Stability of Specialty Preferences Among Medical School Graduates

Abstract

To the Editor.— The article by Babbott et al 1 points out the substantial effects that medical schools have on specialty selection. While many will focus on the shift out of the primary care specialties, the most alarming shifts occurred in the field of public health. While 290 people indicated a preference for public health as premedical students, only 18 senior students indicated such a preference, a 94% drop. Moreover, the field had the lowest rate of stable preferences, 1%. Unfortunately, the authors do not comment on these results, which shed light on some of the current problems in preventive medicine and public health. Why is there such a mass turning away from public health as a career choice during medical school? One possibility is that students who believe in the value of preventive efforts to promote health are turned off from this as a career by the process of