Patients and employers don't care if you went to Harvard medical school. Only residency program directors do.

Here is a list of "the best" medical schools in the US. Do patients care?

There are approximately 200 allopathic and osteopathic medical schools. For the 2021-2022 school year, there were a total of 22,666 matriculants to U.S. medical schools 1 . There were 92,670 students enrolled in MD-granting schools and 31,663 enrolled in DO-granting schools in 2020-21.

Here’s why it doesn’t matter what medical school you go to.

The sole benefit of going to "the best medical school" is to make you more competitive for highly competitive residencies. Once you graduate, when it comes to taking care of patients, it really doesn't matter.

According to this article, traditionally a springboard to the top of the résumé pile, a degree from a prestigious university can now prompt questions about its value or even work against job seekers in the business world. Physicians interested in non-clinical careers should take note.

Companies have jobs to fill, and skilled candidates are looking for the right opportunities, but too often, technology stands between them. A report by Joseph Fuller and colleagues says that a career navigation system that meets four key imperatives could bridge the gap.

The same is true for a career navigation system that would help physicians identify non-clinical career opportunities.

Fuller says that creating a career navigation system that is fit for the 21st century requires:

1. Creating new data sources. Good career navigation relies on accurate, timely data. Most job seekers will make wise decisions about how to cultivate skills relevant to the labor market when presented with information about job availability, compensation, and the prospects for upward advancement. Employers should encourage governments to create such data sources and help ensure they are accurate and up to date.
2. Recognizing foundational skills. The most durable skills in a labor market featuring rapid technological change are human skills. Employers need to make deepening such skills integral to their training and corporate learning programs.
3. Acknowledging workers’ changing needs. Tomorrow’s workforce requires diverse types of benefits than previous generations of workers. Employers should revisit their benefits packages, enhancing them to reflect the needs of today’s employees like caregiving support and educational and training support.
4. Moving directly to generative AI-powered capabilities. Generative AI is ideally suited to address the many shortcomings of the current career navigation system. It can provide aspiring workers with definitive, real-time information on job availability, skills requirements, and outcomes for workers in specific positions. And it can provide employers with accurate insight into who has succeeded in their firms historically, enabling skills-based hiring.

For physicians interested in getting their ideas to patients, or helping someone who is in a non-clinical role, I would add:

5. Using meetings and conferences to host job fairs, speed dating and networking between those seeking jobs and those offering them

6. Engaging sick care technology companies to participate in medical school and residency innovation and entrepreneurship curriculum design and development

7. Post-industrial competency and upskilling opportunities

8. Mandated career transition and navigation services for students and trainees

9. Exit ramps for those who have decided to drop out of the physician pipeline

10. Better two-sided market platforms that offer a whole product solution, not just another doctor-industry dating service.

We need to stop the medical school beauty pageants.

They are marketing and reputation driven not outcomes data driven

The data is not relevant, accurate or meaningful i.e. garbage in, garbage out

The process is doctor centric not patient centric.

Hospitals have been nationally ranked by popular media sources such as U.S. World News & Report for decades, but the quality measures used to determine these lists may be missing one key domain––health equity.

72% of Patients View Online Reviews When Selecting a New Provider .

Online provider reviews are the third most crucial driver in consumers’ decision to select a new healthcare provider, after insurance acceptance and location. Where you went to medical school is far down on the list.

Our contentious political environment, the Age of Outrage, is pitting the shirts against the skins.

It's part of the reason you can't find a doctor to see you in less than 4 weeks, because Lake Wobegon Hospital advertises that they only employ doctors who are all above average.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack