This article by STAT (an offspring of The Boston Globe) looks at whether and how new medical schools can address some of American healthcare’s biggest challenges.
It starts: “New medical schools are launching across the country to address a projected physician shortage. They’re promising innovative curriculums that let aspiring doctors spend time doing research, working in community health settings, and following the same patients for months.
“But they face big obstacles, starting with the challenge of recruiting students and faculty when they’re not yet accredited — and won’t be, even in the best-case scenario, for several years.”
“What we’re doing is certainly a little bit risky,” Clay Johnston, M.D., the inaugural dean of the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, told STAT.
The university is building a nine-month research block into its four-year program, and working with the city of Austin to design a healthcare reimbursement system that rewards preventive care and long-term value. …”
“Academic medical centers are just reinforcing this broken health care system that pays too little attention to keeping people well,” Dr. Johnston told STAT “We want to produce not just great physicians, but great physicians plus.”
