Interview: Dr. Keith Joiner, Dean of the University of Arizona Medical School

I recently asked the medical school dean of my home state's medical school if I could interview him for this blog. He graciously obliged and kindly met with me for a very good interview session. I think he says a lot of important things for all pre-medical students not just people who want to apply to the University of Arizona. Enjoy.

• Where do you see UA medical school in 10 years? How will the growth into Phoenix affect the medical school in Tucson?

First off, he said that the medical school will grow to be about three times as large in the coming years. This is to address the shortage of doctors in Arizona and the ever growing population. Also, the dean believes that UA will have the ability to be one of the best medical schools in the country with the new resources it will have at its disposal. One of his goals is to take the school from good to great. He also stated that even though the Phoenix campus is rightfully getting a lot of attention right now, the Tucson campus is doing a lot of big things. The Tucson campus has the expansion to the Cancer Center and much more coming its way.

The program here will not be like the medical school program in California. In California, each medical school is an autonomous entity. Here, both the Phoenix and Tucson campus will essentially be blanketed together as one medical school. Of course, Tucson and Phoenix will each be better in certain areas but they will function together, just on separate campuses.

• Will out of state applicants be accepted since the school is expanding?

For the first time this year, M.D./Ph.D. applicants will be accepted from everywhere. As for the regular M.D. program, it will currently stay in-state, but it is a possibility in the future that this will change.

• How does UA plan to address the growing disparity between the medical population and the general population?

Dr. Joiner said he is personally committed to addressing this issue and sees it as a major obstacle for all medical schools to conquer. He also desires to not just help disadvantaged minorities, but also people who are financially disadvantaged and unable to afford the immense costs of becoming a doctor. Also, he preached the idea of helping students before they enter college. The programs in place at the undergraduate level help, but sometimes are too late. One idea that is being initiated in Tucson, is to attract students to bioscience high schools. This way, the students would receive help to attain their goals in medicine before even reaching college. It would be pretty amazing if the medical community could reach out like this on the K-12 level.

• How do you see malpractice lawsuits affecting healthcare in America?

The dean told me that it seems like the lawsuits are growing, but this is really not the case. What is happening is the settlements are increasing. Tort reform is a very important issue for physicians in Arizona, because this is one of only a few states which does not have a cap on non-medical damages in medical liability cases. Also, he thinks that when a doctor does make a mistake, they should be forward and immediately let the patients know. He feels the interaction between the patient and the doctor should be improved. Dr. Joiner believes that medical schools are teaching or will be teaching students, now more than ever, to be concerned about medical errors. This does not mean practicing defensive medicine. Defensive medicine, for those of you who may not know, is when doctors run up a vast amount of tests to cover every single possibility, no matter how small, because of the fear that they might somehow be sued. It is a vicious cycle of fear and punishment that helps no one in the end. Dr. Joiner preached the exact opposite of this. He feels teaching new doctors to simply be more thorough with routine tests, and the use of a more integrated system of care using well developed processes would produce fewer errors.

• Any specific advice for pre-med students out there?

Dr. Joiner had no specific advice because he stresses no two students should be a like. Each student should find an area they love and can contribute too.

Book Review: U.S. News Ultimate Guide To Medical Schools

This is a good book. It covers a lot of important topics for all types of pre-med students. Also, it has things specifically for pre-medical students that are in varying degrees of completion of the application process.

The book starts off with a foreword by an incredibly famous and successful doctor, Dr. Bernadine Healy. She basically goes over what being a doctor is and what it demands. It is the same stuff all of us have heard before, but it is still pretty interesting and well written.

We then move into an account of the first year of medical school by a UCSF student. It is an extrememly insightful account. The most interesting part was when she mentioned how fewer medical students want to enter primary care. People apparently call it, “the ROAD to happiness”. The acronym stands for Radiology, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology, and Dermatology. All four of these professions have good hours and good pay, something all debt ridden medical school students are tempted to turn to.

After the introductions, the book turns to the topic of actually applying to medical school. It has a chapter on how to pick medical schools based on personal preferences. It also contains an in depth profile of the University of Wisconsin, Duke, Yale, University of Washington, and John Hopkins. The book mentions how the average medical school student is $100,000 in debt (yikes!) and offers ways to help curb that debt. Also, there is mention of tips on personal statements, the MCAT, classes to take and much more. One nice section has words of very honest advice from medical school deans of admissions.

The second half of the book is a lot of statistics. You can find out the average MCAT and GPA for almost every school. There is a section on financial aid, profile of the student body, and most popular residency choices for each school, as well. Every statistic a person could ever think of has also been calculated out by U.S. News. These stats include which schools give the most financial aid, which have the most and fewest minority students, which are the hardest and easiest to get into, and countless more.

While the book is really good, it does have some shortfalls. For example, it would have been nicer to get in-depth profiles of more schools. The book gives the average MCAT and GPA for a lot of schools, but you never get any cool facts about specific schools except for the five mentioned above. Also, the section on personal statements and MCAT tips is fairly weak. I would not recommend this book if one is looking for advice on those two topics. All in all, the book just needed more text in addition to all the numbers it provides. It’s a worthy buy and something I would recommend to anyone who is going to apply soon. For the younger pre-meds I would say its nothing urgently needed to be read, but interesting if you got the time. Overall, U.S. News does a commendable job with the book.

Grade: A-

U.S. News Ultimate Guide To Medical Schools