Educational Programs in US Medical Schools, 1999-2000

TLDR

Many U.S. medical schools are integrating alternative medicine, cultural competence, and computer‑based learning while employing variable use of standardized assessments such as OSCEs. The authors analyzed 100%‑response data from the 1999‑2000 LCOME Annual Medical School Questionnaire and other sources to characterize U.S. medical education programs.

Abstract

We used data from the 1999-2000 Liaison Committee on Medical Education Annual Medical School Questionnaire, which had a 100% response rate, and other sources to describe the status of medical education programs in the United States. In 1999-2000, the number of full-time faculty members was 102,446, a 4.3% increase from 1998-1999. The number of basic science faculty increased by less than 0.5%, while the number of clinical faculty increased by about 5%. There were 38,529 medical school applicants in 1999, a 6% decrease from 1998. Women constituted 45.8% and underrepresented minorities made up 12.1% of the 1999-2000 first-year class. New content, such as alternative medicine and cultural competence, and new methods of instruction, such as computer-based learning, are being incorporated by many schools. Seventy schools (56% of the total) require students to pass both Step 1 and Step 2 of the US Medical Licensing Examination for advancement or graduation, an increase from 62 schools (50%) in 1998-1999. The use of standardized methods of assessment, such as objective structured clinical examinations, to evaluate students' clinical performance was highly variable among schools. JAMA. 2000;284:1114-1120