The nation’s approach to medical education is primed for a major transformation, thanks to the American Medical Association’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Initiative. Launched in 2013 and already proving to have positive effects, the program awarded $1 million grants to each of 11 schools to develop and implement five-year plans for significantly transforming medical education, better preparing students for modern medical practice.

“There has been a universal call to transform the teaching of medicine to shift the focus of education toward real-world practice and competency assessment,” said AMA President Robert M. Wah, M.D. “Over the last year, we have made significant progress in transforming curriculum at these medical schools that can and will help close the gaps that currently exist between how medical students are trained and the way health care is delivered in this country now and in the future.”

The 11 schools awarded grants are:

Several of these schools already have put plans into action with revamped educational models that provide medical students with experience within the health care system from day one of medical school. Vanderbilt’s Curriculum 2.0 helps students become master adaptive learners while embedded in the health care workplace during their first years of medical school. Penn State’s initiated a course that teaches first year medical students how to practice within health care systems by working as Patient Navigators to help patients and their families navigate through the system. And OHSU launched a new learner-centered competency-based course that enables medical students to advance through medical school based on their own individualized learning plans, tracking milestones through their own portfolios. This alone could significantly impact medical education for scores of students because it affords them the opportunity to complete medical school in less than four years.

If you haven’t yet decided which medical schools you’ll apply to, you may want to consider one or more of these 11 consortium schools, though you can bet schools nationwide are watching and making changes of their own to assure they remain competitive. You can track each school’s grant projects at ChangeMedEd.org. Meanwhile,WOLFPACC can help assure you’ll get the most out of medical school and ace your USMLE and COMLEX exams with its own revolutionary preparatory programs. Call 904-209-3140 to find out how we can help you succeed, no matter which medical school you ultimately attend.