When students or recent graduates come to talk with Anthony M. Sozzo, an associate dean for student affairs at New York Medical College, about repaying their federal loans, he sometimes struggles with what to tell them. He states that the answers are increasingly being complicated by an ever-expanding federal loan-servicing system. The number of…

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…

Two years ago, the only historically black medical school west of the Mississippi faced a grim prognosis after county officials pulled the plug on its relationship with a troubled hospital. Today the medical school that has reportedly trained about a third of Los Angeles County's black and Hispanic physicians is back on its feet and planning an…

Kristin Roovers was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania with a bright career ahead of her--a trusted member of a research laboratory at the medical school studying the role of cell growth in diabetes. When an editor of "The Journal of Clinical Investigation" did a spot-check on one of her images for an article in 2005, Roovers'…

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…

While the number of medical-school campuses in Arizona doubled--from two to four--in the last few years, there is no assurance that all of the new doctors they graduate will stick around to practice in the state. Medical schools here and nationwide are struggling to line up enough clinical-training slots so that an influx of new upper-level…

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…

Describes how a rise in rates for medical malpractice insurance is forcing some physicians to suspend their practices, shrinking the pool of instructors for medical students. (EV)

Discusses the growing involvement between medical schools and medical industries and the ethical problems this situation poses. The main concern is that investigators may expose subjects to unnecessary risks because they are driven by financial motives. (SLD)

This article reports that Canadian medical students, inspired by an online community and an obscure heart condition, have ditched their books and transformed their class notes into a pulsating, hip-hop music video. "Diagnosis Wenckebach"--the name comes from a type of abnormal heart rhythm--was created as just one of many innovative…

The Association of Academic Health Centers and the Association of American Medical Colleges approved statements on conflicts of interest. University researchers are asked to disclose any significant personal, professional, or financial relationships, and faculty should not let commercially sponsored research interfere with the education of…

For more than half a century, the lucrative Detroit automobile industry drove Michigan's economy, providing the state with plenty of tax revenue to support its public colleges and universities. In recent years, however, the woes of the Big Three auto companies have caused state spending to plummet, resulting in cuts or minimal increases in the…

Cyril Naidoo, who directs the department of family medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, conducts workshops to traditional healers on how to help patients with AIDS and HIV. In Dr. Naidoo's workshop, the group discusses how to counsel patients about HIV and AIDS, how to refer them for testing, and then…

Reports that Harvard University Medical School is considering policy changes that would ease financial restrictions in its conflict-of-interest standards for faculty researchers. Supporters argue that such changes are necessary to attract and retain top researchers, but ethicists warn that as collaborations between industry and academic medicine…