The organization of basic science departments in the nation’s medical schools is in a state of transition, impacting both the education and research missions of academic medicine.  The evolution of biomedical science and technology over the last 50 years - such as the sequencing of the human genome, advances in biotechnology and molecular biology, and emerging discoveries in neuroscience - has made biomedical research inherently interdisciplinary.  This milieu has led many observers to wonder if the discipline-based basic science department has become an anachronism.  Numerous commentators have speculated about this very question: whether basic science departments are disappearing from the nation’s 125 medical schools.  Typically the commentaries have been based on limited data, if any. 

In this one hour IAMSE Audio Seminar, Dr. Mallon will discuss results of a study that, using empirical data from two comprehensive national databases, investigated the organizational changes of basic science departments at allopathic medical schools in the United States.  The findings will provide a context for discussing the impact of organizational restructuring on the academic missions of medical schools.