Surveyed medical schools to gauge the current state of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) instruction by gathering details about the specific topics being taught and the objectives behind the instruction. Found that a wide variety of topics are being taught under the umbrella of CAM; for the most part, the instruction appears to be…

Measured changes in the number and nature of the affiliations between management and medicine in the form of MD/MBA programs in the United States. Found that the number of MD/MBA programs grew from 6 to 33 between 1993 and 2001, and 17 more medical schools were considering establishing the joint-degree program. MD/MBA programs apparently attempt…

Surveyed faculty affairs personnel at U.S. medical schools. Found that schools support over four times as many offices of faculty affairs as faculty development. Core functions of faculty affairs offices include administrative support for appointments, promotions, and tenure committees; faculty information and policies; faculty governance…

Surveyed medical schools to determine the scope and content of required, formal ethics components in their curriculums. Found that ethics education is far from homogeneous among medical schools in both content and extensiveness. (EV)

Constructed a longitudinal database to examine how basic science departments have been reorganized at U.S. medical schools. Found that there were fewer basic science departments in the traditional disciplines of anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, and physiology in 1999 than in 1980. But as biomedical science has developed in an…

Surveyed directors of internal medicine (IM) and family practice (FP) residency programs regarding the format, content, and quantity of psychosocial training in their programs, their opinions on topics related to such training, and program demographics. Found considerable variation in content and time devoted to psychosocial training within and…

The Tulane University (Louisiana) senior medical class (n=111) was surveyed concerning ranking of residency programs. Results suggest that the satisfaction of a program's house officers and seniors' general interview impressions were the most important selection factors. Diversity of training experience and geographic location were also important.…

A study investigated research training experiences of surgical faculty in one medical school. Information concerning individual characteristics, preresidency research experiences, research training attitudes, important research experiences, and current activity was elicited. Results confirmed that early experiences allowing interaction with…

Medical schools were invited to provide written and Web-based materials related to implementing cross-cultural competency in their curricula. A tool was developed to measure teaching methods, skill sets, and eight content areas in cross-cultural education. Most programs emphasized teaching general themes, such as the doctor-patient relationship,…

A survey of 567 graduates of 3 medical schools (Pennsylvania State University, University of Connecticut, and University of Massachusetts) showed medical school research involvement to be strongly associated with postgraduate research involvement. In residency specialty training, fellowship training, academic appointments, career practice choices,…

Administration of the Derogatis Stress Profile to 509 medical students, 380 law students, and 215 graduate students at McGill University (Ontario) revealed that medical students are not greatly stressed relative to other groups, so other explanations must be sought for elevated levels of depression in some. One clear stressor found is the…

Of senior faculty members (n=40) surveyed about mentor relationships, most thought mentor activity feasible in their departments but felt few residents had mentors. Most had been a mentor, and more had had mentors. All those who were mentors felt it helped their career advancement, personal development, and stress management. (Author/MSE)

A study of 812 students entering Thomas Jefferson University (Pennsylvania) medical college in 1985-88 found students' basic sciences performance in medical school was the same for all undergraduate major groups. The groups had similar rates for delayed graduation, but attrition was highest for humanities graduates. Career plans and estimated…

A study of medical students' and internal medicine course directors' perceptions of the value of medical case write-ups and the faculty evaluations of those write-ups found broad agreement on the exercise's value but major concerns about variability of criteria and standards of write-up evaluation. (MSE)

A survey of the physician faculty and house staff (n=492) at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center gathered information on physicians' experiences with and recommendations for first postgraduate year curriculum. Almost half the respondents felt the curriculum should be specialty specific, whereas one-third recommended a broad-based,…