute to the difficulty the advisor encounters in counseling a student about his/her ability to succeed in medical schools. The most significant problem relates to the selection criteria used by medical schools. Since the majority of medical schools rely heavily upon GPAs and MCAT scores in their admission standards, advisors counsel students based upon their achievement respective to these two criteria. In reality, however, the literature provides little support for the predictive value of these numerical indicators and, therefore, an artificial counseling situation is created for the advisor. Additionally, follow-up interaction with students after college graduation is usually limited, so advisors receive little information concerning the success or failure of their former students. The advisor has no formal mechanisms for gaining additional insight into those factors which might have affected success by reviewing the progress of former advisees and evaluating the variables on a case by case basis.

Despite these counseling problems, the issue of predicting success in medical schools is an important one since a number of highly competitive medical school candidates go on to fail. Certainly failure in an academic environment is not unknown, and a certain amount may even be expected by schools. However, failure at the medical school level is a particularly perplexing problem considering that the entering criteria of the students accepted place them in a very academically elite category.

V8-4-2

Traditional Predictors of Performance in Medical School

Karen J. Mitchell, Ph.D.

Abstract  This paper addresses the predictive value for performance in medical school of undergraduate grades, the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), information on the selectivity of the undergraduate institution, and selected transcript data. The performance data examined were basic science grades; clinical science grades; scores on National Board of Medical Examiners examination, Parts I, II and III; and information on academic difficulty. Methodological sources of differences in validity data, including restriction in range, criterion attenuation, and method specificity, are discussed. Reported validity data affirm the substantial value of traditional academic predictors of performance in medical school. Selection committees should, nevertheless, supplement academic data with nonacademic and interview information. Their inclusion is particularly important for minority and disadvantaged applicants. Medical schools should assess the validity of their selection systems. Additional research on the relations between academic predictors and performance-based indexes of clinical competence and on the role of traditional predictors with regard to the recently declining medical school applicant pool is suggested. Acad. Med.65(1990):149-158.

V11-1-3

Postbaccalaureate Preparation and Performance in Medical School

Mohammadreza Hojat, Ph.D., Robert S. Blacklow, M.D., Mary Robeson, M.S., J. Jon Veloski, M.S., and Bette D. Borenstein, Ph.D.

Abstract  The question whether postbaccalaureate preparation before matriculation in medical school contributes to medical student’s performance was addressed by this study. A total of 610 (91%) of the students who entered Jefferson Medical College between 1985 and 1987 were the study sample. Fifty-eight of these students had taken nondegree undergraduate premedical courses and 15 had taken nondegree graduate courses. Fourteen students held graduate degrees and 60 students had some combination of the aforementioned types of postbaccalaureate preparations. The other 463 students had not taken postbaccalaureate courses. Grades received in medical school courses such as anatomy, biochemistry, mechanisms of disease, physiology, microbiology, pathology, and pharmacology, as well as total scores on Part I of the National Board of Medical Examiners examination were selected as performance variables. Statistical analyses showed that the students who had taken nondegree postbaccalaureate courses had lower undergraduate grade-point averages than those without such courses and received lower grades on some measures of performance in medical school. The students with such additional academic backgrounds were also older than the average medical student. When adjustments were made for undergraduate grade-point averages by applying analysis of covariance, the observed differences that favored the group without postbaccalaureate preparation either became nonsignificant or favored those with such preparation. The differences favoring those without postbaccalaureate preparation could be accounted for mostly by these students’ higher undergraduate grade-point averages and younger ages. Implications for admission decisions with regard to the changing applicant pool are discussed. Acad.Med. 65(1990):388-391.

V11-2-3

A Program to Prepare Minority Students for Careers in Medicine, Science, and Other High-Level Professions

Morton Slater, Ph.D., and Elisabeth Iler, J.D.

Abstract  The Gateway to Higher Education program is a comprehensive four-year high school program with specially designed enrichment and support. Its principal goal is to increase the number of minority students who will be prepared to enter training for high-level professional careers, especially in medicine and science. The program was established in September 1986 to demonstrate that minority students who perform at least at grade level can begin a rigorous curriculum in the ninth grade and achieve outstanding results, provided that the necessary support systems are in place. For 1990-91, 750 students are enrolled in Gateway programs at five New York City public high schools, and the first 119 students graduated in June 1990. The graduates have demonstrated significant achievement compared with that of their peers, as measured by standardized tests and the graduates’ participation in research mentorships and college acceptances. In order to expand on its initial success, the program has increased its scope of activity to include over 400 students at the junior high school level.

V12-2-1

Correlating Students’ Undergraduate Science GPAs, Their MCAT Scores, and the Academic Caliber of Their Undergraduate Colleges with Their First-Year Academic Performances Across Five Classes at Dartmouth Medical School

Frances R. Hall, Ed.M., and Beth A. Bailey, M.A.

Abstract  Reviewing the predictive validity of admission criteria to improve the selection process is important to a school in maintaining quality in the entering class. For this reason, the authors studied how the academic criteria used to select the 420 students who entered Dartmouth Medical School from 1982 to 1986 compared with the students’ first-year academic performances. The criteria used were Medical College admission Test scores, undergraduate science grade-point averages, and college selectivity (i.e., the academic caliber of the students’ undergraduate colleges). Results showed that a combination of these criteria were useful in identifying the students who were successful in their first year. The authors suggest that their findings also demonstrate the ability to an admission committee to subjectively weigh these academic criteria with consistent results in student performance.

V12-3-1

Using Interactive Videodiscs to Teach Gross Anatomy to Undergraduates at The Ohio State University

Julia F. Guy, Ph.D., and Anthony J. Frisby, Ph.D.

Abstract  To determine whether interactive-videodisc lessons can effectively replace some of the labor-intensive laboratories in human gross anatomy, pre-nursing and allied-medical-professions undergraduates at The Ohio State University were randomly assigned to either a traditional cadaver-demonstration lab or an interactive videodisc computer lab covering the same material. In a one-unit pilot study in the autumn quarter of 1989 (involving 190 students) and a full-quarter course in the spring quarter of 1991 (283 students), the performances of the computer-lab students were not significantly different from those of the students in the traditional cadaver demonstration-lab groups.

V12-3-3

Helping the Pre-Health Science Student Select a Volunteer Opportunity:  An Advisor's Guide

Michael J. Stebleton, M.A.

"One must learn by doing the thing:  For though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try."  Sophocles

Introduction  Research indicates that many college students engage in some type of volunteer or service work.  According to one study, 67% of first year students reported that they had performed  volunteer work in the last year.  It could be argued that this statistic is even higher among pre-health science students who are seeking admission to a professional program.  One of the many roles of the academic advisor is to serve as a resource for students.  Students often rely on the wisdom of the advisor to assist them with educational and career-related decisions.  These decisions include choices regarding volunteer experiences.  This article will explore reasons for student volunteerism, provide a model for assisting students to choose an experience, and give ideas for ways students can enrich their volunteer experience.  Implications and suggestions for advisors will also be provided.   

V15-3-1

A Look at Pre-Medical Preparation in the United States

M Rebecca Enochs, Ph.D.

Introduction  Students preparing to enter the medical profession today face challenges of multiple facets . . . . In this study are presented results of a survey designed to provide an assessment by fourth-year medical students  of how their pre-med programs prepared them for medical school and the challenges of being a physician.  Major areas addressed inclued:  (1) adequacy of preparation in ethics, academics, problem solving, communication skills and clinical/professional exposure; (2) misconceptions; (3) choice of residency and influence of indebtedness on that choice; (4) type and needs of pre-med advising; and (5) relevance of MCAT scores to selection of successful medical students and physicians.  

V16-2-1

The Role of Natural Science in the Premedical Curriculum

Bruce Doblin, M.D., M.P.H., Stanley Korenman, M.D.

Abstract  The authors examined the role of natural sciences in entering students’ academic preparation for admission to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Medicine by analyzing the college transcripts of 290 students in the classes of 1990 1995 to determine the breadth of the students’ college course work. In addition, during 1990 the authors surveyed 126 full-time basic science and clinical faculty about their views regarding the optimal requirements for admission. The vast majority of the students’ college courses had been in the natural sciences, with no significant change in this finding over the five-year period. Of the faculty surveyed, 97 (77%) responded, stating that the majority of prerequisites should be in the natural sciences; their prerequisites were similar to UCLA’s 1991-92 admission requirements. The authors suggest that the persistently narrow focus on the natural sciences as a preparation for medical school may explain the nationwide need to instruct medical students in the humanities, and that perhaps it is time to require non-science courses to broaden the educational backgrounds of entering students. Acad. Med. 67(1992):539-541.

V13-1-1

Preclinical Science Course "Preludes" Taken by Premedical Students: Do They Provide a Competitive Advantage?

Richard M. Caplan, M.D., Clarence Kreiter, Ph.D., and Mark Albanese, Ph.D.

Background. Premedical students often elect advanced science courses whose content will reappear during preclinical courses. Are such "preludes" useful?

Method. The study participants were the 176 first-year students entering the University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1992. Their grades in medical school courses in biochemistry, gross anatomy, histology, physiology, and microbiology were compared with their grades in similar premedical courses.

Results. The students who had taken a premedical prelude in advanced science performed no better than their classmates except in biochemistry, where the 118 students (67%) with prior biochemistry exposure had a significantly higher mean score (96.3 vs 87.6, p < .0001 using Student’s t-test). A biochemistry prelude appeared to benefit all students, especially those from minorities underrepresented in medicine. In addition, among the 13 students who failed biochemistry in medical school, a number of them had low grades in organic chemistry and had not taken a premedical course in biochemistry. To test the replicability of the findings, an analysis was undertaken of the biochemistry performances of the 162 students who had entered in 1991, and again a significant difference was found between the students who had and those who had not taken a biochemistry prelude.

Conclusion. A premedical biochemistry course, required by only two schools in 1995-96, appears advantageous, especially for students with weak academic preparation. Lack of such benefit from other preludes suggests that premedical students might better choose electives in arts and humanities to enhance their educational breadth. Acad. Med. 1996; 71:920-922.

V17-1-1

Assessing Your Application Profile: A Workshop for Pre-Health Students

David Verrier, Ph.D., and Gale Lang, M.S.W.

Successful careers are not planned. They develop when students are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. - Norma Wagoner, Ph.D.

One of the most common challenges facing pre-health advisors is dealing with students who are not realistic about their own developing credentials and the competitive nature of gaining admission to health professions schools. Students are often unrealistic about their credentials, and often do not understand the complexity of issues which factor into the admissions process. Consider, for instance, the following statements:

- "If there any chance that I can get in this year, then I have to try."

- "My uncle (the doctor) said he got a ‘C’ in organic chemistry and it didn’t hurt him getting into medical school."

- "I was told that all I need to get into medical school is good grades and MCATs."

- "I know that my grades and MCATs are low, but won’t my leadership positions and community volunteering make up for that?"

Do any of these statements sound familiar? What is our role in providing a reality check for students? Do we sometimes promote hope in students who are neither ready to apply nor realistic about their chances? How can we help our students realistically assess their application profile? How do we promote self-esteem and self-worth in a context of realism?

. . . In this paper we outline an assessment instrument and a workshop titled "Assessing Your Application Profile" that we developed to address issues surrounding unrealistic self-assessment in our students. As health professions advisors, we believe our role is to empower our students to make informed decisions about their careers and to provide guidance, tools, and information which will enable them in this process.

V20-2-3

Pre-Medical Student Attrition at a Four-Year Liberal Arts College

Dan Gerbens, Ed.D.

Abstract -- Interest in a career in medicine remains high among entering college freshmen, even though in recent years the number of medical school applicants has declined. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attrition of pre-medical students during their four years of undergraduate, "pre-med" education. Two classes of pre-med students at Hope College were contacted after each semester of their college career to determine whether they still considered themselves to be pre-med students, and if not, why not. Results indicated that the largest attrition of pre-med students occurred following the first semester of college. The amount and difficulty of the required science courses were most commonly cited as the reason for abandoning medicine (pre-med) as a career direction.

V21-1-4

It appears from many recent communications to both the NAAHP and NEAAHP listserves that advisors, and presumably their students, are seeking better guidance in the area of curricular advising.  Should students be encouraged to go beyond the usual premedical science requirements and take more sophisticated courses in the natural sciences?  Do these play a role in making a candidate more viable for admission?  Is there a significant difference between candidates for the MD or DO and for those wishing to enroll jointly in a PhD program?  Has medicine changed so much in recent years that students realistically will not be able to compete with their fellow applicants unless they have background courses in such things as biochemistry, molecular genetics, or physical chemistry.  Are “recommended” courses essentially “required” because enough members of admissions committees will not support candidates who do not present them?  How flexible are medical schools in waiving requirements, both in the sciences and in English and mathematics, if they have been taken in nontraditional pathways or have been substituted for?  Do medical schools appreciate the importance of a liberal arts background, or do they view it as a luxury?  Should we require that students learn Spanish?  Should we gear our courses so as to educate (or, perhaps a better word is, train) students to take standardized exams?  As we enter a new millennium, how should we address all of these questions?

V21-2-1

Abstract — For decades it has been known that students who major in non-science  fields perform as well as science majors who go to medical school.  Yet the  overwhelming majority of future medical students still major in biology or chemistry, and organic chemistry has come to be the defining premedical science course. This article traces the history of the liberal arts tradition, discusses its importance for medicine, and urges that readers think about the medical college in the age of the university. The author believes that the medical faculties should take a lead in helping to reshape the premedical as well as the medical education of future doctors. (Acad. Med. 1999;74:1217-1221)

V21-2-2

Background — There has been a great deal of discussion among the medical education community and students about what premedical coursework is necessary for success in medical school (Muller, 1980; Stimmel, Smith, and Kase, 1995; Elam, Lenhoff, and Johnson, 1997). The debate has centered on the appropriate balance between science and non-science courses in the premedical curriculum. There seems to be a consensus that having an undergraduate non-science major does not negatively affect a student’s academic performance in medical school and residency selection (Dickman, et.al., 1980; Canaday and Lancaster, 1986; Hall and Stocks, 1995; Smith, 1998). Most medical school applicants however, still major in a biological or physical science as undergraduates. In 1984, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) published a report that recommended humanities and social sciences be included in any premedical curriculum (Muller, 1984).  Since medical students have to deal with the consequences of their premedical education decisions, it seemed appropriate to ask them about what was necessary for success in medical school.

Therefore, this paper describes a research project that investigated what undergraduate courses were important to success in medical school and what a desirable balance between science and the non-science courses in the premedical curriculum might be, according to medical students and residents.

V21-2-4  

A Retroactive Look at Premedical Students' Majors

Peter S. Van Houten, Ph.D.

Introduction — Throughout my 35 years as a pre-medical advisor I often heard the comment from students and parents that, “I hear medical schools are more interested in non-science majors than they used to be.” “Used to be,” when considered over 35 years, covers a great deal of time and should provide us with some evidence to support or refute this seemingly widely held belief concerning the value of a non-science major in the application process.  As this remark has been made so often and over so many years, I became interested in determining if there was any basis in fact for it, and if so, was there evidence to indicate that premeds were responding to it and thus increasing the number of medical school applicants from non-science majors. Surely, one could imagine, if the word got out to premeds that their chances for acceptance were better as non-science majors, a considerable number would act accordingly and major in something other than a typical premed major such as biology or chemistry. We know that premeds do a rather good job of “keeping their ears to the ground,” i.e., being attentive to rumors.

          Armed with copies of Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR) starting in 1966-67, the year I began advising with the naive notion that all premeds at Berkeley were zoology majors, I undertook an examination of evidence on the majors of US medical school applicants and their acceptance rates. It appears that MSAR did not begin to publish comprehensive data on the major of applicants until the 1972-73 class. Over the years, the format and content of what we now know as Table 4B in MSAR—Acceptance to Medical School by Undergraduate Major—has changed somewhat, making absolute comparisons impossible. Nevertheless, the basic structure has remained much the same, thus allowing  adequate comparisons to be made. Data for the 1982-83 entering class were not available.  My data end with the 1999-2000 entering class.  Thus, the data I examined cover a period of 27 years, a great deal of “used to be.”

V21-2-5

The Premedical Education Enhancement Project (PEEP) — A Call for Action

Miles J. Schwartz, MD, FACP, FACC

Introduction — In undertaking any consideration of issues involving medical education it is more than appropriate to reflect on the views of Sir William Osler.  In 1906, Dr Osler commented:  "The hardest conviction to get into the mind of the beginner is that the education upon which he is engaged is not a college course, not a medical course, but a life course, for which the work of a few years under teachers is but a preparation."  The phrase "life course" serves to introduce the very issues I wish to address.  We are concerned about two interlocking educational challenges as a part of the premedical experience:  preparation for (1) a life in medicine, and (2) a life wherein medicine is a substrate for a wide variety of intellectual, social and physical activities.

V21-2-6