KQED’s data showed Bay Area-based medical students’ rates of proceeding to residency programs after graduation from Stanford and UCSF were some of the lowest in the country. Stanford ranked 117th among 123 U.S. medical schools; only 65% of its students opted to continue their work in residency programs, according to Doximity. UCSF ranked 98th with 79% of the students choosing residency. The figures do not take into account students who may have postponed residency.
Some examples of the entrepreneurial efforts by medical students include Vida Health, Grand Rounds, Mohr Davidow, DoctorBase, and Code for America.
Some of the reasons offered by former students to Bay Area public radio station KQED for the medical students abandoning residencies were the paucity of time spent giving care to patients during medical school, the lack of jobs available and the reduced earning potential for doctors. The complaint over their lack of time with patients was substantiated by a study showing doctors-in-training spent an average of eight minutes with patients.
Rock Health, which supplies ”full-service funding to entrepreneurs changing healthcare,” stated in 2012 that digital health funding had risen past $1.9 billion, 39% more than in 2011.
Rebecca Coelius, Director of Health at Code for America, told KQED, “Traditional health care is really oriented to make the life of the provider easier.Your patients cycle in and out of the hospital, and very often, no one makes enough of an effort to communicate with them.”