FP Report -- December 1999
Target schools -- 12 down, 10 to go
In 1988, the Academy developed a list of 22 "target" schools -- medical schools without academic departments of family medicine.
"We were looking to improve the availability of family practice curricula, teachers and mentors for medical students," said Norman Kahn, M.D., AAFP vice president for education and science.
That initial list had 22 schools, including George Washington University, Emory University, Tulane University and University of Pennsylvania. The first target school removed from the list was Albert Einstein University in Bronx, N.Y., in February 1993. Since then, 12 schools have successfully created academic departments of family medicine and been removed from the list.
To be removed from the AAFP's list, the medical schools must hire a chair and faculty for the family medicine department and have a presence in the curriculum.
"In the beginning, AAFP and chapter leadership and staff visited three schools a year. We talked to them about family practice and how it was important for medical students to know about all the options available to them," said Kahn. "And we depended on students to help their schools see the need for academic family medicine departments."
Medical students have helped in a big way. Family medicine interest groups -- FMIGs -- are active on 131 campuses, including branch clinical campuses and most of the targeted medical schools.
"It's really the students who want a strong family medicine presence on their campuses," said Deborah McPherson, M.D., assistant director of the AAFP Division of Medical Education. "They want to learn more about family practice. Even if they decide not to become family physicians, the students feel it's important to know what a family physician does."
Here are some recent developments at "target" schools:
- The Maryland AFP has instituted a program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., to help interested medical students learn more about family medicine.
- Yale University had its first FMIG meeting of the academic year in September, and 85 students showed up. The Connecticut AFP conducted a "hands-on" night at the request of Yale medical students, and 90 participated in learning more about family medicine.
- Harvard University medical students have met with the dean and spoken with their professors about creating an academic department of family medicine.
AAFP Target School List
Columbia University, New York City
Cornell University, New York City
Harvard Medical School, Boston
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
New York University, New York City
University of Chicago - Pritzker
University of New York - Mt. Sinai
Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1999 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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