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Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The Indoctrination of Doctors


Healthcare watchdog group Do No Harm has released a report exposing left-wing activism's takeover of medical academia, specifically how "medical schools are short-changing rigorous training in science for the political indoctrination of future doctors."

This is something about which every American should be concerned and informed. 

Be informed, not misled.

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The 14-page report, "Activism Instead of Anatomy: The Sorry State of Medical School Curricula," systematically examined the course catalogs of 20 top-rated medical schools across the country to identify instances of radical political objectives embedded in the teachings rather than typical medical knowledge.

The report's summary notes, "If medical schools are short-changing rigorous training in science for the political indoctrination of future doctors, there are real consequences. Lives are on the line. This is why documenting the extent to which medical education has become politicized is critically important."

"This report systematically examines the course catalogs of 20 leading medical schools to identify the relative emphasis given to radical political goals compared to traditional medical knowledge. It does this by searching for key terms that are emblematic of what can loosely be described as the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) political agenda as well as key terms associated with a scientific medical education. The findings confirm that social and political issues have begun to meaningfully crowd out traditional medical training in American medical schools. This is not an isolated development in a handful of atypical medical schools, but a broad change that is affecting the future of medical practice across the country."

Townhall calls the report "shocking."

Indeed it is.

Belief systems have consequences. The Bible says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

Beliefs shape a life and a culture. The secular progressive ideology is deadly.

Activism instead of anatomy. The Sorry State of Medical School Curricula. 

Is another foundation of our society crumbling?

Dr. Jay Greene conducted the study. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. His current research focuses on education's effects on character formation and civic values.

Before Heritage, Greene was at the University of Arkansas, where he served as Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Education Reform, which he founded and led for 16 years. Greene received his bachelor's degree in History from Tufts University and earned his PhD in Government from Harvard University.

This research, according to Dr. Greene, was conducted by searching for keywords that are emblematic of the DEI agenda, such as "diversity," "racism," and "identity," and comparing them to the appearances of traditional terminology used in medical education like "physiology," "Anatomy," and "Hippocratic."

"Do No Harm" found that the frequency of the DEI jargon far exceeded the usage of scholarly, scientific terms, signifying that medical school courses focus more on ideological issues than foundational ones.

"Diversity" appeared more frequently than "chemistry." Obesity, one of the country's most serious health challenges, was mentioned less often than every one of the DEI buzzwords, including "justice." The word "equity" cropped up more than three times as often as "obesity."

Basic medical research terms hardly appeared in the course catalogs at all. Such sociopolitical phrases, like "inclusive/inclusion," appeared almost 10 times as often as the research term "randomized" and almost 18 times as often as "placebo.”

Secular humanism is destroying America. It stands against every foundation upon which this nation was founded.

The survey found that "Medical school coursework appears to be much more concerned with conveying ideological goals to future doctors than with teaching them how to interpret, let alone conduct, scientific research." 

One would assume that this is isolated to a few marginal schools, perhaps, but that is not the case.

Among the highest-ranked institutions "Do No Harm" studied, seven had more politicized than scientific terms printed in their course catalogs: Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Icahn School of Medicine, Baylor, and Emory.

"Do No Harm" also discovered that this divisive ideology is infused into introductory classes covering basic topics. For example, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, "Introduction to Anesthesiology" is described as "a core component of the Human Rights and Social Justice Scholars (HRSJ) program for first-year medical students" and "is intended to provide students with a space for building critical thinking and community around social justice work."

At Harvard Medical School, a course on Integrated Human Pathophysiology "focuses on key concepts in normal physiology and pathophysiology of the kidney, endocrine and reproductive endocrine systems." However, content that "explores health equity" and "climate change" is also "integrated."

Meanwhile, Stanford offers a course called "Global Leaders and Innovators in Human and Planetary Health: Sustainable Societies Lab" that centers on "environmental sustainability" and "social and environmental justice and equality."

The Baylor College of Medicine's class on "Human Rights and Medicine" covers "immigration reform," "gender issues," "cross-cultural considerations," and "issues of distributive justice affected by militarization in society."

Takeaway

"The findings confirm that social and political issues have begun to meaningfully crowd out traditional medical training in American medical schools," "Do No Harm's" study summary says. "This is not an isolated development in a handful of atypical medical schools, but a broad change that is affecting the future of medical practice across the country."

"Lives are on the line," the summary stresses. "This is why documenting the extent to which medical education has become politicized is critically important."

The Hippocratic Oath is a Greek medical text that requires new physicians to swear to uphold professional ethical standards. Unfortunately, the oath has been rewritten many times over the centuries to suit the values of different cultures.

Today, secular humanists, aka., "progressives," are working to shape the new classes of medical students into a profile of a failing culture. 

"Do No Harm" is an advocacy organization representing physicians, nurses, medical students, patients, and policymakers nationwide who want to keep identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Sober. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.