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On the origins of physicians: Darwinian or Lamarckian evolution?
-
Phedias Diamandis
Published/Copyright:
October 1, 2010
Abstract
Achieving acceptance to a North American and some European medical schools is one of the most difficult academic tasks faced by undergraduate students. The limited number of spots allows for only a fraction of the most highly promising applicants to be accepted each year. Perhaps one of the difficulties that many students face when applying to medical school is that due to the current restriction on enrollment, the application process poses selective pressures, independent of the applicants' suitability for the medical profession. Here I discuss, based on personal experiences, how I believe the process could become more just to all applicants. Allowing public needs and student interest to better dictate the number of graduating physicians could help relieve some of the current admission pressures, including the rather arbitrary selection of a small fraction of applicants from a large group of sufficiently proficient students. I believe that this proposal, if implemented, will likely not only remove some biases of our admission system, but also sufficiently change the landscape of those accepted, to include students with a genuine professional interest in the underserviced field of family practice.
Clin Chem Lab Med 2010;48:1389–92.
Received: 2010-7-13
Accepted: 2010-7-14
Published Online: 2010-10-01
Published in Print: 2010-10-01
©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Keywords for this article
evolution;
health policy;
healthcare system; medical school admissions;
medical students
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- Darwinian evolution or regression? The fate of laboratory professionals
- Review
- Automated reticulocyte counting: state of the art and clinical applications in the evaluation of erythropoiesis
- Minireview
- Laboratory diagnostics in acute poisoning: critical overview
- Opinion Papers
- On the origins of physicians: Darwinian or Lamarckian evolution?
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- Guidelines and Recommendations
- Development and description of GETT: a Genetic testing Evidence Tracking Tool
- Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
- DNA sequencing errors in molecular diagnostics of filamin myopathy
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- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Detection of serum free light chains: the problem with antigen excess
- Hepcidin concentrations and iron homeostasis in preeclampsia
- Automated assay for non-transferrin-bound iron in serum samples
- A simple liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for urinary free cortisol analysis: suitable for routine purpose
- Evaluation of a multiplex assay for adipokine concentrations in obese children
- The use of serial patient blood gas, electrolyte and glucose results to derive biologic variation: a new tool to assess the acceptability of intensive care unit testing
- Point-of-care determination of neonatal bilirubin with the blood gas analyzer RapidLab 1265
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- Cancer Diagnostics
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