Many of the nation's chiropractic colleges, like other small colleges that rely heavily on tuition, are struggling to stay in business. At the same time that they are working to improve their stature in higher education and broadening their missions to increase their appeal, a number of the colleges are seeing enrollments plummet--and revenues are…

California's lieutenant governor has proposed a fast-track medical school that would shave three years off the training needed to become a physician. It is not the first time such an idea has been offered. The proposal, for a hoped-for medical school at the University of California at Merced, struck some medical educators as both unrealistic and…

Unlike the schools of old, where students spent two years focused on science and theory before they set foot in a hospital, new medical schools are integrating clinical care into the first two years. Existing schools have taken steps in this direction. But, says John E. Prescott, chief academic officer of the Association of American Medical…

Philippe Bourgois, who has spent his career studying some of America's roughest neighborhoods and subcultures, got an unusually harsh welcome to his new hometown: Last May, during a trip to North Philly to make contact with some drug dealers, he got caught up in a police raid. The arrest was Bourgois's first, though hardly his first brush with…

The author advocates for less, rather than more, research on alternative medicine. From a historical perspective, there is little newsworthy about public infatuation with what Bausell terms pseudomedicine. What is new is the role of institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, who now awards both research and educational grants in…

This article reports that India's medical profession is in a crisis. For every 10,000 people in India there are only six doctors, compared with nearly 55 in the United States and nearly 21 in Canada. The problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. Professors are leaving medical schools for better-paying jobs in private hospitals and in…

The University of Western Australia is the latest of a half-dozen Australian institutions to drastically overhaul its academic programs, in a move to bring its degrees more in line with global standards, as well as ensure it remains attractive to prospective students. The universities are essentially parting ways with the British system and moving…

Describes how, as the population of elderly people continues to grow, medical schools are beefing up geriatrics programs to prepare students for their future patients. (EV)

This article talks about a software designed by the University of Phoenix for its business, information-technology, education, and health-care courses. Through the university's "virtual organizations"--online teaching tools designed to simulate the experience of working at a typical corporation, school, or government agency, Phoenix students can…

Presents the report of the AAMC Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician and College Preparation for Medicine concerning the purposes of a general professional education, clinical education, admissions, promoting independent learning, curriculum development, and faculty involvement. (MSE)

Describes how medical schools hope to improve the Bush administration's low opinion of a 39-year-old federal program, the Health Professions program, that provides money to train minority health professionals. (EV)

Discusses how a movement aimed at teaching medical students to be more sensitive to patients is being criticized as emphasizing a soft-science approach over knowledgeable practice. (EV)

Reports on the increasing use of virtual-reality devices at Pennsylvania State University's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and other institutions that allow medical residents to practice their skills in simulated operations. Notes that both students and professors are enthusiastic about the simulations but that the necessary technology and…

Guidelines developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges limit racial preferences for admissions and scholarships to students from only four designated minority groups, depriving students from other ethnicities from affirmative action eligibility. Discusses the implications for student diversity of changes in this policy. (SLD)

A combination of computer, videodisk, and voice-recognition technology lets Georgetown University medical students ask questions of an electronic "patient" who appears on a television monitor and appears to respond. Students can order laboratory tests and study patient behavior inside and outside the hospital. Simulations use actors or…