An alternate model for medical education: longitudinal medical education within an integrated health care organization- a vision of a model for the future?

In brief, the hypothetical KPSOM could be envisaged as a model of a lifetime medical school that would initially draw candidates from a diverse socioeconomic pool of applicants and guide them through a series of carefully monitored, modular, self-paced basic science and clinical skills learning programs, up to a phase where they would branch out into specialty programs leading to graduation as physician, physician's assistant, nurse, nurse practitioner, or health care administrator. Tuition would be less costly because students would also be employees of the organization and would likely remain in the organization throughout their extensive training careers, from medical school and into subspecialty certification—and possibly as full-fledged physician employees. This system would be satisfying to patients as well as students because it would provide more effective longitudinal and preventive care. The model is offered as an alternate stream of medical education that would not supplant university medical schools but would operate alongside them. This alternate model might serve to increase the number of qualified physicians without the need to build more costly medical schools, and it would train a broader range of health care professionals from diverse backgrounds within the same organization.