Medical schools must rethink how they train future physicians to better reflect today’s healthcare landscape, according to Meharry Medical College President and CEO Dr. James E.K. Hildreth.
While healthcare has increasingly shifted from hospitals to outpatient settings, Hildreth said many medical schools continue to educate students using an inpatient-focused model that no longer aligns with how most patients receive care.
“In some ways, medical schools are still training doctors as if they’re going to spend most of their time in an inpatient setting,” Hildreth told HealthLeaders. “The reality is, for many years now, the goal has been to keep people out of the hospital.”
Hildreth believes medical education should place greater emphasis on outpatient primary care, surgery, and preventive medicine, where advances in technology now allow many procedures, including hip and knee replacements, to be performed without overnight hospital stays.
He also noted that health systems are increasingly investing in residency programs and medical schools to develop physicians who are already familiar with their clinical environments, technologies, and care models.
At Meharry, that philosophy has shaped clinical training. Medical students complete rotations across affiliated hospitals in seven states while gaining expanded experience in outpatient specialties, including surgery, psychiatry, and obstetrics.
“We’re intentional about making sure students get a good grounding in what medicine is like when it’s practiced in outpatient settings,” Hildreth said.
Looking ahead, Hildreth expects physician education to continue evolving, with greater emphasis on outpatient care and the effective use of technology to prepare graduates for the future of medicine.
| Adapting Medical Education | |
|---|---|
| Category | Details |
| The Leader | Dr. James E.K. Hildreth, President and CEO of Meharry Medical College, a historically Black academic health sciences center. |
| The Core Issue | Many medical schools still rely on an outdated inpatient-focused training model, despite the reality that modern healthcare has overwhelmingly shifted toward outpatient care to keep patients out of hospitals. |
| The Solution | Medical education must pivot to emphasize outpatient primary care, preventive medicine, and outpatient surgery (such as same-day hip and knee replacements enabled by new technologies). |
| Industry Trends | Health systems are increasingly investing directly in residency programs and medical schools to ensure new physicians are already trained on their specific clinical environments and care models. |
| The Meharry Approach | Meharry Medical College has restructured its clinical training so that students gain expanded, hands-on experience in outpatient specialties like surgery, psychiatry, and obstetrics across affiliated hospitals in seven states. |
| The Future Outlook | Dr. Hildreth expects physician education to rapidly evolve, demanding a much stronger focus on the effective use of technology and community-based, outpatient clinical grounding. |
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