If the AMA gets their way, then it will not be long until gross anatomy is pushed out of the medical schools and made a requirement for admission so they can spend more time on clinicals an clinical-based courses in med school. THis move, which is very likely, is going to place an even higher premium on electives for pre-med students.
So, whether it would be useful or not, unless the AMA decides to require it, even fewer pre-meds will avoid ecology in the future, regardless of efforts to attract them into courses. My personal experience from teaching in the professional schools a few years. On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 1:29 PM, K. Greg Murray <[email protected]> wrote: > Good ideas. I think there are lots of reasons that ecology needs to be in > the background of pre-health professions students, and many of these reasons > are similar to or the same as those promoted by Randolf Nesse and others > about the centrality of evolution to medical training. Indeed, the many > publications on “evolutionary” or “Darwinian” medicine are good starting > points, since much of this field focuses on evolutionary arms races between > humans and our pathogens. For years I introduced my course on ecology and > evolutionary biology (the third of 3 intro or core courses for all students > intending to take any of our upper-level courses) with examples where > ecology and evolutionary biology were important for understanding virtually > all facets of human experience in addition to the things they usually think > of as evolution and ecology. I included examples from history, using some > examples from Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” For human health, I > used some of the usual suspects like antibiotic resistance and Lyme disease, > but also some lesser-known examples like the most promising and effective > approaches to malaria being low-tech ones like window screens and bed nets, > that stomach ulcers (once thought to be a “lifestyle” disease) were actually > caused by a bacterium, the intriguing connections between atherosclerosis > and bacterial infection, between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and > bacterial infection, the fact that most of epidemiology is really ecology, > and on and on. Several of these examples were cases in which medical > science would have made more rapid advances had its practitioners been > better trained in ecology and evolutionary biology. I even threw in a > damning quote or two (“The future of infectious diseases will be very dull” > Dr. McFarlane Burnet, 1972 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine). I > also pointed out that the MCAT contained sections on population biology, and > that these were not covered in any of the other intro courses. It was still > true that lots of our pre-professional students would prefer to focus their > coursework on physiology, genetics, and cell and molecular biology, but I > think most of them would have agreed that what we call ecology and > evolutionary biology are very important to the study of human biology and > the of management of human health. > Our current curriculum has only two semesters of intro courses, but > together, E & E still comprise fully one-third of the course material. And > our majors still have a distribution requirement to take at least one upper- > level course that deals with biology at the population (or above) level of > organization. We do not experience much grousing about these requirements > at all, to my knowledge. -- Malcolm L. McCallum, PHD, REP Link to online CV and portfolio : https://www.visualcv.com/malcolm-mc-callum?access=18A9RYkDGxO “Nothing is more priceless and worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans.” -President Richard Nixon upon signing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 into law. "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
