Medical School Training

Most medical schools require a minimum of 3-4 years of college to apply. Most require college graduation, although a few programs combine college or graduate school and medical school. In the United States, medical school lasts 4 years and includes 2 years of basic science courses such as the following:

• Anatomy



• Neuroanatomy



• Histology



• Embryology



• Behavioral Sciences



• Genetics



• Physiology (Neurophysiology)



• Biochemistry



• Microbiology



• Pharmacology



• Pathology

This is followed by 2 years of clinical sciences in which the medical student sees and treats patients under the close supervision of fully trained physicians. During these 2 years, the medical students usually spend 1 year of 2-month-long rotations in specialties such as the following:

• Pediatrics



• Internal Medicine



• General Surgery



• Obstetrics and Gynecology



• Psychiatry



• Family Practice



• Emergency Medicine

A year of elective choices follows in any of about 50 specialties and subspecialties such as the following:

• Orthopedic Surgery



• Plastic Surgery



• Ophthalmology



• Neurosurgery



• Oncology



• Radiation Oncology



• Cardiology



• Nephrology



• Neonatology



• Pulmonology



• Endocrinology

In the United States, medical students are required to pass national board exams that assure they have a firm grasp of basic and clinical sciences. When students have graduated from medical school and received their medical degree, and passed these tests, they advance to residency training. The first postgraduate year of residency is often referred to as internship.

There are 2 types of medical schools in the United States: allopathic and osteopathic. Students from both medical training programs must pass the same national board exam and may choose to pursue careers in any medical specialty or subspecialty. In the US, both types of graduates are equally qualified to practice medicine.

• Allopathic students receive a medical doctorate (MD).



• Osteopathic students receive the equivalent medical degree, a doctorate in osteopathic medicine (DO). Medical schools that train doctors of osteopathic medicine tend to place a greater emphasis on training physicians to be family physicians, although any specialty residency (such as those listed above) can be entered after graduation. Their education is the same as allopathic (MD) school, but in addition it includes courses in musculoskeletal manipulation and nutrition, with emphasis on the whole person.