Why Doctor's Don't Go Where They Are Needed - need for rural visits and understanding noted
Cohen Encourages Admissions to Look Beyond MCAT - need for admissions committees to study what they admit and research characteristics that we need in doctors
Make No Small Plans http://www.bidmc.harvard.edu/prospective/vol2/ver2/plans.asp
For those in medical education, it was an inspirational three days. Jordan J. Cohen, M.D., president of the AAMC, entreated participants to “make no small plans.” In his acceptance speech for the Daniel C. Tosteson Award for Leadership in Medical Education, medical historian Kenneth Ludmerer, M.D., said, “Don't be disappointed if you don't solve in one weekend what Flexner did in 50 years.” There is more to fix now than in Abraham Flexner's time at the beginning of the 20th century, he pointed out—the whole health care system. Yet, he said he was cautiously optimistic, and quoted the ending of his book Time to Heal: “There is still sufficient opportunity for visionaries to dream and leaders to act.”
Medscape: If GPAs and MCAT scores of underrepresented minority students still
lag behind those of whites and Asians, should the issue of affirmative action be
addressed earlier in the education process? Might greater emphasis on improving
academic performance in earlier years allow underrepresented minorities to be
better represented in medical schools even without affirmative action admissions
policies?
Dr. Cohen: The problem is the paucity of academically well-prepared
underrepresented minority students. These problems affect kindergarten to
twelfth grade, and maybe even as early as preschool. We need to devote much more
attention to this if we're going to allow underrepresented minority students to
reach their full potential. But until we address this, we will need tools like
affirmative action programs. Hopefully in the future there will be equal numbers
of well-qualified applicants competing for medical school admission from all
ethnic groups, and then affirmative action will no longer be needed.
from Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions: A Newsmaker Interview With Jordan J. Cohen, MD Laurie Barclay, MD
Restoration of Communities, Nations, People: Role of Rural Family Docs