California will soon introduce fast-tracked medical school program

[The title was written by my editor. California already introduced the program at UC Davis.]

The state of California is experimenting with three-year medical school programs as alternatives to the current four-year programs.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © Daily Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

First published at Daily Digest News on August 7, 2014

Some medical students in California will soon be eligible to practice medicine after three years of professional school rather than the current standard four. With funding in the neighborhood of $1 million over five years from the American Medical Association, the University of California at Davis is giving the three-year program a trial run.

Student Ngabo Nzigira is among the first to enroll in the new program. Already in his sixth week, Nzigira is meeting patients under the supervision of a physician at Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento. While the rigors of a four-year program are condensed into three, Nzigira stands to save some $60,000 off the cost of a typical medical school education.

“I thought, ‘Oh man, you want me to put the intensity and stress that is medical school in four years, you want me to condense it down to three years. I’m not sure about that,’ ” Nzigira says. He changed his mind though after learning more details.

One way in which the fourth year is eliminated is by cutting out time-consuming but somewhat less important components of the current medical training paradigm. Summer vacations, electives, and residency searches are basically eliminated.

The primary motivation for fast-tracking medical training is not lowering the cost to students, however. Rather, policy makers want to address a shortage of medical professionals coming up through the ranks as quickly yet safely as possible.

“There’s a huge problem, a huge shortage of primary care physicians,” says Dr. Tonya Fancher of the Accelerated Competency-based Education in Primary Care program.

While the number of students entering medical schools has not dropped appreciably, more who initially say that they will become internists or general practitioners later opt to specialize, citing higher salaries and fewer work hours as main motivators.

“Students come into medical school and they’re passionate about patients, passionate about primary care, and then that wanes over time,” Fancher says. “Part of it is the debt that they accrue, and part of it is the models of primary care that they’re exposed to.”

Officials at UC Davis are hoping that the fast-track program will help retain more students headed for family practice, as they can begin practicing and earn an income sooner while exiting with less debt than if they specialize.