Proposal for a partially online medical school: http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030730-022850-3739r.htm What thoughts?
Why not? A computer simulation of a human body could respond more like a live human body than a cadaver would, and would certainly be safer for a medical student to operate on than a live patient. Of course the exams would have to be proctored, but how hard is that?
I think that we sometimes forget that there are other reasons to want a medical education then simply to become a practicing physician. This approach may be a good way for researchers to get their "double doc" (i.e. folks who need a good grounding in the medical sciences for academic/scientific research, but have no interest in going into practice). Cheers, Tony Maranto
I read another article... on this (of course I can't find now), which indicated the focus of the program was on people in more remote locations. The idea was that they would want to stay in the area after graduation and provide medical services to a generally underserved population.