Educational programs in US medical schools, 1998-1999

To describe the current status of medical education programs in the United States and to trace trends in medical education over this century, we used data from the 1998-1999 Liaison Committee on Medical Education Annual Medic al School Questionnaire, which had a 100% response rate, and data from othe r sources. In 1998-1999, total full-time faculty members numbered 98 202, a 1.5% increase from 1997-1998. The number of applicants to medical school d eclined for the second consecutive year, from 43 020 in 1997 to 41 004 in 1 998, but the academic qualifications of entering students remained steady. The number of applicants from underrepresented minority groups decreased 1. 3% from 1997 to 1998, compared with an 11.1% decrease between 1996 and 1997 , Women constituted 43.4% of applicants in 1998, slightly more than the 42. 5% in 1997, The total number of required hours in the first and second year s of the curriculum and the number of scheduled hours per week have decline d over the past 15 years, while the average lengths of clinical clerkships remained about the same. The number of schools requiring students to pass S teps 1 and 2 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination continued t o increase in 1998-1999, with 50% of schools requiring passing both examina tions, compared with 46% in 1997-1998.