Latest news with #UnitedStatesMedicalLicensingExamination
The Star
5 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Is your education helping?
Is one school better than another, or do smart students succeed no matter where they study? One way to see if schools, universities and teachers really make a difference in learning is by measuring the impact of educational institutions using the 'value-added' approach, which looks at how much students improve over time. Instead of only focusing on final grades, it measures progress, giving a clearer picture of how well a school or teacher is performing. 'Value-added' compares what a student is expected to achieve based on their starting point with what they actually achieve by the end of a course or school year. This method focuses on improvement rather than just final scores, showing how much a student has grown academically. Traditional ways of judging schools and teachers rely heavily on test scores. However, these scores can be influenced by factors outside a school's control, like family background and early education. For example, a child from a low-income family may start school with fewer skills, while a child from a wealthier family may have an advantage. Comparing only final test scores can be unfair. The 'value-added' approach looks at progress, recognising the hard work of both students and teachers. It measures how well each child reaches their full potential. A good example of how the 'value-added' approach works in practice comes from medical schools in the United States. Students enter medical school based on their Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores and graduate by passing the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Schools that accept high-scoring students in the MCAT usually produce high-scoring graduates in the USMLE. However, some schools help students improve beyond expectations, while others underperform. If you were choosing a medical school, you would want one that not only helps students grow, but also 'adds value' to the individual. Here's a look at the benefits of using 'value added' as a measure of educational success: > Focuses on progress Instead of teaching just for test scores, schools and teachers help every student improve, no matter their starting level. This builds academic skills, confidence, and a love of learning. > Fairer for teachers Teachers work with students of different backgrounds and abilities. A great teacher may not always have the highest- scoring students, but they can still help them improve significantly. > Promotes educational fairness Schools in low-income areas are often judged unfairly based on test scores alone. The 'value-added' approach highlights schools that are helping students grow, even in challenging situations. > Helps parents make better choices Parents want the best education for their children. A school may not have the highest overall scores, but if it helps students improve a lot, it could be a great choice. > Guides policy decisions Education leaders can use the 'value-added' approach to decide where to invest resources. Schools that help students make big improvements can serve as models, while struggling schools can receive extra support. Focusing on the 'value-added' approach benefits society as well. It encourages effort and resilience – qualities that are valuable in education and the workplace. Employers appreciate candidates who have shown steady growth and the ability to overcome challenges. Of course, no single measure can fully capture the impact of education. Some critics argue that 'value-added' oversimplifies learning. However, when used alongside other methods, it provides valuable insight into student progress. It reminds us that education is not just about where students end up but also how far they have come. 'Value-added' offers a fair and meaningful way to measure the impact of schools and teachers. By focusing on student growth, it provides a clearer picture of success than traditional test scores. It recognises great teaching, encourages improvement, and helps address educational inequalities. In a world where every student's potential matters, 'value-added' is not just a trend – it is an important step towards a better and more supportive education system for all. Prof Dr David Whitford is vice-chancellor and chief executive of University of Cyberjaya. He earned a doctorate from Cambridge University and has held leadership roles in medical education. With over 70 research publications on disadvantaged communities and quality healthcare delivery, his academic journey includes positions at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in Dublin and in Bahrain, where he established community-based teaching and led postgraduate studies. The views expressed here are the writer's own.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
White House withdraws Surgeon General pick over foreign medical school controversy
The White House is understood to have made the decision to withdraw Dr Janette Nesheiwat's nomination to be United States Surgeon General, the second time one of President Donald Trump's top health care policy picks has faltered before being considered by the U.S. Senate. The decision, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, comes just days before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee had been scheduled to hold a hearing on her nomination. Nesheiwat, a former Fox News contributor who is also the sister-in-law of former Trump White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, had been selected to be one of the country's top public health official largely on the strength of her record as a television personality. But as her confirmation hearing approached, Nesheiwat had become a magnet for controversy after a CBS News report called into question whether she'd been forthright about her education and background. ADVERTISEMENT Last month, the television network reported that Nesheiwat had listed herself on LinkedIn as a graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, the institution where she completed her medical residency. The board-certified physician actually attended and earned her doctoral degree from American University of the Caribbean (AUC) School of Medicine, which is located on the Caribbean island of St Maarten. It's not uncommon for Americans to attend medical schools in the Caribbean, as those schools are known as having slightly more relaxed admissions standards than schools in the United States. But those schools still teach a standard medical curriculum and award a Doctor of Medicine degree. At AUC, students complete a four-year program of two years in a classroom and an additional two years in clinical rotations at a licensed medical facility. CBS News reported Nesheiwat was enrolled there for six years, from 2000 to 2006. Completing one's medical education after studying abroad also requires passing the three-step United States Medical Licensing Examination administered by the Federation of State Medical Boards and the National Board of Medical Examiners. ADVERTISEMENT Passing the USMLE is also required for aspiring physicians to be eligible for residency programs at American hospitals, the final step in education before being permitted to practice medicine. It's at the University of Arkansas where Nesheiwat completed her medical education with a multi-year residency. Jerome Adams, the former Surgeon General who served in that role during the first Trump administration, wrote on X that he did not know what was 'more troubling' to him, the possibility that 'stigma against foreign medical graduates' would have led to Nesheiwat's nomination being withdrawn, or the possibility that it would have been due to her support for vaccines. 'The FMG talk is ill informed and troubling. Much of our U.S. medical care (esp rural) depends on foreign grads. And Dr. N completed a U.S. residency (which is where you really learn how to practice medicine anyway). Hoping this doesn't stigmatize docs who trained outside U.S.,' he added.
Business Wire
02-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Pathway Sets a New Benchmark for Specialty Medical AI with Transparent Just-in-Time Reasoning
MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pathway today announced that its proprietary large-language model (LLM) scored 96% on a validated set of United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) questions, the highest accuracy yet reported for a specialized medical AI. The result strengthens Pathway's position as a leading evidence-based decision-support tool for frontline clinicians. Pathway "Deep" achieves 96 % accuracy on the USMLE, the highest publicly reported score for any medical AI model. Share In head-to-head testing, Pathway's 'Deep' AI model surpassed domain-specific peers MediSearch Pro, OpenEvidence and Hippocratic AI, and outperformed generalist systems such as ChatGPT 4o, o1, and GPT-4.5 on complex diagnostic scenarios. Independent academic validation studies are currently underway to further corroborate these groundbreaking results. Pathway attributes the performance to its transparent just-in-time reasoning pipeline, which combines retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with chain-of-thought (CoT) analysis and agentic tool calling. The architecture allows the model to evaluate multiple information sources simultaneously, surface potential knowledge gaps, generate follow-up questions, and apply clinical scoring and prediction rules—all without adding latency for the user. 'Trust and transparency are foundational for bringing AI into clinical workflows,' said Dr. Louis Mullie, Chief Medical Officer at Pathway. 'Clinicians need speed and accuracy, but they also need verifiable evidence. Pathway's assistant reveals its reasoning step-by-step and links every recommendation to expert-vetted guidelines and a comprehensive drug reference. By giving users the context to double-check dosages and key guidance, Pathway helps them leverage AI efficiently while maintaining full control over patient-safety decisions.' This milestone builds on Pathway's rapid growth and industry recognition. In 2024 Pathway became the first generative-AI medical tool to receive continuing-medical-education (CME) co-accreditation, making every clinical question asked through the platform eligible for CME credit. Earlier this year the company added HIPAA support for Pathway Plus subscribers, enabling secure, compliant integration of patient-specific data into AI queries. Pathway also recently surpassed one million registered users across more than 10,000 healthcare institutions, underscoring its widespread adoption and trust within the medical community. About Pathway Pathway helps clinicians deliver better, faster, safer care by providing instant, evidence-based answers to medical questions. With 1 million+ registered healthcare professionals spanning 10,000 care centers, the AI-powered platform has established a strong presence across the United States and internationally. To learn more or try Pathway, visit
Associated Press
02-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Pathway Sets a New Benchmark for Specialty Medical AI with Transparent Just-in-Time Reasoning
MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2025-- Pathway today announced that its proprietary large-language model (LLM) scored 96% on a validated set of United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) questions, the highest accuracy yet reported for a specialized medical AI. The result strengthens Pathway's position as a leading evidence-based decision-support tool for frontline clinicians. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: Pathway's AI models top the publicly reported leaderboard on the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Pathway Deep achieved a 96 % accuracy rate and Pathway Think reached 94 %, outperforming other medical‑AI systems such as GPT‑4, Med‑Gemini, OpenEvidence, and Hippocratic AI. These results underscore Pathway's commitment to delivering safe, high‑precision clinical reasoning tools for clinicians and medical learners worldwide. In head-to-head testing, Pathway's 'Deep' AI model surpassed domain-specific peers MediSearch Pro, OpenEvidence and Hippocratic AI, and outperformed generalist systems such as ChatGPT 4o, o1, and GPT-4.5 on complex diagnostic scenarios. Independent academic validation studies are currently underway to further corroborate these groundbreaking results. Pathway attributes the performance to its transparent just-in-time reasoning pipeline, which combines retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with chain-of-thought (CoT) analysis and agentic tool calling. The architecture allows the model to evaluate multiple information sources simultaneously, surface potential knowledge gaps, generate follow-up questions, and apply clinical scoring and prediction rules—all without adding latency for the user. 'Trust and transparency are foundational for bringing AI into clinical workflows,' said Dr. Louis Mullie, Chief Medical Officer at Pathway. 'Clinicians need speed and accuracy, but they also need verifiable evidence. Pathway's assistant reveals its reasoning step-by-step and links every recommendation to expert-vetted guidelines and a comprehensive drug reference. By giving users the context to double-check dosages and key guidance, Pathway helps them leverage AI efficiently while maintaining full control over patient-safety decisions.' This milestone builds on Pathway's rapid growth and industry recognition. In 2024 Pathway became the first generative-AI medical tool to receive continuing-medical-education (CME) co-accreditation, making every clinical question asked through the platform eligible for CME credit. Earlier this year the company added HIPAA support for Pathway Plus subscribers, enabling secure, compliant integration of patient-specific data into AI queries. Pathway also recently surpassed one million registered users across more than 10,000 healthcare institutions, underscoring its widespread adoption and trust within the medical community. About Pathway Pathway helps clinicians deliver better, faster, safer care by providing instant, evidence-based answers to medical questions. With 1 million+ registered healthcare professionals spanning 10,000 care centers, the AI-powered platform has established a strong presence across the United States and internationally. To learn more or try Pathway, visit View source version on For media inquiries, [email protected] KEYWORD: NORTH AMERICA CANADA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HEALTH TECHNOLOGY TELEMEDICINE/VIRTUAL MEDICINE DATA MANAGEMENT OTHER EDUCATION OTHER HEALTH TECHNOLOGY CONTINUING UNIVERSITY EDUCATION APPS/APPLICATIONS GENERAL HEALTH HOSPITALS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE HEALTH SOURCE: Pathway Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 05/02/2025 10:00 AM/DISC: 05/02/2025 09:59 AM
National Post
02-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Pathway Sets a New Benchmark for Specialty Medical AI with Transparent Just-in-Time Reasoning
Article content Clinician-focused platform reaches 96% accuracy on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), outperforming industry peers on standardized tests Article content Article content MONTREAL — Pathway today announced that its proprietary large-language model (LLM) scored 96% on a validated set of United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) questions, the highest accuracy yet reported for a specialized medical AI. The result strengthens Pathway's position as a leading evidence-based decision-support tool for frontline clinicians. Article content Pathway 'Deep' achieves 96 % accuracy on the USMLE, the highest publicly reported score for any medical AI model. Article content In head-to-head testing, Pathway's 'Deep' AI model surpassed domain-specific peers MediSearch Pro, OpenEvidence and Hippocratic AI, and outperformed generalist systems such as ChatGPT 4o, o1, and GPT-4.5 on complex diagnostic scenarios. Independent academic validation studies are currently underway to further corroborate these groundbreaking results. Article content Pathway attributes the performance to its transparent just-in-time reasoning pipeline, which combines retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with chain-of-thought (CoT) analysis and agentic tool calling. The architecture allows the model to evaluate multiple information sources simultaneously, surface potential knowledge gaps, generate follow-up questions, and apply clinical scoring and prediction rules—all without adding latency for the user. Article content 'Trust and transparency are foundational for bringing AI into clinical workflows,' said Dr. Louis Mullie, Chief Medical Officer at Pathway. 'Clinicians need speed and accuracy, but they also need verifiable evidence. Pathway's assistant reveals its reasoning step-by-step and links every recommendation to expert-vetted guidelines and a comprehensive drug reference. By giving users the context to double-check dosages and key guidance, Pathway helps them leverage AI efficiently while maintaining full control over patient-safety decisions.' Article content This milestone builds on Pathway's rapid growth and industry recognition. In 2024 Pathway became the first generative-AI medical tool to receive continuing-medical-education (CME) co-accreditation, making every clinical question asked through the platform eligible for CME credit. Earlier this year the company added HIPAA support for Pathway Plus subscribers, enabling secure, compliant integration of patient-specific data into AI queries. Pathway also recently surpassed one million registered users across more than 10,000 healthcare institutions, underscoring its widespread adoption and trust within the medical community. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
