C A R E E R S
find needed information, mostly by com-
puter. Harvard's curriculum is one of the
most radically revised. The 24 students
who started the reform as an experiment
two years ago learn through the case meth-
od instead of lectures. In their first class,
for instance, students plunged into cellular
biology by playing sleuth; exactly how had
a real-life spy died from a poison pellet shot
into his leg? They also considered the reac-
tion of the murdered spy's family to his
death-including whether or not he left
adequate life insurance. In this way, the
cases incorporate and teach such subjects
as ethics and disease prevention rather
than relegating them to elective courses-
which few may bother to take.
Seeing patients: Throughout the four
years of medical school, the new curricu-
lum uses problem-based learning in a way
that interweaves both the basic sciences
and clinical experiences. Students see
their first patients within the first month
of school. During their third and fourth
years, students must write an investiga-
tive thesis. They must also sustain a four-
year preceptorial relationship with an ex-
perienced physician.
Harvard likes the results of the new cur-
riculum so much that this fall the entire
first-year class will enter a refined version
of the program. Although these new teach-
ing methods are still far from common,
medical education is clearly moving in this
direction. With more demanding patients,
declining student interest and an ongoing
revolution in practice, the one certainty for
M.D. training is still more change ahead.
CONNIE LESLIE with LISA DREW in Boston,
EAN CHUCK in Baltimore and
MITCHELL HOROWITZ in Stony Brook
STEPHEN McDANIEL
An explosion of technology: Hopkins med student Jeff Nye at work in neurobiology lab
ern student double-majoring in math and
biochemistry, now fears that her choice of
majors may actually hurt her admissions
chances. "Biology students going into med-
ical school are a dime a dozen. Do anything
you can to make yourself stand out," she
says. To increase her chances, Gladstone
has taken classes in American Sign Lan-
guage, Roman History and Greek Civiliza-
tion and has founded a "Dr. Who" fan club.
Similarly, Indiana senior Diana Cooley is
working on a minor in history along with
her premed major. She also works nights as
a disc jockey to show that her interests are
diverse.
Shifting standards: Medical schools them-
selves are responding to the new admissions
pressures in various ways. Some refuse to
change-they still require applicants to
take a host of specific science courses and
the MCAT. Robert Stump, admissions di-
rector at the Indiana University School of
Medicine, says state universities like IU
need the MCAT to identify applicants from
good schools with good academic records.
The private Hopkins, however, has de-
cided it can do without MCAT scores. In-
stead, for the past two years, the med school
has looked at high-school SAT scores along
with college grades to predict aptitude.
"That is one effort toward relieving some of
the intimidation of the undergraduate ex-
perience," says Dr. Henry Seidel, associate
dean of students affairs at the medi-
cal school. Similarly, the University of
Pennsylvania's Medical School recently
dropped the basic undergraduate-science-
course requirements for admission.
Modernizing the medical-school curricu-
lum presents a greater challenge. While
technology has helped solve many critical
health-care problems, it has also generated
complex and ambiguous medical and ethi-
40 NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS
cal issues. Today's doctors may often be
forced into decision-making situations for
which no amount of technical expertise or
scientific knowledge can prepare them. In
any case, educators concede that the
amount of information is overwhelming.
"We're at the point now," says one Harvard
medical student, "where we're told, 'Don't
buy this book this year because next year
everything in it will be useless'."
Curricula have not been stagnant; first-
year med students at Case Western Re-
serve, for example, have been helping wom-
en through pregnancy to childbirth since
the '50s. The new emphasis in many places
is to teach students how to think and how to
Diversity wanted: Indiana's Cooley spins discs at a Bloomington station
ERIC MARSHALL
C
SEPTEMBER 1987