Undergraduate medical education in the U.S. and Israel: contrasts and common challenges.

Arthur M Feldman

doi:10.1186/s13584-015-0053-4

Abstract

In 2014, the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE) commissioned an international panel of outstanding educators to prepare an ad hoc report reviewing the four established medical schools in Israel. The report described the strengths, weaknesses and challenges facing medical education in Israel with a focus on three specific areas: workforce planning, the structure of the curriculum and the financing of medical education.There are interesting parallels between the challenges facing medical education in the U.S. and in Israel: a lack of clarity regarding the optimal size for the workforce and the optimal method for enhancing the number of primary care physicians; an absence of methodologies for evaluating innovations in medical education and a lack of transparency in funds flow. However, there are also important differences, one of the most important being an absence in Israel of students’ hands-on responsibility for their patients until year six of their undergraduate medical education.The presence of a small number of medical schools with common funding and geographic proximity, in a relative sense, provides the Israeli medical schools with a unique opportunity to evaluate innovations in medical education and to set a high bar for inter-school collaboration and cooperation.

Highlights

In 2014 the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE) commissioned an ad hoc committee composed of internationally respected physician-educators to provide an external review of Israel’s four established and accredited medical schools
Financing of medical education Medical education financing is a universal problem with enormous differences in undergraduate medical education (UME) and GME funds flow across different countries and in the U.S, across different medical schools: a problem that has increased as reimbursements have precluded cost-shifting from practice plans and hospital revenues to support the academic missions of the medical school [27]
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) recently accredited the first for-profit allopathic medical school in the U.S and for-profit osteopathic medical schools have previously been approved in the U.S We have argued that it is important for medical students to have exposure to physician-scientists and clinician investigators who pursue translational research in either laboratory or clinical research centers while at the same time caring for patients [29]

Summary

Introduction

In 2014 the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE) commissioned an ad hoc committee composed of internationally respected physician-educators (four from the U.S, two from the U.K. and two from Israel) to provide an external review of Israel’s four established and accredited medical schools. Financing of medical education Medical education financing is a universal problem with enormous differences in UME and GME funds flow across different countries and in the U.S, across different medical schools: a problem that has increased as reimbursements have precluded cost-shifting from practice plans and hospital revenues to support the academic missions of the medical school [27].

Results

Conclusion