page_title: Medical school in the United States
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Medical school in the United States / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Description: Photograph of the "Old Chapel" in Castleton. The building in the photo was built in 1821. It was used by the Castleton Medical College. It was used as a dormitory, classroom space, and a chapel. The building is registered on the National Register of Historic Places. Source: Photograph taken by Jared C. Benedict on 01 July 2004. Copyright: © Jared C. Benedict.
context_page_description: Medical school in the United States is graduate program with the purpose of educating physicians in the field of medicine. Such schools provide a major part of the medical education in the United States. Most medical schools in the US confer upon graduates a Doctor of Medicine degree, although some confer a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree, and a few offer combined programs where graduates earn both a bachelor's degree and an MD or DO. Most schools follow a similar pattern of education, with two years of classroom and laboratory based education, followed by two years of clinical rotations in a teaching hospital where students see patients in a variety of specialties. After completion, graduates must complete a residency before becoming licensed to practice medicine.
  Admissions to medical school in the United States is generally considered highly competitive, although there is a wide range of competitiveness among different types of schools. Admissions criteria include grade point averages, Medical College Admission Test scores, letters of recommendation, and interviews.
context_section_description: The first medical school in the United States opened in 1765 at the College of Philadelphia by John Morgan and William Shippen Jr. This has grown into the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. In 1767, Dr. Samuel Bard, an alumnus of then-King's College opened Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.  Harvard Medical School opened in 1782.
  The American Medical Association was formed in 1847. In 1876, the Association of American Medical Colleges was formed. Standards for the education provided at medical schools were developed.
  In 1910, the Flexner Report reported on the state of medical education in the United States and Canada. Written by Abraham Flexner and published in 1910 under the aegis of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the report set standards and reformed American medical education. This report led to the demise of many non-university based medical schools.
  After World War I, the standard practice of completing an internship after medical school became a commonplace requirement to practice medicine, and a list of approved hospitals for the training of interns was complied. In 1928, the AMA published a set of guidelines for residencies.
  In 1940, the Report of the Commission on Graduate Medical Education was published, which first described the overworking of interns and residents. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education was established in 1942.
  Combination programs granting a bachelor's degree and medical degree are relatively rare in the US. Baccalaureate-MD programs opened for the first time in 1961 at Northwestern University Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine. By the 1990s, 34 programs had opened, and in 2011, these programs were offered at 57 medical schools. Several of these schools offer programs in combination with more than one undergraduate institution, for a total of 81 programs. In all current combination programs admitting graduating high school students to receive both a bachelors and a medical degree, the medical education portion is four years in length. 80% of the programs are 8 years in length, giving no time advantage to students over the standard process, but 21% offer a compressed 6- or 7-year program. This is different to the programs of the 1990s, where 42% of programs were 8 years, 32% were 7 years, and 23% were 6 years.
  For years following the Flexner report, medical education in the United States has followed a standardized pattern, with two years of classroom education, followed by two years of clinical experience. Since the early 2010s, the idea of shortening medical school to three years once again has been raised as a solution to the massive debt facing medical graduates and the growing shortage of physicians in primary care specialties. A small number of universities are experimenting with three-year programs. New York University offers a 3-year program with an early acceptance into a residency program for students that wish to apply for a specific specialty before beginning their medical education. A handful of universities, including the Penn State College of Medicine, University of California Davis School of Medicine, and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, offer these programs for students that commit to entering a family medicine residency.
caption: Castleton Medical College, (1821) in Vermont, is the oldest surviving medical school building in the United States
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