This is long overdue. As Robert Shipley notes, in theory this might lower standards, but I think that in practice, many of the standards are unnecessary (particularly since the wokification of medical education). I’ve never been impressed by doctors myself qua doctors.
” trimming the electives and carrying classes through the summer. ”
It isn’t a reduction in learning, just a compression of the schedule. I don’t know what the electives are, but it could be like other colleges where access/exposure to additional interests has been replaced by the internet. Of course, this requires curiosity and a desire for continuous improvement, which a lot of people, doctors included, don’t have.
The third year of medical school in N. America is dedicated to practical experience in basic medical specialties – usually 3 months of “Sub-internship” work in Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, OB/GYN, and psych. The fourth year is ‘electives’ with one to three month sub-i’s in things that are more specialized: Emergency, Ophtho, more surgery, etc…and students are given more choice in what they specialize in. The fourth year is also when applications and interviews for residency training occur.
Since the author mentioned Germany, I will note that according to Perplexity, in 2022 life expectancy in the U.S. was 74.8 years for men and 80.2 years for women. In Germany, life expectancy was 78.3 years for men and 83.2 years for women.
Selecting high performing secondary school graduates for about six years at medical school has long been the standard across the world. The USA is one of the exceptions.
Who cares? I suspect that the number of years doctors spend in medical school in a country is one of the least significant factors in life expectancy.
It would be interesting to break down those life expectancy figures by only including the native born, or adjusting for ancestry. (But that would be racissst!) How has the German number changed since Merkel opened up the borders?
In the USA applicants usually are forced to waste years on a bachelor’s degree before they can apply to medical school, and then are admitted according to secret standards that include extracurricular activities, personal connections and, not least, DEI.
As we all know, doctors who studied in the other model can get American medical licenses and often teach in American medical schools.
It doesn’t much matter for patients how long the degree granting part of medical school lasts because the American medical industry overall has very high costs in exchange for outcomes generally similar to or worse than those in other developed countries.
Likely more to do with body fat percentage than anything else.