Who will be the caretakers of peripheral arterial disease?

Abstract

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) affects over six million American adults, but how many of them are receiving “best” medical management? The problem might begin in medical school, where the topic often receives just a few paragraphs in most major medical and surgical textbooks. A longitudinal syllabus in vascular disease would go a long way toward addressing this issue. Restructuring the preclinical years, however, has been a daunting prospect as the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 examination content areas are the de facto national curriculum due to medical students' (justified) obsession with their scores.