Diego Marroquin and Jason Denoncourt are students on the "Accelerated MD" track at UMass Chan Medical School — one of 33 programs that offers the option to compress four years of medical school into three for students who know they want to go into general medicine.
Marroquin believes the fast-track programs could be a potential solution to a big problem: a shortage of doctors.
By 2036, the United States is predicted to be short as many as 40,000 primary care physicians, in part because of an aging population, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
"This is one model that can really help produce physicians faster," said Dr. Joan Cangiarella, chair of the consortium for accelerated programs at NYU Langone Health. "You make sure that the core content and everything that you want to teach them to be a competent physician is in those three years."
One analysis found no appreciable difference in medical knowledge or performance between three- and four-year students.
When asked about doctors who say it's just not enough time, Cangiarella said, "a doctor's not going to come out today knowing everything. It's really lifelong learning. It's never going to be complete."
Medical school averages roughly $60,000 per year in tuition and fees alone, according to the Education Data Initiative. A shortened program saves students one year of tuition.
"The other thing is they start their practice earlier, so we've calculated it about a quarter of a million dollars they're saving over their lifetime," Cangiarella said.
What's more, some programs report that up to 70% of their graduates go on to practice in rural or underserved communities.
Marroquin plans to work where he grew up after moving to the U.S. from Guatemala as a teenager.
"I want to go to Lawrence, Massachusetts, which is one of the poorest communities — myself coming from a background that's underrepresented in medicine," Marroquin said.
Denoncourt says that "starting residency a year earlier is one extra year that I get to take care of patients — and that could really mean a lot in their health."
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