A 3-Year M.D. — Accelerating Careers, Diminishing Debt

In recent decades, the length of medical training has increased, slowing the entry of new physicians into practice. Experiments with 3-year medical schools, like the one at New York University, attempt to address this delay. It's been more than 100 years since Abraham Flexner proposed the current model for medical education in North America: 2 years of basic science instruction followed by 2 years of clinical experience. 1 Over the past several decades, major changes have caused the medical community to reconsider current educational models. These changes include increasing education costs, shifts in health care needs, the demographics of the applicant pool, and many scientific, pharmacologic, and technological advances resulting in increased specialization of physicians. Oversight of U.S. medical education is compartmentalized, with standards independently set for undergraduate and graduate accreditation by the Liaison Committee on . . .