In article t,
Maxprop wrote:

"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
. ..

Good. I don't know how much congruence there is between Australian
medicine and the USA, but having doctors who are primarily interested
in curing the sick and preventing sickness strikes me as much better
selection criteria than people who are interested in money & prestige.
I don't have any problem with them having all of the above, just the
order of importance.

In order from most common to least, the reasons given by pre-med students
during selection process interviews with US medical schools is: 1) a
desire to practice medicine, 2) a desire to help people, 3) a need to be
involved in something significant and important, 4) the money, and 5) the
prestige. But when first year medical students were interviewed, the order
was somewhat different, with money and prestige leading the list. So, are
we to believe your Ozzy medical students are any different than our own?
Have you actually talked to any med students there, or are you just shooting
from the patriotic hip?

Hmm, I think I was unclear. I have no reason to believe that ours
differ in motive from yours and would be somewhat surprised if they
did. Just that I've never seen such a survey so can't say for sure.

Here, at least 1 med school screens candidates on a range of social
factors as well as straight exam performance. Can't see that the
results are noticeably worse.

They do precisely the same here. Often the straight-A students are passed
over in favor of those who perhaps had slightly worse GPAs (3.7 to 3.9 on a
4.0 scale) but were involved in extracurricular activities such as
charitable organizations, self-improvement projects, and athletics.
Well-rounded individuals, it seems, make better physicians than bookworms.
Imagine that.

Which would indicate that changing from a straight GPA (TER here) as a
basis for selection would cost nothing in terms of quality of doctor
and *may* pay off in other ways.

Thing is, *nobody* I know goes into R&D in most areas with the
expectation that they'll get filthy rich. They do it because they're
interested in a particular type/class of problem. In fact, obsessed
would be a better word than interested. If they do get rich, it's a
nice side effect.

So - if those truly motivated in the main by money & prestige choose
some other profession than medicine, good. I don't regard a doctor
practising family medicine as all that much superior to a good auto
mechanic, to tell the truth. Less than a vet surgeon tho a vet does
have the advantage of burying mistakes with less legal problems.

With the exception of cutting edge research, it doesn't really take
that many brains to be a doctor, and the really bright ones get super
bored anyway if they can't do new interesting things all the time.

The really bright ones generally find themselves in academia or pure and
applied research. You are correct in that it doesn't take an Einstein to
practice family medicine.

They get bored, in fact. Friend of mine has given up being a GP and is
doing a PhD in a health related area instead.

PDW