Agarwal Gauri, Colbert Brett M, Jacobs Sarah, Deshpande Amar R, Chandran Latha, Issenberg S Barry
Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, 33136, United States of America.
BMC Med Educ. 2024 Jul 16;24(1):766. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05709-3.
Transdisciplinarity has been described as a fusion of theories, methods, and expertise across disciplinary boundaries to address complex, global problems. This approach has coincided with an increase in US medical schools offering masters degrees along with an MD degree to equip medical students to practice in complex, interconnected health systems. This study focused on medical schools that graduate the most dual degree students per year and explored the alignment of such programs with a transdisciplinary approach.
We identified 19 allopathic medical schools that annually graduated an average of 10 or more dual-degree students from 2015-2020. We surveyed these schools and asked participants to describe the reason(s) their institutions offered dual-degree programs. Two authors coded the narrative responses from the survey.
Responses were received from 17 of the 19 schools. The analysis of participants' responses regarding their institutions' purpose for offering dual programs revealed several themes associated with a transdisciplinary approach to training. The most common themes were expand skill sets beyond a medical degree (73%), provide opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration (67%), expand career interest and goals (60%), develop leaders (53%), enhance residency applications (47%) and further the institution's vision and mission (45%).
This study is the first comprehensive evaluation of MD/Masters programs in the United States that includes a summary of the medical schools with the largest dual degree programs and their reasons for offering them. The findings support the hypothesis that allopathic medical schools recognize the need for a transdisciplinary approach to prepare students for the complexities in healthcare. These programs provide students with opportunities for additional areas of expertise, leadership development, enhancement of competitiveness for residency application, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Medical schools without dual-degree programs may consider developing these programs to provide benefits to students and institutions.
跨学科研究被描述为跨越学科界限融合理论、方法和专业知识，以解决复杂的全球性问题。这种方法与美国医学院校增加提供医学博士学位（MD）的同时授予硕士学位的情况相契合，以使医学生能够在复杂、相互关联的卫生系统中执业。本研究聚焦于每年授予双学位学生数量最多的医学院校，并探讨此类项目与跨学科方法的契合度。
我们确定了19所全科医学医学院校，这些院校在2015年至2020年期间每年平均毕业10名或更多双学位学生。我们对这些学校进行了调查，并要求参与者描述其所在机构提供双学位项目的原因。两位作者对调查中的叙述性回答进行了编码。
19所学校中的17所回复了调查。对参与者关于其所在机构提供双学位项目目的的回答进行分析，揭示了几个与跨学科培训方法相关的主题。最常见的主题是拓展医学学位之外的技能（73%）、提供跨学科合作机会（67%）、拓展职业兴趣和目标（60%）、培养领导者（53%）、提高住院医师申请竞争力（47%）以及推进机构的愿景和使命（45%）。
本研究是对美国医学博士/硕士项目的首次全面评估，其中包括拥有最大双学位项目的医学院校总结及其提供这些项目的原因。研究结果支持以下假设：全科医学医学院校认识到需要采用跨学科方法，以使学生为医疗保健的复杂性做好准备。这些项目为学生提供了获得额外专业领域知识、领导力发展、提高住院医师申请竞争力以及跨学科合作的机会。没有双学位项目的医学院校可考虑开发此类项目，以造福学生和院校。
