BUSM Researchers Find Students Accepted to Medical School from Early Acceptance Programs, Report Lower Empathy than those Accepted in Traditional Programs

There may be fewer paths to medical school if the significance of physician empathy takes on more importance. If empathy forms the foundation for positive relationships between physicians and patients, and ultimately better clinical results, then medical school applicants interested in primary care and possessing this trait could have an advantage in the admissions process in the future.

Prior studies have demonstrated self-reported medical student empathy to be higher in the first two years (or preclinical years) of medical school and then significantly lower in years three and four (clinical years). Research has also shown that students interested in primary care careers generally have higher self-reported empathy than those in other specialties. Researchers at BUSM looked further into this issue to determine if a students’ admission pathway could determine their empathy level by studying data from Boston University. To date, there has been no research into the differences in empathy between different medical school admission pathways.

Researchers found that medical students in the early acceptance programs have lower self-reported empathy than their traditional counterparts. They also found that those with higher empathy at the beginning of medical school had a lower rate of empathy decline than those who started with lower self-reported empathy. These findings were recently published in Medical Teacher.

The self-reported empathy of Traditional Admission pathways students (those who were finishing undergraduate programs and then applied to medical school) was compared to students who had Early Acceptance to medical school – either through the seven-year (BA/MD), MMEDIC (an eight-year program with guaranteed admission from BU to BUSM after completion of CAS BA degree), ENGMEDIC (an eight-year program with guaranteed admission from BU to BUSM after completion of the Engineering BS Degree). According to the researchers this is unique in that very few schools in the nation have such well-established admissions pathways as BUSM.

“These findings have possible implications for future admissions here at BU and possibly elsewhere,” said lead author Daniel Chen, MD, assistant professor of medicine as well as associate clerkship director for Internal Medicine, and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at BUSM. According to the researchers the findings have the potential to impact admission policies, particularly in light of the critical need to recruit students into primary care. “Further research is needed to determine whether increasing empathy increases the likelihood of medical students choosing primary care professions or choosing primary care professions fosters the development of higher empathy. Following students longitudinally will help determine which relationship holds true,” added Chen.