Category Archives: Medical School

Syracuse, N.Y. -- An accrediting organization has put Upstate Medical University’s medical school on probation because of concerns over how the school is run, its curriculum and other issues.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education — LCME for short — recommended last fall that Upstate be put on probation. Officials of the SUNY academic medical center formally appealed the recommendation last week.

Earlier coverage, comments

LCME made its final decision Thursday to go ahead with the sanction.

Dr. David Duggan, interim dean of the medical school, said Friday the school remains fully accredited and is well on its way to addressing the accrediting group’s concerns.

“We obviously wish we weren’t in this position,” Duggan said. “But we are going to take very opportunity to use this as a positive experience and learn and grow from it and become a better place in the end.”

Upstate will have two years to fix problems identified by the LCME. Upstate joins five other medical schools on probation. LCME accredits 136 U.S. medical schools.

The loss of accreditation would be a death penalty for Upstate’s medical school, which would no longer be able to offer medical degrees. Duggan said the chances of that happening are “infinitesimally small.”

“I do not think they (LCME) see themselves as being in the business of putting medical schools out of business,” he said.

The San Juan Bautista School of Medicine in San Juan, Puerto Rico became the first medical school to lose its accreditation in June. Its accreditation was reinstated in November at an appeals hearing ordered by a federal court. The school remains on probation.

The LCME is the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to a medical degree in U.S. and Canadian schools. The group is sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association.

Accreditation is important because it shows a medical school meets national standards. Graduating from an LCME-accredited school is a condition for a medical license in most states.

One of the LCME’s major criticisms was Upstate’s lack of a central committee with the authority to make changes in the school’s courses.

The LCME also was concerned over a cheating scandal that occurred last year involving fourth-year medical students who helped each other on online quizzes in a required medical literature course. Many students had complained about the course. In the wake of the cheating incident, Upstate suspended the course for at least one year in order to improve it.

LCME also was troubled by lack of consistency in some courses offered at Upstate’s Syracuse and Binghamton campuses.

Duggan said the sanction against Upstate was not based on any shortcomings in the quality of its medical students or their accomplishments.

The LCME has become stricter in recent years and is taking more serious actions against schools it believes are not meeting standards.

From 1996 to 2000 only three schools were recommended for probation, according to a recent report published by the American Medical Association. Between 2004 and 2009, 10 schools were recommended for probation and the number of schools facing sanctions has continued to increase since then, the report said.

Sanctions have increased since LCME clarified its standards in 2002, said Dr. Dan Hunt, LCME co-secretary. Prior to that time the standards were vague.

Once the standards were revised, survey teams started going into medical schools with a much sharper focus, he said. Many medical schools have not kept up with the revised standards, he said.

The clearer standards allow the LCME “ ... to see where there are core problems that can lead to decisions like probation,” Hunt said.

Upstate’s medical school has 640 students.

The sanction will probably not have much of an effect on Upstate, said David Petersam, president of Admissions Consultants, a Virginia company that advises students applying to medical schools.

Petersam said Upstate has a good reputation, even though it’s not considered a top tier medical school like Harvard, Johns Hopkins or Duke.

“Students are still going to apply because there are so many applicants who want to attend a U.S. medical school and don’t want to be forced to go to a Caribbean medical school where your chances of coming back and practicing are much lower,” Petersam said.

The probation issue could prompt some of the most highly qualified applicants to take Upstate off their list, he said. “But it’s not going to make a huge difference,” he added.

Upstate has alerted all prospective medical school applicants to the probation issue, Duggan said. So far it has had no effect on the number or quality of students who have applied, he said. It also has not affected faculty recruitment, he said.

When LCME recommended probation last fall, the medical schools’s dean, Dr. Steven J. Scheinman, resigned and Duggan was named interim dean.

Upstate is conducting a national search and expects to have a new dean in place later this year, Duggan said.

Letter by Upstate Medical University to medical school faculty, staff, students

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Upstate medical school put on probation because of problems with courses, administration

Read more: Local, Education, News, Upstate Medical University, Probation, School Put on Probation, LCME, Liaison Committee on Medical Education, Syracuse

SYRACUSE -- Upstate Medical University's medical school has been placed on probation.

Last fall, an accrediting organization, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, or LCME recommended putting the school on probation. The school, has formally appealed that recommendation, but the LCME went ahead with the probation.

The action only impacts the undergraduate medical education program. The college itself, is still accredited.

Interim dean, Dr. David Duggan, told students in a letter that the school is making progress to fix the issues that lead to the probation. In October, the LCME made the original probation recommendation because of concerns in three main areas, including the governance of the curriculum, the management of the clinical clerkships, and communication regarding specific policies.

Dr. Steven Scheinman, the former dean of the College of Medicine, resigned after the LCME made the recommendation.

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Upstate Medical University on probation

Syracuse, N.Y. -- An accrediting organization has put Upstate Medical University’s medical school on probation because of concerns over the school’s governance, curriculum and other issues.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education — LCME for short — had recommended last fall that Upstate be put on probation. Officials of the SUNY academic medical center formally appealed the recommendation last week.

LCME made its final decision Thursday to go ahead with the sanction.

In a letter posted today on Upstate’s website, Dr. David Duggan, interim dean of the medical school, said the school remains fully accredited and is well on its way to addressing the accrediting group’s concerns.

“The LCME decision was not based on any shortcomings in the quality of our medical students or their accomplishments,” Duggan said in the letter. “Our students score at or above the national average on licensure examinations and are much sought after for residency programs across the country.”

The LCME is the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to a medical degree in U.S. and Canadian schools. The group is sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association.

Accreditation is important because it shows a medical school meets national standards. Graduating from an LCME-accredited school is a condition for a medical license in most states.

The LCME has become stricter in recent years and is taking more serious actions against schools it believes are not meeting standards. Five other medical schools are currently on probation. From 1996 to 2000 only three schools out of 108 schools reviewed were recommended for probation, according to a recent report published by the American Medical Association. Between 2004 and 2009, 10 schools were recommended for probation and the number of schools facing sanctions has continued to increase since then, the report said.

Schools placed on probation typically get two years to correct problems.

The San Juan Bautista School of Medicine in San Juan, Puerto Rico became the first medical school to lose its accreditation in June. Its accreditation was reinstated in November at an appeals hearing ordered by a federal court. The school remains on probation.

Upstate’s medical school has 640 students.

Letter by Upstate Medical University to medical school faculty, staff, students

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Upstate Medical University's medical school put on probation

BRISTOL, Tenn. --

King College drew one step closer to opening a medical college when its proposed School of Medicine & Health Sciences Center won initial approval from a major accreditation panel.

“It’s a significant step forward in developing a medical school,” King College President Greg Jordan said Thursday of winning “applicant school” status from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which oversees accrediting for all medical-education programs – across North America – that lead to M.D. degrees.

By gaining that status, King’s proposed school has met the first round of requirements that must be met to be an eligible institution.

King College is seeking to open its school in 2014 at a site off Interstate 81’s Exit 14 in Abingdon, Va. Upon completion, the school is expected to have 60 to 75 students during its first year. One of the objectives for the school is to graduate trained physicians who will practice in rural areas and help reverse a worsening physician shortage, according to a news release from King.

Jordan said the approval will now “give [King] access to resources” across the North American medical community, including valuable input from consultants and experts on preparing the medical school for future operations. “It’s a critically important dimension of the planning process,” Jordan said.

King was one of seven proposed medical schools nationwide to earn “applicant school” status.

Jordan said King College has already won active, consistent support for its planned School of Medicine from Wellmont Health System. But he added that King is continuing efforts to establish a similar medical partnership with Mountain States Health Alliance, the other major health system in the region.

“It’s critically important that there be a collaborative effort between [King] and the two major health systems,” Jordan said.      

Tripp Umbach, a Pennsylvania-based medical-education consulting firm, has projected that King’s medical college could have a “business volume impact” of $50 million during its first year – and that number could rise to $70 million by the seventh year.

Recently, a separate governing body for the proposed medical school has been set up, the news release states.

“The King School of Medicine Inc. is the newly formed Virginia entity that will guide the development and progress of the King School of Medicine,” Jordan said. “With the assistance of the firm of McGuire Woods of Richmond, Va., the corporation has established articles, bylaws and governance structure under which to operate.”

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King med school gets initial OK

POSTED: 4:28 pm EST February 16, 2012
UPDATED: 12:29 am EST February 17, 2012

(CNN) -- The exam all medical school applicants take will have new sections requiring a broader knowledge of psychology, sociology, and the social components of health starting in 2015.The changes are the first made since 1991 for the Medical College Admission Test, known as the MCAT.Patients tend to have great confidence in the scientific knowledge in their doctors, but less confidence in their bedside manners, said Dr. Darrell Kirch, the president and CEO of the American Association of Medical Colleges.The exam is "designed to help students prepare for a rapidly changing health care system and an evolving body of medical knowledge while addressing the needs of a growing, aging, and increasingly diverse population," according to a press release from the AAMC, which represents all 136 accredited U.S. medical schools.The exam is "a key tool that we have used and will continue to use to select the people who will be our doctors in the future," Kirsch said. "This is an important component in the gateway to the profession of medicine."The MCATs will now take six and a half hours (instead of the current four and a half hours), with a total of four sections.A new segment of the exam called the "Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior" will test understanding of human behavior, cultural and social differences and other factors. Another new section called "Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills" will test students' ability to reason through passages pertaining to social sciences, ethics philosophy and cross-cultural studies and population health."Being a good doctor isn't just about understanding science," Kirch said. "It's about understanding people - it must go hand in hand."The two new sections replace a writing portion, which surveys showed was not useful in evaluating prospective medical students. The test will continue to have two sections testing science, such as biology, chemistry, biochemistry and physics."One of the best preparations for the test is to read broadly, to be knowledgeable about the world at large," Kirch said.The changes to the MCATs come after three years of outreach events and surveys.The MCATs play a crucial role in medical school admissions. Critics have long said that the exam was unfair because statistics indicate that students from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to score lower on MCATs.Diversity has also been a concern. Of nearly 80,000 medical students in the U.S, about 7% are African American and 8% are of Hispanic descent in a country that is increasingly more diverse. Asians and whites comprise nearly 80%.

Copyright CNN 2012

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Medical School Exam Gets New Sections

Proficiency in organic chemistry may still be a necessary condition for getting into medical school. But starting in 2015, it will no longer be sufficient. In an effort to create a cadre of future physicians with improved bedside manners, the Assn. of American Medical Colleges has announced changes to the Medical College Admission Test (MCATs) that would plumb applicants' knowledge of psychology, sociology and biology, as well as their ethical and scientific reasoning skills.

"Being a good doctor isn't just about understanding science: it's about understanding people," said Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, president and chief executive of the Assn. of American Medical Colleges in a news conference Thursday. A philosophy major in his undergraduate days, Kirch said Thursday that the forthcoming changes "feel very momentous," paving the way for students from a wide range of backgrounds to the medical profession.

Starting in 2015, aspiring doctors will sit down for a six-and-a-half-hour test that will go beyond  plumbing their knowledge of physics, general and organic chemistry and biochemistry. Two new sections will be added: one titled "Psychological, Sociological and Biological Foundations of Behavior," and another, "Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills." Those will require students to have a broad background in the social sciences and an ability to analyze, evaluate and apply information from subjects as diverse as philosophy and ethics, population health and cross-cultural studies.

Kirch said the changes are being announced well ahead of their implementation so that high school and college students considering a medical career can start diversifying their course loads now.

While Kirch said American patients have access to the best medical care in the world, they consistently rate physicians' "people skills" less highly. As research demonstrates the powerful influence that a person's mind, background and social networks have on his or her health, Kirch said that future physicians need to have a broad understanding of these fields if they are to be effective physicians.

And with a patient population growing older and more ethnically diverse than at any time in history, he said, tomorrow's doctors must have some academic exposure to fields beyond science.

The new MCATs, he said, "will help us move toward greater diversity" in the physician workforce and in the academic backgrounds from which they come. Those who majored in English literature, economics and history need not rule out the possibility of a career in medicine, he said. At the same time, the MCATs will continue to test students' grounding in college-level science, as well as their "scientific inquiry and reasoning skills."

The MCATs, currently a four-to-five-hour ordeal, now will take about six-and-a-half hours. In the process of overhauling the test, Kirch said that medical school admission directors urged the organization to drop the written portion of the test, which they said added no information on applicants that could not be gleaned by their course grades and other application material.

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Med school admission tests change to reflect new care realities