LSU-S Medical School Gets $100,280 Grant for Shorter Course Study

              THE SHREVEPORT TIMES Sunday, June 21, 1970 3-C
LSU-S Medical School Gets $100,280 Grant for Shorter Course Study
By Margaret Martin
Times Medical Writer
Can medical school curriculum
be shortened to six years?
Louisiana S t a t e University
Medical School at Shreveport
will al tempt to answer that
question with a $100,282, three -
year federal grant from the
special projects division of the
U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
The funds include $38,796 for
this year, $38,622 for next year
and "$22,864 for the third year.
The second and th:rd year grants
will depend on availability of
funds, said Dr. Marion Hargrove,
head of the school's department
of medicine.
Because the federal govern-ment
is interested in increasing
the number of doctors to im-prove
health care, the special
projects grant was set up,
according to Dr. Hargrove.
Various routes are being taken
across the nation to study how to
alleviate the shortage, "and one
way would be to shorten the
curriculum form seven or eight
years to six or seven years."
He emphasized that to shorten
the curriculum would actually
increase the number of doctors
only one year, "but the appeal is
that we will be making doctors
more available with one more
year of lifetime practice."
Today, doctors attend under-graduate
school four years, or in
some cases, three years before
going to medical for four years.
To complete their program of
study, they spend a year of
internship and if they choose a
speciality they take a residency,
which runs various amounts of
additional time.
In the pilot project Ihe medical
school will work with LSU at
Shreveport in coming up with a
six or seven year program.
"The mechanics of the pro-gram
are what must be worked,
out," Dr. Hargrove said.
The First Step
The first step in the study will
be to hire a man at the full
professorship level to work one
year studying the most, feasible
method of working out such a
curriculum.
The next two years will be
spent in implementing the plan.
The course of study will
include shortening the regular
undergraduate work to two
years, including summers, "and
would probably mean leaving out
certain courses which the rest of
us took but which are not
essential to their education as a
doctor, but broaden the individu-al."
He emphasized that as far as
the medical school is concerned
the student must get the same
material as he is getting now,
but the order of study might be
changed.
"We must still have first class
doctors," he added.
Dr. Hargrove emphasized that
"this is a pilot project—the rest
of the school has to remain as it
is."
Although details haven't been
worked out, the first participants
will probably be handpicked
"outstanding and promising high
school seniors who are interested
in medicine."
Students selected for the pro-gram
will get tentative, provi-sional
admission to medical
school until they meet regular
entrance requirements.
Dr. Hargrave said one difficul-ty
in setting up such a program
is that "we'll have to find
students who have made up their
minds while still in high school
that they want to be doctors."
"High school seniors are not
always mature enough to make
this decision this early." he said.
Dr. Edgar Hull, dean of the
school, is .program director.