Baccalaureate-MD Research Group

1. Baccalaureate-MD Research Group Highlights of “The Paper”

2. The Scope and Variety of Combined Baccalaureate-MD Programs in the United States Acad Med. 2012; 87: 1600-1608

3. The Authors • Bob Eaglen, Northeast Ohio Medical University • Louise Arnold, University of Missouri-Kansas City • Jorge Girotti, University of Illinois at Chicago • Ellen Cosgrove, University of Washington • Marianne Green, Northwestern University • Don Kollisch, Sophie Davis • Dani McBeth, Sophie Davis • Mark Penn, Roseman University of Health Sciences • Sarah Tracy, University of Oklahoma

4. Rationale • Proliferation of new and defunct programs • Low profile in the academic medicine community and recent literature • Diversity of program organization and functions • Recent calls for re-examination of admissions pathways and criteria

5. Definition of a Combined Program • Open to applicants at high school or early college level • One or more years of baccalaureate course work and a complete medical school curriculum • Medically related learning experiences provided during the baccalaureate phase of the program (integration) • Either a conditional guarantee of medical school admission contingent on satisfactory academic progress, or • A high likelihood of medical admission upon satisfactory completion of the baccalaureate phase

6. Major Findings • 57 Sponsoring medical schools, 81 distinct programs • 79% of programs recruit high school students • Principal goals: • Recruit honors students (52%) • Shorten pre-medical phase of education (28%) • Recruit minority and/or disadvantaged students (25%) • Decrease competitive pressures (25%) • Integrate liberal arts and medical sciences (22%) • Emphasize care for the underserved (20%)

7. More Findings • 79% of programs for high school seniors are 4+4 • 40% of programs admit ten or fewer students per year • Four medical schools admit over 50 students per year • Curricular integration across program is typically modest, mostly at baccalaureate level • Admissions and academic progress requirements highly variable, reflecting varied structure and goals of programs

8. Looking Ahead: Questions and Challenges • Are baccalaureate-MD students less mature than traditional pre-med students? • Are graduates of baccalaureate-MD programs distinctive in any clearly identifiable ways? • How do programs justify their continuation? • Few outcomes studies have been published • What kinds of admissions criteria are needed or relevant when the applicant pool consists of high school seniors? • Comparative studies need to be carefully designed to account for program variation

9. The Research Group Where Do We Go from Here?

10. Research Ideas Emerging at the Meeting • Stigmatization of baccalaureate-MD students (New Mexico has already started on this) • How service learning is being incorporated in baccalaureate education • Adopting a competency framework for both baccalaureate and medical school education • Program outcomes and documentation of effectiveness • Why programs wither or go “on hiatus”

11. More Research Ideas • Identifying and nurturing critical thinking skills and help-seeking behavior in baccalaureate-MD students • Are students in accelerated programs less mature– where is the evidence? • Advising and supporting students who commit to a career as high schools students (any may have later regrets) • How much of a dent in overall student debt can combined programs make? • Enrollment management for multiple program paths