How Medical Schools are dealing with COVID-19

Florida State University medical students volunteer at drive-through SARS-Cov-2 pop-up testing facilities.

Columbia has accelerated the graduation of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons class of 2020 to assist the growing demand for physicians and clinical staff. Next month, all graduates will have the option to be employed by the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

The four Massachusetts medical schools have agreed to Gov. Charlie Baker’s request to graduate medical students early to help fight the coronavirus, the schools announced Thursday. The schools include Boston University, Tufts University, Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts.”

“Anticipating a surge in the number of COVID-19 hospital patients, the deans of the four Massachusetts medical schools have agreed to the state’s request to move up the graduation dates of their fourth-year medical students, allowing them to join doctors on the frontlines of the pandemic up to eight weeks earlier than they would have been able to,” the schools wrote in a statement.

The students will graduate April 17 instead of May 17, the schools said. And if they choose to, they can begin working immediately in area hospitals. Approximately 700 students are eligible for early graduation.

“We will be prepared if the schools graduate early to provide 90-day provisional licenses through the Board of Registration of Medicine a one-page application,” said Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders during the governor’s daily coronavirus update.

“In response to the growing spread of COVID-19, and in response to Governor Cuomo’s directive to get more physicians into the health system more quickly, NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU have agreed to permit early graduation for its medical students” pending approval from accreditation bodies, an NYU spokesperson told TPM Wednesday."

A spokesperson for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City told TPM Thursday that the school was reviewing a “tentative plan” to allow for early graduations.

“We have most of the pieces worked out already, there will be an opportunity to graduate early from medical school,” Dr. David Muller, Sinai’s dean for medical education, told students in a video town hall Wednesday. Brief19, a COVID-19 information source run by several doctors, published a clip of the town hall Thursday.

“The tentative date that we’ve set right now is April 14,” Muller said.

Cornell-Weill SOM and NYIT-COM will graduate their students early.

Lousiana State SOM will be graduating its students early.

More than 200 military medical students and graduate nursing students from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, known as USU, will be graduating early to support their colleagues in the U.S. military health system amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the official medical school accrediting body in the U.S. and Canada, gave a brief stamp of approval to early graduations in a letter Wednesday night.

“In the context of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, medical schools may be considering an option for eligible final-year medical students to graduate early,” the letter reads.

Students who’ve met a given medical school’s educational and clinical requirements “may be eligible for early graduation,” LCME said.

What about any changes in the admissions? My son, who’s scheduled to take an MCAT exam in late April, told me that the earlier test dates have been canceled and that he’s expecting his to be canceled, as well. If students can’t take MCAT exams, I’d expect the medical schools to modify their admissions procedures?

Einstein SOM has asked all its furloughed 4th year medical students to return.

Students have a choice of 3 options:

  1. sub-I w/ expanded duties in a COVID-19 ward
  2. sub-i with expanded duties in a non-COVID ward
  3. rotation in Occupational Medicine, telemedicine or some other no patient contact field.

Options #1 and #2 will count toward graduation credit; option $3 will not

@TiggerDad

Only 2 MCAT testing dates have been cancelled as of today.

Allopathic medical schools accept applications until anywhere from October 31 (the earliest application closure date ) to mid-January (the latest application closure date)

Osteopathic medical schools accept applications until mid-March.

As of now, no plans have been made to make changes to the upcoming application cycle.

Here is what med school students in Georgia are doing.

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/georgia-medical-students-work-free-doctors-coronavirus-fight/TaJ3ao6hu2cmW8rXhVjEzO/

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/unm-medical-student-creates-website-to-help-health-care-workers/5685467/

UNM med students volunteer to support HCWs.

UCSF med students are running a PPE collection drive for their hospital. They collected over 8600 masks in the first 3 days of the drive.

See: https://www.donateppe.org/drives for times and locations of collection points.

University of Minnesota medical students are providing support to HCWs using a web platform that is usually used to help med students find clinical rotations.

https://www.mncovidsitters.org

Alpert SOM students are assisting HCWs in a variety of ways

https://www.brown.edu/news/2020-03-24/volunteers

University of Arizona will be graduating its med students early form both it Phoenix and Tucson campuses.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2020/03/27/university-arizona-considers-early-graduation-medical-students-coronavirus-covid-19/2921785001/

@TiggerDad

AMCAS official policy statement RE: the upcoming 20-21 application cycle–

And

You can check for AMCAS policy changes and updates here:
https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/coronavirus-covid-19-and-amcas/

@WayOutWestMom

Thank you, so very helpful. Will share the link with my son so he can check for any changes himself.

For NY folks…mentioned by your governor today.

https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/get-involved-how-you-can-help