Does conventional early life academic excellence predict later life scientific discovery? An assessment of the lives of great medical innovators

Author:

Jenkins D J A12345,Jayalath V H236,Choo V L137,Viguiliouk E13,Kendall C W C138,Srichaikul K39,Mirrahimi A310,Bernstein C N1112,Chang T M131415,Gold P131416,Haynes R B17,Hollenberg M D18,Lozano A M19,Posner B I1420,Ronald A R2122,Vranic M2324,Wang Y T25,Chiavaroli L13,de Souza R J11726,Nishi S13,Pichika S C1327,Gillett C328,Tsirakis T3,Sievenpiper J L1345

Affiliation:

1. From the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Medical Sciences Building, 5th Floor, Room 5336B 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada

2. Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

3. Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre, St. Michael’s Hospital Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

4. Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, St. Michael’s Hospital Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

5. Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

6. Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

7. Undergraduate Medical Education, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

8. College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

9. Division of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

10. Department of Medical Imaging, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

11. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

12. University of Manitoba IBD Clinical and Research Centre, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

13. Department of Physiology

14. Department of Medicine

15. Department of Biomedical Engineering

16. Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada

17. Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

18. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Inflammation Research Network-Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

19. Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

20. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada

21. Department of Medical Microbiology and Internal Medicine

22. Department of Internal Medicine , University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

23. Department  of Physiology

24. Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

25. Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, DM Centre for Brain Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

26. Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, ON, Canada

27. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

28. Department of Physical Sciences, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada

Abstract

Summary Background Perhaps, as never before, we need innovators. With our growing population numbers, and with increasing pressures on our education systems, are we in danger of becoming more rigid and formulaic and increasingly inhibiting innovation? When young can we predict who will become the great innovators? For example, in medicine, who will change clinical practice? Aims We therefore determined to assess whether the current academic excellence approach to medical school entrance would have captured previous great innovators in medicine, assuming that they should all have well fulfilled current entrance requirements. Methods The authors assembled a list of 100 great medical innovators which was then approved, rejected or added to by a jury of 12 MD fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. Two reviewers, who had taken both the past and present Medical College Admission Test as part of North American medical school entrance requirements, independently assessed each innovator’s early life educational history in order to predict the innovator’s likely success at medical school entry, assuming excellence in all entrance requirements. Results Thirty-one percent of the great medical innovators possessed no medical degree and 24% would likely be denied entry to medical school by today’s standards (e.g. had a history of poor performance, failure, dropout or expulsion) with only 24% being guaranteed entry. Even if excellence in only one topic was required, the figure would only rise to 41% certain of medical school entry. Conclusion These data show that today’s medical school entry standards would have barred many great innovators and raise questions about whether we are losing medical innovators as a consequence. Our findings have important implications for promoting flexibility and innovation for medical education, and for promoting an environment for innovation in general.

Funder

Canada Research Chairs

Federal Government of Canada

National Health Scientist Award

PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Diabetes Canada Clinician Scientist award, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Nutrition

Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD)/Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS) New Investigator Partnership Prize and Banting and Best Diabetes Centre Sun Life Financial New Investigator Award

Bingham Chair in Gastroenterology

Hamilton Health Sciences New investigator fund

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

General Medicine

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1. A wider resonance;QJM: An International Journal of Medicine;2020-07-08

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