Admission officials chose candidates based upon high school performance and SAT scores plus other factors.  When I found out about this, I applied to it as well as to several other universities. When college admission letters went out, I was thrilled the combined program accepted me into the incoming class of summer 1964 to graduate in June, 1969. Just imagine, I would graduate as a medical doctor when 22 years old!

Penn State divides its calendar year into four, ten-week terms. Three terms are equal to one year of study. So twelve terms is the customary amount of study needed to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Jefferson Medical College (now the Sidney Kimmel Medical School) runs on a traditional four-year schedule with two semesters per year and a long summer vacation in between each semester.

The program worked by having the participants go through five quarters at Penn State at University Park, Pennsylvania (summer, fall, winter, spring and summer). Then they started the freshman year at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. After the first year at Jefferson, students went back to Penn State for the summer term. Then it was time for the second year at Jefferson, followed by the final summer term at Penn State (a total of seven, ten-week terms). Penn State counted the courses that were taken at Jefferson toward Penn State’s graduation requirements. This allowed a B.S. to be earned at Penn State with seven terms of actual attendance. The final two years were spent at Jefferson in the normal manner.

At Penn State, I met the brightest bunch of people I’ve ever met in my life. Some had achieved perfect 800 SAT scores both in math and English. Many had achieved nearly perfect SAT scores in various advanced placement exams. Looking back, these folks could easily have been physicists, mathematicians, engineers and so on. Almost routinely, members of the Five-Year Accelerated Medical Program earned the highest exam scores in all the math and science classes in which they were enrolled at Penn State . Eventually, many went on to be professors and renowned members of their specialties. Some authored books and scientific journal articles. One achieved the highest score in the country on the ophthalmology knowledge assessment exams.

Ours was the second group of five-year-program participants. There were tweny-five of us at our medical school graduation. I believe there were two or three participants who started the program but changed course while at Penn State. I listed the twenty-five below along with their medical specialties. As of this posting in November 2024 there are a few who have sadly passed on and that is noted.

I don’t know why the powers that be eliminated the five-year-program since the graduates have had very successful medical careers. Joseph Gonella, M.D. et al wrote and excellent article attesting to the success of the program, in Academic Medicine. As far as I know, there is no such program anywhere in the USA at this time. Penn State and Sidney Kimmel Medical School now offer a seven-year combined program instead.

Looking back, I am happy to have been a part of this program. It saved three years of tuition and three years of my life, studying. I retired at age 62 after working as a physician for 40 years. Life’s been good.

Five-Year Accelerated Medical Program Participants 1964-1969

Paul Rosenberg, M.D.  – deceased
Richard Insel, M.D. – Research Professor
Leonard Glassman, M.D. – Radiology
Fred Nicholas Ifft, M.D. – Internal Medicine
Jan Raynak, M.D. – Psychiatry
Marc Ebel, M.D.  – deceased
Paul Weinberg, M.D. – deceased
Linda Weinberg, M.D. – Pediatrics
John Frantz, M.D – Ophthalmology
Jay Skyler, M.D. – Professor and researcher in diabetes
James Winter, M.D. – Radiology
Garret Bergman, M.D. – Pediatric Hematologist Oncologist
Norm Sokoloff, M.D.  – deceased
Mark Nissenbaum, M.D.  – Hand Surgeon
Harris Michael Goodman, M.D. – General Surgery 
Robert Jacobson, M.D. – Neurosurgery
Lee Malit, M.D.. – Anesthesiology
Ann O’Neill Shigeoka – deceased
John Shigeoka, M.D. – deceased
Alan Schein, M.D. – Ophthalmology
William Sherman, M.D. – Oncology
Barry Smith, M.D. –  Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine
Robert Spahr, M.D.  – Neonatal Medicine
Stanton Raynes, M.D. – deceased
Gary Edwards, M.D. – Ophthalmology

The post *Penn State-Jefferson Medical College Five-Year Accelerated Medical Program 1964-1969: Some of the Smartest People I’ve Known appeared first on Gary Alan Edwards Blog.

Essentially the US government gives an insurance company about $1000 per month to take care of any health care needed by an enrollee for a year. As we all know insurance companies exist for one reason, to make money. With Medicare Advantage, they start out by paying their agents over $600 commission for an enrollee. That’s how valuable these customers are to them. They offer extras such as dental, optical, gym memberships and even groceries in order to entice customers to join.

Then they enlist a local network of medical personnel and hospitals to care for these patients at reduced fees. Outside of Medicare these are called HMO’s and PPO’s. They work on a gate keeper system. This means that to see a specialist one must first contact the primary care provider who often is a nurse practioner or a family practioner. 

If you are a person who enjoys travel and you go to another state, those doctors will not be in your network and you must start dealing with the insurance bureaucracy in order to be seen for an unscheduled medical situation.

One of the biggest disadvantages comes about when you develop a serious medical condition, like cancer. Naturally you want to go to the best specialists and specialty centers in the country in order to get treated. Then you find out that there’s a doctor in your town with an oncology shingle outside his or her office and your Medicare Advantage plan has them in its network. That is where you will be going.

When more expensive treatments are needed for medical problems, as often as not you will be denied access. Then you must go through the appeals process which may or may not accede to your request.

In contrast, traditional Medicare patients can be seen by any doctor who participates with the Medicare program, which is most physicians. He can be admitted to any hospital that participates with Medicare.

The big difference between the two programs is the cost. Traditional Medicare with a supplement (to pay the 20% that Medicare does not cover) costs more per month than Medicare Advantage.

As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for”.

The post *Which Medicare? appeared first on Gary Alan Edwards Blog.