MR5 - What Med Schools Want

I recently received the MR5 report from the American Association of Medical Schools showing the results of their study of what in the opinion of medical school faculty, residents, and medical students is of importance in the undergraduate courses.  Organic as a general topic falls in the category that is between "Somewhat" and "Moderately" important.  Physics, General Chemistry, and Biochemistry are all viewed as being of greater import.

The "organic" topics considered "very" to "extremely" important were Nucleic Acids, Lipids, Amino Acids and Proteins.  Between "Important" and "Very Important" are Carbohydrates and Phosphorous Compounds.  The next group of topics, in order of import, are Molecular Structure and Spectra, Covalent Bond, Carboxylic Acids, Alkanes, Alcohols, Amines, Acid Derivatives, Separations and Purifications, Aldehydes and Ketones, Sulfur Compounds, and Phenols.  Every other chapter in the organic book is on the low end of the "Somewhat Important" category.

Given that Biochemistry was the highest rated general topic (above both Biology and Cellular/Molecular Biology), it should be no surprise that the biochem topics at the end of the organic text are rated as being of the greatest import.  The thing is most of the faculty I know give cursory, at best, coverage of these topics.

There are three reasons commonly cited for this:

1) Just because some of the students are premed, does not mean that they or the rest of the class will make it to med school.  These folks may be glad to know the rest of the material.
2) It's an organic class, not a biochem class!  We are here to build the foundation, not the roof.
3) By the time we get through all the other material, there isn't much time left to do more that introduce these topics.

It will be interesting to see how this survey influences to the MCAT, organic textbooks, and our teaching.  The medical school bound have held the organic lectures hostage for some time.  Perhaps it's time to do as some neighboring institutions have done and split the pre-health professions majors off into their own bio-organic class.

T.S. Hall