Social Mission of Medical Education: Lessons, Strategies, and Staying Power

Background: In recent years, social mission and social accountability have emerged as increasingly important issues in medical education. In 2010, the presenters published a social mission ranking system for medical schools which generated considerable controversy. The controversy itself has proved instructive, and a review of that controversy will serve as the introduction to the proposed paper. One issue raised in the post-publication discussions focused on what a medical school can do to enhance their levels of social accountability. Purpose: This paper will delineate a series of approaches that can be used to promote the social mission of a medical school and provide a literature review for each. The strategies include cultivation of the pipeline or “supply chain”, admissions policy/strategy, curricular content, location of clinical experiences, tuition/debt management, mentoring/modeling, and post-graduate engagement. Site visits to medical schools that have experience in various strategies will be used to discuss actual experiences with implementation. Implications: Findings will be used to inform health policy and new models of medical education. It will conclude by reviewing the forces that might encourage medical schools to focus more deliberately on these areas of social mission in order to graduate individuals who will address the nation's need for better geographic distribution of physicians, higher numbers of underrepresented minority physicians, and more primary care.