Taking a mission-focused approach to medical education

I appreciated the recent articles on how medical schools are addressing the challenges in physician training. (“Say goodbye to the old ways,” May 6, p. 16). My colleagues and I want to make certain Modern Healthcare readers are aware of another highly innovative and mission-focused medical school—California University of Science and Medicine.

Unlike most medical schools, CUSM can boast that almost all basic science faculty are M.D./Ph.D.s, and we provide lectures online weeks in advance of student need. We were one of the first schools to have flipped classrooms—which use a more collaborative approach to learning— and our students don’t receive one mentor, but two. The curriculum is built on the principle of providing transformative education, and graduates are expected to be leaders, even as our healthcare system evolves. We offer our curriculum free of charge to Third World countries, with global and population health built in as an integral part of student studies.

The curriculum is also unusual in its approach to undergraduate physician training by closely integrating two key components: the first brings together a pipeline program for local high schools/ colleges and a region-specific student admissions/recruitment strategy that aims to encourage local training and retention of M.D. graduates. The second integrates the learning of basic science with the acquisition of clinical skills from the first day of medical school and aligns clinical skills training with a service learning program so students can make a real contribution to our local communities long before they graduate from medical school.

Dr. Peter Eveland Interim dean California University of Science and Medicine