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The latest medical school rankings arrive, a Midwestern medical school is put on probation, and the country’s largest organization of doctors comes out against the newly proposed federal budget. Here’s a look at what’s happening in medical education news. A look at the 2018 medical school rankings Tuesday, March 14 was arguably the most important day of the year when it comes to medical school admissions. It was the day U.S. News & World Report released its annual medical school rankings. Without further ado, here is where America’s top MD programs for research place: Harvard University Stanford University Johns Hopkins University University of California—San Francisco University of Pennsylvania Our take on medical school rankings is this: The rankings can serve as a good aggregate source of data around academic life and other considerations, but ultimately each medical school applicant should enroll in a program that is the best overall ‘fit’ for the individual’s professional, financial, and lifestyle goals and needs. (U.S. News & World Report) Medical school put on probation Students and administrators at St. Louis University’s School of Medicine received some troubling news last week. Due to a series of curriculum gaps and inadequate policies, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education has places the school on probation. What does this mean? It means the medical school has two years to fix about 20 things that Committee has called them out on. The medical school’s Dr. Kevin Behrns says they won’t try to fight the status, but will instead rise to the occasion and fix what ails the program. “We’re still accredited, and we will own the issues and fix them,” he said. The Committee is giving the school’s 24 months to fix the issues cited or risk having its accreditation revoked. The Committee is a joint organization funded by the American Medical Association, which represents tens of thousands of doctors, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents most medical schools across the country and also writes the MCAT. (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch) AAMC denounces Trump’s budget proposal Speaking of the AAMC… the organization came out strongly against the Trump administration’s proposed budget—which includes funding cuts for NIH, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and programs at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)—saying it “would have a devastating effect on America’s health security.” The AAMC isn’t knee-jerk anti-Trump though, as it strongly endorsed the President’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Tom Price, a congressman from Georgia at the time of his nomination and confirmation. The budget process is far from complete though. There will be considerable horse trading over the next few months as various interest groups, members of Congress, and ordinary citizens fight for their priorities. (AAMC News) Doctors on strike In some countries, many doctors fall under the category of public sector workers, meaning they are government employees. Their pay and benefits are set by the government, and most of the time their salary is well below that of doctors who work in the United States. One such country is Kenya, where doctors in this developing country just concluded a 100-day strike to protest pay and work conditions. The strike had adverse effects on the country’s population which, like the United States, is suffering from a doctor shortage. As part of the agreement, doctors will now only have to work 40 hours a week instead of always being on call, plus they will receive overtime pay. “The problem goes far beyond the pay. One medical officer cannot see 100, 200 patients a day,” said one pharmacist. In a survey of the nation’s people, over 80 percent say they were directly impacted by the strike. (USA Today)