Category Archives: Medical School

Freshmen aspiring to be doctors may now have to plan their class schedules a little differently.

The Medical College Admission Test will undergo its fifth revision since it was first administered in 1928 then called the Scholastic Aptitude Test for Medical Students.

In spring 2015, when the new changes will take effect, medical school hopefuls will sit for six and a half hours to take MCAT2015 almost two hours longer than the current version. Each year, more than 85,000 students take the exam.

The test will still consist of four sections, but they have been redivided. It will now consist of Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems, Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems, Psychological, Social and Biological Foundations of Behavior and Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills.

The Writing Section will also be discontinued.

The current version of the test has been in use since 1991, and the new version is likely to be in place until 2030, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The AAMC took into account all medical schools individual comments about the new MCAT, Perelman School of Medicine Senior Vice Dean for Education and professor Gail Morrison said. The new test will assume matriculating students have prior knowledge of biochemistry and statistics.

Familiarity with some concepts from social sciences will also be expected, Senior Associate Director of Career Services Peter Stokes said.

Clearly there is more to being a physician than being a good scientist, Stokes said. The AAMC has been looking at a variety of ways of finding applicants who are likely to bring other valuable skills, knowledge and experience to the profession.

Students who have taken psychology, cognitive neuroscience, statistics and epidemiology courses will now have use of this knowledge in medical school, Morrison said. The AAMC recognizes that these liberal arts courses will be helpful for students.

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MCAT revisions bring change for medical school hopefuls

RIVERSIDE (CBSLA.com) There are only a handful of medical schools in California, and UC Riverside has just been added to the roster.

Officials have given preliminary approval to UCR medical schools proposed courses, which means the university can soon begin accepting applications, a campus spokesperson announced Tuesday.

This is momentous for Inland Southern California and for UC Riverside, UCR Chancellor Timothy P. White said.

This medical school is critically needed to address our regions physician shortage and stimulate the local economy, said White, who credited the Riverside communitys support in reaching this point.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education withheld accreditation approval in 2011 because Californias budget crisis would prohibit UCRs medical school from receiving sufficient funds.

The university has since secured millions in private donations, including $20 million from Riverside County, allowing plans for the medical school to move forward an endeavor that began in 2006.

Classes will be held in the new School of Medicine Research Building and the renovated School of Medicine Education Building, campus officials said.

Prospective students can begin submitting applications to the four-year program later this month when the medical school is added to the American Medical College Application Service.

This will be the sixth medical school added to the UC system, which hasnt inaugurated a new campus M.D. program since the 1960s.

(2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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Commission Approve Opening Of UC Riverside’s Medical School

A national accrediting agency has approved UC Riversides plan to open a full medical school and to start enrolling future doctors next summer. It would be the sixth medical school in the University of California system and the first to open since the late 1960s.

Last year, the same panel rejected the proposal because it looked too risky after the state refused to fund the school. But UC Riverside officials have since secured enough other public and private financing for a program that they say will help ease a doctor shortage in the Inland Empire and improve public healthcare there.

Because we had tried and failed before, it is all the sweeter to have succeeded a year later, said UC Riverside medical school Dean G. Richard Olds, clearly pleased with the news.

The preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education allows UC Riverside to start recruiting students with the goal of enrolling 50 a year beginning next August, officials said. The agencys action was reported to be the first time in three decades that an American medical school was approved after previously having been denied.

Badly stung by last years rejection, Olds and other UC Riverside leaders campaigned for and won about $100 million in donations and pledges to support the school for 10 years. The donors included the UC system itself, Riverside County, the quasi-governmental Desert Healthcare District and affiliated hospitals.

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--Larry Gordon

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UC Riverside gets preliminary OK to open med school

Medical charter school opens doors to first students

While jobs are in short supply in many industries, that's not the case in the medical field.

A new charter school in Lehigh County is now trying to address that need. The Medical Academy Charter School in Catasauqua is the first of its kind in the Lehigh Valley. It's goal is to better steer kids into the field of health care.

Between the algebra and history of the Jamestown settlement is an art class teaching students how drawing can turn to healing for the sick.

"This is an example of a Zen tangle art therapy method that psychotherapists may use to draw out emotions in patients," said teacher Carol Traynor.

The new school is using the promise of a career in health care to draw students in.

"This is where the jobs are going to be now and in the near future. It's ever growing," said Joanna Hughes, CEO and principal of the school, which opened in September to 9th and 10th graders.

The school, which will expand to 11th and 12th graders, infuses health care sciences into the general curriculum, Hughes said.

"We will provide the children with opportunities so that can be an x-ray tech or a phlebotomist or someone who works in the office doing billing," Hughes said.

Taylor Fullin, who wants to be anesthesiologist, transferred from Northampton Area High School.

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Medical charter school opens doors to first students

A national accrediting agency has approved UC Riverside's long-embattled plan to open a full medical school and to start enrolling future doctors next summer, officials announced Tuesday. It would be the sixth medical school in the University of California system and the first to open since the late 1960s.

Last year, the same panel rejected the proposal because it looked too risky after the state refused to fund the school. But UC Riverside officials have since secured enough other public and private financing for a program that they say will help ease a doctor shortage in the Inland Empire and improve public healthcare there.

"Because we had tried and failed before, it is all the sweeter to have succeeded a year later," an elated UC Riverside medical school Dean G. Richard Olds said in a telephone interview.

The preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education allows UC Riverside to start recruiting students with the goal of enrolling 50 a year beginning next August, officials said. The agency's action was reported to be the first time in three decades that an American medical school was approved after previously having been denied.

Badly stung by last year's rejection, Olds and other UC Riverside leaders campaigned for and won about $100 million in donations and pledges to support a scaled-down school for 10 years. The donors included the UC system, Riverside County, the quasi-governmental Desert Healthcare District and affiliated hospitals.

However, Olds said the medical school will still need about $15 million a year in state general revenue funds if it is to expand and win full accreditation over the next six years.

Observers say that the state may find it hard to keep denying funding and to threaten the school's permanent future once the doors are open to students. Critics, however, contend that a new medical school is the kind of unnecessary expansionism that UC and the state can no longer afford while basic education programs have suffered large funding cuts and tuition has increased rapidly.

The school would be the only one in the UC system without its own hospital, an arrangement that vastly reduces costs through partnerships with local hospitals and clinics.

"This is a momentous decision for Inland Southern California and for UC Riverside," UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White said in a statement. "This medical school is critically needed to address our region's physician shortage and stimulate the local economy."

Dan Hunt, the national agency's co-secretary, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Traditionally, the accrediting committee does not reveal details of the internal debate that may surround its decisions.

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UC Riverside medical school clears hurdle

News Release

Bangs joins the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School.

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Release Date: September 27, 2012

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- James (Jay) D. Bangs, PhD, professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School and an expert in the cell biology of the agent that causes African sleeping sickness, has been appointed the Grant T. Fisher Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The announcement brings to nine the number of new chairs and chair-level appointees recruited by Michael E. Cain, MD, UB vice president for health sciences and dean of the UB medical school, in the past four years. These national hires, Cain says, are a critical piece of his strategic vision for the medical school's future.

According to Cain, Bangs rapidly emerged as the top candidate following a comprehensive national search, possessing all the skills needed to advance the UB department and expand its basic research programs in service of UB's 2020 strategic goals. Under Bangs, Cain says, the department will enhance the excellence of its research enterprise, undergraduate and graduate student education and mentored research training programs.

Bangs succeeds J. Iain Hay, who has served as chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology for 20 years.

A faculty member and trainer for the microbiological doctoral training program at UW, and a member of its Center for Research and Training in Parasitic Diseases, Bangs will join UB in January 2013.

He conducts research on African trypanosomes, one-celled parasites transmitted by the tsetse fly, which cause African sleeping sickness in humans, a fatal disease that is reemerging throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

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UB Medical School Names New Chair of Microbiology and Immunology