Competencies as the basis for reformed premedical education. The case for an unrestricted liberal arts collegiate education.

As the HHMI-AAMC declared, their report should be taken as a "first step in a continuing conversation about the appropriate skills and knowledge," and, echoing the ACGME and GPEP, "values and attitudes that future physicians should possess." (9pExecSum) As a new formulation evolves, the premedical curriculum must foster "scholastic vigor, analytic thinking, quantitative assessment and analysis of complex systems." (9pExecSum) Based on the Mount Sinai experience, these qualities are not engendered solely nor confined to engagement in natural sciences. Students involved in a variety of baccalaureate liberal arts endeavors appear to acquire similar intellectual competencies. Furthermore, when performed successfully in challenging collegiate environments, a thorough liberal arts education may yield precisely the same values, attitudes, and behavioral characteristics all agree are essential to the medical profession and preparing physicians for the twenty-first century.