This is from the CBC. The existing 3 year programmes have been around for 40 years but no one ever bothered to compare the results with the longer programmes! Critics no doubt would point out that medical knowledge is increasing by leaps and bounds but there are other means of learning than in a formal degree setting.
Canada could save money, boost doctors with 3-year med school: CMAJ
Last Updated: Friday, January 4, 2008 | 3:41 PM ET
CBC News
Canada could produce a lot more doctors at a lower cost, and medical students would save thousands in tuition if most of its medical schools moved to a three-year program, the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests.
Such three-year programs have existed for decades at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., and at the University of Calgary.
Dr. Paul Hébert, editor-in-chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal and a professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, wants to know how they measure up against the four-year programs at the rest of the country's medical schools.
"We've had a 40-year experiment go on, and no one's looked at that data as far as I know in a very cogent and detailed manner," he told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning Friday, the same week he published an editorial titled "Is it time for another medical curriculum revolution?" in the bi-weekly journal.
"The way we look at it is there's a fair bit potentially wrong [with having an extra year] unless it provides better doctors," Hébert said.
He said it costs taxpayers an average of $170,000 to $200,000 for each year of training for a medical student.
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