Medical Education

Why diversity in medicine is a clinical intervention

Medical Education

June 12, 2026

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) had a reasonable institutional story to tell.

U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, MD, MBA, is an alumnus. He is an emergency medicine physician, a Marine veteran, a former student body president, and the first MSM graduate elected to Congress. From the perspective of a communications office, the announcement almost writes itself: alumnus returns home to deliver the commencement speech; physician-leader addresses the next generation; a school devoted …

The MCAT requirement persists as a norm, not as a tool

Aniruth Ananthanarayanan

Medical Education

June 7, 2026

I said something in a medical school interview that I probably shouldn’t have said in a medical school interview.

It was a group interview, and we were waiting for one of the other interviewees in our group (he had back-to-back interviews and was running late). To pass time, the examiner, who just so happened to be the head of medical admissions at the medical school, asked why we applied to that …

Why scientific creativity and aging defy citations

Rao M. Uppu, PhD

Medical Education

June 7, 2026

Recent discussions surrounding aging and scientific innovation have raised important questions about how scientific creativity should be measured. A recent article in Science approached this issue primarily through bibliometric and disruption-based analyses, perspectives that were subsequently discussed and amplified in other outlets, including Nature.

Still, scientific creativity may not always be fully captured through disruption metrics or bibliometric patterns alone, a concern raised in recent responses discussing the limitations …

Why ChatGPT can’t write your residency personal statement

Kathleen Muldoon, PhD

Medical Education

June 5, 2026

I recently worked with a medical student who had spent weeks writing and revising her residency personal statement. Her essay was layered and thoughtful, tracing the arc of her experiences and establishing a clear through-line for why she wanted to pursue palliative care medicine. Most importantly, the narrative sounded like her. It was honest. She was proud of it.

Then she showed it to a resident on a rotation. The resident …

A letter to my future self, the team physician

Sarah Haugh

Medical Education

May 31, 2026

As a former Team USA figure skater with my own Olympic dreams, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own experience as an elite athlete while watching the Winter Olympics this year. With Match Day behind me and medical school graduation approaching, it is also time to dream of the future again.

In March, I matched into orthopedic surgery for residency, and I hope to complete a sports medicine fellowship to …

Can peer review in academia survive faculty overload?

Rao M. Uppu, PhD

Medical Education

May 28, 2026

One of the most difficult moments in scholarship is deciding when a piece of work is ready to leave the desk of the author and enter the public domain. Peer review continues to rely almost entirely on voluntary scholarly labor, even as the academic environment supporting it becomes increasingly strained.

Over the past several years, many faculty in higher education in the United States, whether at public or private institutions, have …

Social determinants of health belong in medical school

Monique Tello, MD

Medical Education

May 26, 2026

There is so much going on in the world right now, which is precisely why I want to talk about a TV show.

Not for escapism. Because this particular show is doing something that medical schools across the country are now being required to stop doing.

The Pitt won Outstanding Drama Series at the 2025 Emmys. Season 2 just aired its finale. Season 3 is already confirmed. And if …

The residency personal statement is an identity problem

Kathleen Muldoon, PhD

Medical Education

May 26, 2026

Last year around this time, a student offered me $1,000 to write the personal statement for their residency application.

Not to coach them through exercises that would help them write it themselves. Not to edit a finished draft. One thousand dollars for me to write 800 words about their life that they could submit alongside their transcripts and Dean’s Letter to the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).

At first, it would have …

Is coaching in medical education replacing mentorship?

Vijay Rajput, MD

Medical Education

May 24, 2026

Walk into any medical school or residency program today and you will find coaching everywhere. There are coaches for Step exams, OSCEs, research productivity, wellness, leadership, residency applications, and even “professional identity.” On the surface, this seems like progress, offering structured support, individualized feedback, and measurable outcomes. But beneath this expansion lies a more uncomfortable question. Are we replacing meaning-making mentorship with episodic, transactional coaching?

Coaching: what it does well

At its …

A medical school experience that redefined providing care

Diana Shaari

Medical Education

May 24, 2026

My first experience of “providing care” did not unfold as I had imagined: after years of training, thoroughly studying everything there is to know about the human body, and being perfectly prepared to care for someone. Instead, it began quietly, with a white coat and a stethoscope that fit about as comfortably as my pseudo-physician identity, that is, to all of my friends not in medicine.

It was early in my …

How AI improves clinical reasoning for medical students

Lauren Fine, MD

Medical Education

May 24, 2026

“The eyes only see what the brain knows.” A patient said this to me recently, and it stopped me in my tracks. He was reflecting on his own experience in the medical system: the many physicians he had seen for the same problems, and the various different diagnoses he had received. Although each of those physicians likely trained at LCME-accredited institutions, the path beyond medical school, including residency, fellowship, and …

How moving from nursing to medicine improves oncology care

Max Jared Bajer, RN

Medical Education

May 23, 2026

I still remember the heavy silence of the psychiatric unit during the peak of COVID-19. No family visitors, no group therapy, just the low hum of monitors and the crushing weight of isolation. One of my patients had survived a suicide attempt after losing his wife and daughter in a car accident. His grief filled the room like something physical.

As a registered nurse, my role was clear: manage crises, deliver …

Medical education needs diversity and true excellence

Aba Black, MD, MHS

Medical Education

May 20, 2026

The momentous annual occasion known as Match Day was recently upon us. Thousands of medical students across the country opened envelopes that revealed their academic destiny for the next several years. What medical students learn during several intense years of study and practical application has evolved over time, with increased recognition that biomedical knowledge is necessary but not sufficient to develop humanistic, person-centered physicians. Noticeably missing from the curriculum, however, …

A 20-item checklist for trainee research projects

Vance Lehman, MD

Medical Education

May 19, 2026

While excellent guides exist for research topic discovery or planning, and finding suitable journals for publication, a short practical checklist to help trainees determine if a project proposal is a great fit is useful (see the checklist below). Here, I outline items to consider before you commit to a project and provide my take on two main categories of topics: 1) those where a single NO generally should lead to …

Physician autonomy and the hidden curriculum of medicine

Gus W. Krucke, MD

Medical Education

May 12, 2026

If you are a physician, you have likely heard the question: “What would you do?” Increasingly, the answer is shaped before you have the chance to speak.

Patients assume that the physician responsible for their care is the one making the decisions. In many cases, that assumption no longer holds.

Modern health care is organized around teams, protocols, and layers of oversight that shape decisions before they reach the bedside. These structures …

A medical school dismissal highlights disability discrimination

Anonymous

Medical Education

May 2, 2026

Meet the standards. Demonstrate competence. Move forward. That is the promise medical students are told to trust.

But a federal lawsuit filed against a private medical school puts that promise to the test. What happens when academic standards, professionalism judgments, and disability accommodations collide?

At the center of that lawsuit is a fourth-year medical student who, according to public court filings, was dismissed amid allegations of disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, …

Why tiered clerkship grading fails medical students today

Anika Pruthi

Medical Education

May 1, 2026

Medical students are often told that third-year clerkships are their place to shine because they will be evaluated as future physicians. Unfortunately, the evaluation systems themselves frequently undermine that goal. During an internal medicine rotation, I was told that my performance was “excellent,” to merit top marks, but awarding the highest grade would be inappropriate because it was my first rotation. In another clerkship, evaluations seemed driven less by clinical …

Medical school rankings reshape what they measure

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Medical Education

April 30, 2026

I have watched the U.S. News & World Report “Best Medical Schools” rankings shape behavior in American medicine for decades. As a physician, educator, and someone who has mentored trainees at different stages of their careers, I have seen the rankings function both as a compass and as a distortion. They promise clarity in a complex landscape. Too often, they deliver something closer to a mirage.

The appeal is obvious. Medical …

The rising cost of clinical placements for nursing students

Ksenia Kiseleva, RN

Medical Education

April 29, 2026

For three months, I searched for a preceptor. I reached out to clinics, private practices, and community providers. I emailed offices, followed up, and posted in professional forums and Facebook groups. I approached the process with persistence and respect for the clinicians whose time I was requesting. Most of the time, I received no response. When I did, the answer was typically the same: not accepting students, already at capacity, …

Why nature-based medicine is the future of health care

John La Puma, MD

Medical Education

April 29, 2026

This month, 53 medical schools committed to requiring 40 hours of nutrition education. As the physician who co-taught the first U.S. medical school class in culinary medicine, with Mike Roizen, MD, founding director of the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, I am proud that culinary medicine is now taught in roughly 80 percent of U.S. medical schools. I recognize this as a genuine win. But I have watched this story before, …

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