Reviews
Barr is to be commended not only for writing such a readable and thought-provoking book but also for bringing this important issue back to the center of discussion and framing it to allow the current model of premedical education to be rethought in a way that will conform to the needs of the profession and to the needs of society as a whole.
Barr is to be commended not only for writing such a readable and thought-provoking book but also for bringing this important issue back to the center of discussion.
Barr’s is a multifaceted book, so a variety of disciplines will find various chapters useful to their goals. Teachers of education policy will find the sections on educational disparities and pedagogical innovation of great interest; while medical historians and medical humanities programs will enjoy the chapters on the history of and research on premedical education. Clinical Research training programs will find the last chapter useful as a case study in protocol articulation.
Abraham Flexner’s 1910 report on the state of early twentieth century medical education elicited a host of transformational changes in U.S. medical schools, most of which remain as salient today as they were 100 years ago. But not all! As this provocative and timely volume documents, the science and math prerequisites for medical school admission triggered by Flexner’s report have long since outlived their salience. What’s worse, they are serving to dissuade countless students with precisely the backgrounds, temperament and commitment we seek in our physicians from pursuing their dream. Barr supports his thesis with compelling data and provides a blueprint for how the premedical knowledge that is truly required for the study of medicine today can be integrated and imparted more efficiently and less punitively. Medical educators, pre-medical advisors and all those responsible for crafting undergraduate curricula for aspiring doctors are urged to read this book and heed its post-Flexnerian message.
Book Details
Preface
Introduction
1. Who Drops Out of Premed, and Why?
2. The Historical Origins of Premedical Education in the United States, 1873– 1905
3. A National Standard for Premedical Education
4. Premedical
Preface
Introduction
1. Who Drops Out of Premed, and Why?
2. The Historical Origins of Premedical Education in the United States, 1873– 1905
3. A National Standard for Premedical Education
4. Premedical Education and the Prediction of Professional Performance
5. Noncognitive Factors That Predict Professional Performance
6. Efforts to Increase the Diversity of the Medical Profession
7. Nontraditional Programs of Medical Education and Their Success in Training Qualified Physicians
8. Reassessing the Premedical Paradigm
9. Another Way to Structure Premedical Education
Notes
Index