Future of Medical Education to be Examined in Era of Expansion and Reform

July 15, 2008
Washington, D.C.

MEFS Examines the Future of Medical Education
in an Era of Expansion and Health Care Reform

After several decades of minimal growth, medical school enrollment is projected to increase 20 to 25 percent by 2012. At the same time, the growing number of uninsured Americans and the continued escalation of health care costs have put the prospect of health care reform back on the public agenda. Both of these developments create the opportunity for innovation in medical education. There is active discussion about how many doctors are needed in America but little attention is being paid to concerns about the social mission of medical education.

As described in a recent press release, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation has funded a $750,000 study titled, "The Medical Education Futures Study" or MEFS, to address this issue. The study will examine the social mission of medical education during this period and will be housed at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (GW/SPHHS).

"Expanding medical schools creates an exceptional opportunity to consider strategies to address chronic imbalances in areas such as minority enrollment, geographic distribution and specialty emphasis in U.S. medical education," states the study's principal investigator, Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at GW.

The project team consists of Dr. Mullan, co-principal investigator Candice Chen, MD, MPH, and senior research associate Gretchen Kolsky, MPH. Additionally, an advisory committee composed of medical educators, specialty representatives, policy makers, and representatives of organizations concerned with the future of healthcare will provide guidance to the project.

Specifically, MEFS will examine the following issues from retrospective and prospective points of view:
• Primary care knowledge, values, and role models in medical education
• Enrollment of minorities into medical schools
• Equitable geographic distribution of medical education and practitioners

Past legislative and educational initiatives will be analyzed; current expansion activities will be assessed; and institutional, state and local policies pertinent to the social mission of medical education will be examined. The study will conclude with a set of findings and recommendations intended to offer perspectives and strategies to new or expanding programs of medical education in support of the social mission of medical schools.

A website and an electronic community will be developed and maintained to disseminate policy briefs, data findings and relevant scholarly and newsworthy information. The study will culminate with the publication of scholarly articles documenting the findings and recommendations, as well as general audience articles communicating this same information to the public as a whole.

"Medical schools cannot, of course, attend to the social mission of medicine by themselves. Many factors—including graduate medical education, practice opportunities and the economics of health care—impact physicians' specialty choices and practice decisions," Dr. Mullan said. "However, if the schools do not have strategies in place to address these problems as part of their mission and vision, the current epoch of expansion will not realize its potential to reduce disparities in access to healthcare and to improve educational opportunities for minorities."

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The George Washington University Medical Center is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary academic health center that has provided high-quality medical care in the Washington, DC metropolitan area for 176 years. The Medical Center comprises the School of Public Health and Health Services, the only such school in the nation's capital; the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the 11th oldest medical school in the country; GW Hospital, jointly owned and operated by a partnership between The George Washington University and Universal Health Services, Inc.; and the GW Medical Faculty Associates, an independent faculty practice plan. For more information on GWUMC, visit www.gwumc.edu.