Conclusions: Evidence on the positive long-term impacts of integrating humanities into undergraduate medical education is sparse. This may pose a threat to the continued development of humanities-related activities in undergraduate medical education in the context of current demands for evidence to demonstrate educational effectiveness.

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Humanities in Undergraduate Medical Education: A Literature Review

The inclusion of humanities in medical school curriculum has generated much pedagogic experimentation and assessment. Publications in medical journals in the past decade reflect the experience of teaching humanities in medical schools and the motives for which they are taught. As Ousager and Johannessen demonstrate elsewhere in this issue, short- and medium-range outcomes are available for examination, but the author of this commentary argues that the long view of change in clinical practice will not be available for another decade or more as the undergraduate student slowly becomes a full-fledged clinician.

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Commentary: Calculating the Contributions of Humanities to Medical Practice-Motives, Methods, and Metrics

The study by Ousager and Johannessen in this issue finds a lack of research attempting to measure the long-term effects of incorporating humanities into the undergraduate medical education (UME) curriculum, and warns that more such studies are needed if the humanities are to become integrated into UME. This commentary points to limitations in the study’s methodology, suggesting that the value of the humanities in educating new physicians can be defended by demonstrating the need for more complex approaches to knowledge than complete dependence on empirical evidence, and invites those who support inclusion of the humanities in UME to take up three challenges: work together to define the terms and scope of the medical humanities as a coherent (though heterogenous) field, teach reading skills…

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Commentary: Sharper Instruments: On Defending the Humanities in Undergraduate Medical Education

Conclusions: Generalist-primary care specialty choices declined since 1997, whereas primary care subspecialty and no-board-certification specialty choices increased. Associations between primary care specialty choices and demographic, attitudinal, and career intention variables can inform the design of interventions to address expected primary care workforce shortages.

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Primary Care Specialty Choices of United States Medical Graduates, 1997-2006

Conclusions: Although the findings support the short- and long-term predictive validity of the MCAT, opportunities to strengthen it remain. Subsequent revisions should increase the test’s ability to predict performance on United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 and must minimize the differential validity for gender. (C) 2010 Association of American Medical Colleges (Source: Academic Medicine)

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The Predictive Validity of Three Versions of the MCAT in Relation to Performance in Medical School, Residency, and Licensing Examinations: A…

Conclusions: The nonphysician medical educator will never replace the physician educator. However, as team training, interdisciplinary education, and the general competencies become the norm, the need for the nonphysician medical educator will increase

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Nonphysician Medical Educators: A Literature Review and Job Description Resource

Conclusions: Physicians’ interactions with industry and their familiarity with guidelines vary by practice setting, perhaps because of more restrictive policies in university settings, professional isolation of private practice, or differences in social norms. Prescribing samples may be associated with physicians’ use of information from sales representatives more than is merited by the physicians’ own beliefs about the value of pharmaceutical representatives

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Factors Associated With Physicians’ Reliance on Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives

Conclusions: Because there were significant neuropsychological differences between physicians referred for competency evaluations and physicians whose competency was not in question, it is important that neuropsychological screening be included as part of physicians’ competency evaluations. (C) 2009 Association of American Medical Colleges (Source: Academic Medicine)

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Do Physicians Referred for Competency Evaluations Have Underlying Cognitive Problems?

There is much to be excited about in Riesenberg and colleagues’ report-if all they promise can be delivered. But their endorsement of nonphysician medical educators’ (NPMEs’) remedial role in educating health professionals is excessive, even as they point out that NPMEs are only one solution to the problems facing such training, and even as they raise provocative ideas (having NPMEs function as role models for physicians in training) about the realignment of responsibilities for educating future physicians

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Commentary: When Much Is Promised, Much Is-and Should Be-Expected

Purpose: To identify common struggles of interns, determine residency program directors’ (PDs’) views of the competencies to be gained in the fourth year of medical school, and apply this information to formulate goals of curricular reform and student advising. Method: In 2007, semistructured interviews were conducted with 30 PDs in the 10 most common specialty choices of students at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine to assess the PDs’ priorities for knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be acquired in the fourth year. Interviews were coded to identify major themes.

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What Training Is Needed in the Fourth Year of Medical School? Views of Residency Program Directors