A 3-year M.D.--accelerating careers, diminishing debt.

n engl j med 369;12 nejm.org september 19, 2013 1085 Over the past several decades, major changes have caused the medical community to reconsider current educational models. These changes include increasing education costs, shifts in health care needs, the demographics of the applicant pool, and many scientific, pharmacologic, and technological advances resulting in increased specialization of physicians. Oversight of U.S. medical education is compartmentalized, with standards independently set for undergraduate and graduate accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), respectively. This system results in rigid, timebased, non–learner-centered training. Recognizing this limitation, the Carnegie Foundation recently recommended that education should “provide options for individualizing the learning process for students and residents, such as offering the possibility of fast tracking within and across levels.” 1