The new medical school welcomed an inaugural class of 48 students.
The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM) just inaugurated its first medical school class of 48 students, commemorated by a prestigious white coat ceremony last week. The school was founded by philanthropist billionaire Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart family and worth nearly $100 billion.
The school was opened with a singular focus in mind: train students to practice medicine with an eye to holistic care. Sharmila Makhija, MD, MBA, founding dean and CEO of the university, explains that the curriculum prioritizes science as well as the humanities to train the next generation of physicians so that they are both clinically prepared and able to cultivate a sense of empathy into the profession.
Walton herself has spoken about taking a renewed approach to the practice of medicine, one that collectively takes into consideration a patient’s mental, social, emotional, and physical well-being.
These tenets have become progressively more important and a point of focus for medical institutions in recent years. Studies are increasingly finding that effective healthcare delivery is not only about addressing physical concerns but also requires engaging with patients to provide a comprehensive approach to their social and emotional needs. In fact, research shows that “providing holistic healthcare by a cross-disciplinary team can help resolve patients’ fears of disease and treatment…” not just as a means to cure symptoms; rather, the goal has to transform to “promote [the]
patient’s recovery and return to the normal quality of life.”
The medical system is recognizing this phenomenon as imperative to better long-term health outcomes, realizing that patients who have their holistic needs addressed fare better (i.e., less readmissions, complications, etc.) than those who simply have their acute symptoms attended to.
But this is not an easy task; the amount of administrative burdens and increased workforce shortages in the field has made providing holistic care incredibly challenging for the average physician. In fact, there is a hyper focus on metrics that leaves many clinicians with just enough time to address the exact symptoms that the patient is concerned with during a specific encounter. In an article for the Annals of Family Medicine, Dr. David Hahn writes that “The current approach to accountability of medical care is to blend reporting of ‘quality measures’ with ‘pay-for-performance’… Pay-for-performance incentives to maximize performance instead of incentivizing informed patient preferences can put clinicians in the position of having to choose between providing excellent individualized patient care.” Essentially, a heightened emphasis on performance metrics, especially those that tie volume and compensation together, has increasingly devalued patient care and holistic approaches.
Additionally, as organizations and health systems increasingly combat a fragile healthcare workforce and labor market, more stress and pressure are placed on existing clinicians, leaving even less time to provide comprehensive and holistic care. Thus, the problem is only likely to compound in the coming decade.
This is why initiatives to train physicians in holistic care are essential: not just to ensure better patient satisfaction but as a means to train the next generation of physicians to solve for better societal health outcomes, overall. As for the externalities that make the practice of holistic healthcare challenging, only time will tell how the industry will ultimately decide on the appropriate priorities.
