U.S. medical schools need to place more emphasis on education, says UF expert

July 16, 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Most people believe a medical school’s primary function is to train future doctors, but in recent decades the focus at many U.S. academic medical centers has shifted away from education to generating income, leaving faculty with less time to teach, cautions a University of Florida College of Medicine administrator and education expert.

Financial needs have led institutions to emphasize revenue-producing clinical practice and research, and offer less support and recognition for teaching, says Dr. Robert T. Watson, UF’s senior associate dean for educational affairs. But the system could be reformed to make education more effective without compromising colleges’ ability to stay solvent.

“We need to rediscover the medical school by re-establishing the priority of education,” Watson said, “or we risk losing the public’s confidence in our seriousness of purpose and in the quality of physicians we educate.”

In an essay published in the July issue of Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Watson explains how the drive for revenue has altered traditional medical-school structure and how the rise of interdisciplinary programs poses questions about the future roles of single-discipline departments. Watson then proposes changes, some already in use at UF, to promote teaching and provide greater rewards to faculty members who prefer to make it their primary activity.

The Association of American Medical Colleges is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving medical schools and teaching hospitals.

“The University of Florida has accomplished many things to ensure that our medical students graduate with an exemplary general professional education,” Watson said. “The College of Medicine developed the concept of mission-based budgeting, which explicitly budgets for education and is now used by many other medical schools; initiated a Society of Teaching Scholars to recognize faculty teachers who have made scholarly contributions to education; and this year recognized faculty at graduation who are considered exemplary teachers.”