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Medical Schools Not Preparing Doctors

A study at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and reported in the January, 1999 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery reports that 82% of a group of recent medical school graduates from around the country failed a basic knowledge and skills test of how to care for common problems such as fractures, low-back pain, sciatica and arthritis.

The authors conclude that the courses in medical school are too short for the essential information to be conveyed in a classroom setting and too narrowly focused on very specialized, inpatient problems rather than those seen in common day-to-day outpatient practice.

The test itself was evaluated for fairness and basic knowledge by 124 chairpersons of orthopedic residency programs from all around the United States. The students who failed the test were graduates of schools as diverse and prestigious as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University; Cornell University Medical College; Jefferson Medical College; Harvard Medical School; and the Schools of Medicine of Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Chicago, University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Virginia and Yale University.

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