Dive Brief:
- The American Medical Association is anticipating the coming graduation of the first class of students trained in a new curriculum developed by its Accelerating Change in Medical Education consortium, an initiative launched five years ago that seeks to prepare medical students for the modern healthcare system.
- Since the launch of ACE, the AMA has awarded $12.5 million in grants to 32 leading medical schools to develop new curricula to be replicated by institutions across the country. So far, the initiative has supported training for an estimated 19,000 medical students.
- Medical students trained in this new model are graduating with hands-on training in EHRs and coordinated care and are better prepared to work in an industry increasingly focused on value-based care, patient-centricity and population health.
Dive Insight:
As the healthcare industry evolves, medical education must do the same. Despite overwhelming volumes of data from EHRs, modern medical education doesn't incorporate much training in data science. In fact, medical education today hasn't drifted far from the Flexner Report, which was published in 1910.
AMA's consortium has spent the past five years trying to change that paradigm by bringing medical education into the 21st century. Schools involved in the program are not just playing catch up, they're preparing to be drivers of healthcare delivery reform with curricula focused on patient-centered care, population health and care coordination, according to Ruth Crowe, associate professor at New York University School of Medicine.
Hands-on EHR training is a large part of that. AMA recently partnered with the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine on the launch of its EHR Clinical Learning Platform, an EHR training system that gives students the opportunity to use real patient data.
EHR training in medical schools is long overdue, as the industry is thirsting for greater efficiency in the use of electronic platforms. According to a 2017 study from The Doctors Company, the pace of medical malpractice claims in which EHRs play a role is growing. Another study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, found primary care doctors spend more than half their workday on EHR tasks. The administrative burden is a major factor in physician burnout.
As for the future, AMA Group Vice President for Medical Education Susan Skochelak said in a teleconference the organization will be looking to partner with residency training programs, hospital systems and medical schools for its next five-year push helping medical students transition into residencies. But the consortium's work with medical school curricula isn't over yet.
"We'll continue our work with this consortium of schools and enlarge it," Skochelak said. "There's still a lot more change that needs to happen and many more schools to reach."