university of chicago medical school secondary essays

2023-24 Secondary Essays

At the university of chicago, in an atmosphere of interdisciplinary scholarship and discovery, the pritzker school of medicine is dedicated to inspiring diverse students of exceptional promise to become leaders and innovators in science and medicine for the betterment of humanity..

Our mission statement is an expression of our core purpose and educational philosophy. In particular, it highlights the value we place on diversity, the creation of new knowledge, service, and leadership. We look forward to learning more about you and your alignment with our mission through the following questions.

Essay Question 1 (S uggested Word Limit: 450)

Students at the Pritzker School of Medicine complete the majority of their clinical training at UChicago Medicine (UCM). UCM is one of the  top ten most racially inclusive hospitals in the United States  with a  primary service area  of 12 South Side zip codes where poverty is over double the state level. Additionally, our students lead  six free clinics  in diverse neighborhoods throughout the city of Chicago.

Please share with us the personal and professional experiences that have best prepared you to work in this diverse clinical environment.

Essay Question 2 - MD Only Applicants ( S uggested Word Limit: 450)  

All MD students participate in our longitudinal  Scholarship & Discovery  research program, which offers protected curricular time, mentoring, and funding for students to pursue their scholarly interests. Please describe your research interests and share how our research opportunities will help you advance your career goals.

Essay Question 3 (Suggested Word Limit: 450)

Share with us a difficult or challenging situation you have encountered and how you dealt with it. In your response, identify both the coping skills you called upon to resolve the dilemma, and the support person(s) from whom you sought advice.

Optional Additional Information

Please feel free to use this space to convey any additional information that you might wish the Committee to know. For example, if you are not currently completing a degree, please share your planned or current activities for this application cycle. We suggest that you limit your text to about 300 words.

Which program are you applying to?

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School-Specific Med Secondary Essay Tips

Explore the tips below to learn how to compose a medical school secondary essay that not only explains why you want to go to med school, but that clearly indicates why your chosen program is perfect for you…and why you are perfect for it as well.

For one-on-one guidance on your med school secondaries, check out our  Medical School Essay Services .

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• Secondary Essay Prompts

Secondary Essay Prompts – Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science

Secondary Essay Prompts for the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science

Below are the secondary essay prompts for the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science in North Chicago, IL.

2019 – 2020

• Please discuss challenges in your journey thus far to medical school. (150 words)
• Please specially discuss how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science community. (150 words)

2018 – 2019

This school requires CASPer (Computer Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics) as part of the medical school secondary application.

Below are the secondary essay prompts for the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science.

2017 – 2018.

• The Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science strives to ensure that its students become respectful physicians who embrace all dimensions of caring for the whole person. Please describe how your personal characteristics or life experiences will contribute to the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science community and bring educational benefits to our student body. (1000 characters)
• Is there any further information that you would like the Committee on Admissions to be aware of when reviewing your file that you were not able to notate in another section of this or the AMCAS Application? (1000 characters)
• Why have you chosen to apply to the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science and how do you think your education at Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science will prepare you to become a physician for the future? (1 page, formatted at your discretion, upload as PDF)
• In the space provided, please discuss challenges in your journey to applying to medical school. (100 words)
• Think about life. Think about situations or events that popped up and derailed or deterred you along your journey to this point and how you handled or managed these events and ultimately incorporated that change or growth into the person you are today. This response is about “resilience” as medical educators have found that resilient students are better equipped to handle the training and the difficulties inherent in it. 
• It is completely appropriate to talk about difficult family circumstances, financial circumstances, academic issues, tough decisions, and forks in the road.  Admissions committees are open to hearing about your own experience of illness, including depression and anxiety, and how you have become healthy. Depending on who reads your application, there may be some risk to detailing this so we recommend that you discuss this with an advisor or mentor and disclose only if you are now healthy and functioning well (and there is evidence of this) and if you are willing to openly discuss this during an interview – and have it as part of your file should be matriculate there.

In the space provided, please include a statement that specifically address how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science community. (100 words)

• Given the word count here, choose a few strengths or interpersonal characteristics or attributes that sum up your background – your highlight reel, if you will. Diversity covers so much territory, you can decide! Since they ask for a “statement” use action words that convey decisiveness.
• That you know about the school (and whether you have family members, mentors, etc who have recommended you apply there because of their own experience). If you do not have a personal connection, talk about what attracts you to the curriculum, student body, environment/location, or clinical/research opportunities. I always encourage students to look at a map. What is close by? Any interesting companies or head quarters? Near to more rural opportunities ? Adjacent to urban areas? Who lives near the campus?
• Optional: We encourage you to submit an optional diversity statement that specifically addresses how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science Community. This optional statement may be considered for admission and/or scholarship purposes. Please limit your response to 100 words or fewer.

2016 – 2017

• This response wants you to connect yourself to the school. This is the place to say what you know about the school (and whether you have family members, mentors, etc who have recommended you apply there because of their own experience). If you do not have a personal connection, talk about what attracts you to the curriculum, student body, environment/location, or clinical/research opportunities. I always encourage students to look at a map. What is close by? Any interesting companies or head quarters? Near to more rural opportunities ? Adjacent to urban areas? Who lives near the campus?

Secondary essay webcast with Dr. Jessica Freedman, founder and president of MedEdits Medical Admissions.   Read more about Dr. Freedman.

Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine Science Secondary Application

Topics covered in this presentation:

• When should I submit my secondary essays?
• Pay attention to the word/character limits.
• Can I recycle secondary essay prompts for multiple schools?
• Identify topics that you left out of your primary application.
• And, much more.

Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science Admissions Requirements

Learn more about this school:

Secondary Essay Prompts for Other Schools

Do you want to see secondary essay prompts for other medical schools?

Select a school below:

Secondary Essay Prompts By School

*Data collected from MSAR 2022-2023, 2022 Osteopathic Medical College Information Book, and institution website.

Disclaimer: The information on this page was shared by students and/or can be found on each medical school’s website. MedEdits does not guarantee it’s accuracy or authenticity.

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Secondary Essay Prompts – Mayo Medical School, Rochester, MN

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Why this Medical School? Secondary Essay Example

• Cracking Med School Admissions Team

Medical schools want to recruit students who embody their institution’s values and would quickly thrive once accepted. One way to prove that you fit this criterion is by writing an outstanding “why this medical school” secondary essay. This prompt asks you to explain why you are applying to a specific medical school and how you would take advantage of unique opportunities at that school. Alternatively, you can think of this prompt as asking you “why would you attend our school over others if we accepted you?” Or, you can think about this prompt asking, “Why would you be a great fit for our medical school over the thousands of other applicants applying?” Need help? Contact us down below. 

This “Why This Medical School?” blog post covers:

• How to answer why this medical school essay prompt, and how to answer it well
• Process of researching different medical schools

Why this medical school secondary essay example

• Essay analysis and success tips

Recognizing the “why this medical school” secondary essay

The “why this medical school” secondary essay can take many forms.

For example, consider the following secondary prompts, which can all be approached as a “why us” secondary:

• Stanford School of Medicine: How will you take advantage of the Stanford Medicine Discovery Curriculum and scholarly concentration requirement to achieve your personal career goals? (1000 characters)
• University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine: Please explain your reasons for applying to the Perelman School of Medicine and limit your response to 1,000 characters.
• Weill Cornell Medical College: Please write a brief statement giving your reasons for applying to Weill Cornell Medical College. (200 words)
• Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine: Given the distinctive educational philosophy and integrated curriculum at FSM, describe how your personal characteristics and learning style would fit the institution. (Limit your response to 200 words)
• University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine: Please write a short essay about why you are applying to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 550 words.

Even an open-ended “is there anything else you would like us to know” prompt could be used to write a “why do you want to go to this medical school” secondary essay! 

Getting started: do your research for each medical school

Questions to consider for each medical school:.

• Are there any programs or organizations unique to that school which you are interested in?
• Are there any faculty members with whom you hope to do research?
• How is the curriculum set up? How many years are pre-clinical versus clinical on clerkships? Is there early clinical exposure? Integration of research into the curriculum?
• Are there any electives or classes you may be interested in? Dual-degree options?
• How is the mentorship for medical students from faculty and the administration?
• What is the “culture” of the school and its student body? Are students known to be involved with research? Social justice? Community service?
• Do you have any personal connections to the school/area?

Where to look:

• Cracking Med School Admissions Pro Tip: Go deep into the school’s website. You should learn about the curriculum, but if there are any specific fields within medicine that you are interested in, look for professors and research opportunities in that field. Additionally, many medical schools are interdisciplinary. If you are interested in public health, then research the Public Health school for that university and other public health opportunities.
• Cracking Med School Admissions Pro Tip: Email faculty members who you have mutual interests with. When you email them, tell them about your previous experiences and why you are interested in their work.

Let’s take a look at a why this medical school secondary essay example for the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Prompt: Please write a short essay about why you are applying to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 550 words.

A resident at our homeless shelter frequently spent nights studying while others slept. Concerned about his health, I asked about his sleeping schedule and how I could help. As I began assisting him with his classwork and professional goals during downtimes volunteering, I understood how, despite us both attending [SCHOOL], our life circumstances were worlds apart. To him, professional success was an escape and intense academic devotion was a way to avoid previously harmful habits. And unlike him, I never had to prioritize my livelihood over academics or extracurriculars like many others had at our shelter. Yet we also had much in common despite our differing circumstances. I recall many late-night conversations with him with topics ranging from healthcare and medicine to intense debates about our favorite NBA players.

Shaped by my experiences with these students, my values compel me to shape healthcare policies and conduct research to address problems that broadly affect others. At Pritzker, I will continue researching disease treatment and health policy through the Scholarship & Discovery program, learning from innovators like Dr. David Meltzer. His work about the cost effectiveness of prostate cancer treatments highlights waste in healthcare costs; my own research about shared decision making in prostate cancer patients also inspired me to expose these issues with research and encourage policy changes.

I am particularly interested in how changes in disease treatment inform wider care guidelines. Heading a trial that investigates early sepsis resuscitation, I appreciate how complexities in treating illness are intertwined with policy as standards of care and health policies have immediate impacts on patients and physicians. And when larger policies are misaligned with these individual needs, I believe it is my responsibility to correct them and bridge the gap. An institution which values medical student inquiry, Pritzker will provide me unique opportunities to disseminate my research through its Senior Scientific Session and numerous fellowships to fund presentations at national conferences. My teaching background will help me convey research results in context and connect them to policy implications and drive action from stakeholders.

Pritzker’s unique organizations also reflect the student body’s passion for helping the underserved, mirroring my own values as I aspire to create new programs for these patients. In the student shelter, I revamped our food training to account for variations in volunteers’ cooking experience to feed 10 homeless students. Hearing positive feedback from residents reaffirmed how my ideas could be translated into impactful practices by leading a group toward a shared mission. At Pritzker, I will continue working with underserved populations through student organizations like Chicago Street Medicine. Their work delivering healthcare to homeless patients particularly interests me as I have seen the unique challenges faced by this population in volunteering with homeless students. I want to continue exploring these issues and develop my leadership skills in Chicago Street Medicine. Student organizations at Pritzker will uniquely supplement my medical training with early, hands-on experience caring for these patients and applying my growing medical knowledge to benefit others.

Opportunities to conduct clinical/policy research with faculty leaders and unique student organizations align with my values, motivating me to pursue my medical training at Pritzker.”

Why this medical school secondary essay example: analysis and tips for success

#1. mention specific programs and organizations at the school.

One thing this essay does well is its specific inclusion of different programs and organizations at Pritzker. For example, the writer mentions the “Scholarship & Discovery program,” “Senior Scientific Session” event, and a student organization (“Chicago Street Medicine”) to substantiate their interests. This shows your reader that you have done your research on the school and will be able to take readily take advantage of any opportunities once you are accepted. It will always reflect well on you to do your research and “show off” your understanding of the program.

#2. Talk about faculty members you want to work with

Notice that the writer specifically mentions a faculty member by name, “Dr. David Meltzer,” and talks about why they find their research interesting as well as its relation to the writer’s own research goals. Once again, this shows your reader that you have done your research and that you are someone who takes the initiative to get the most out of opportunities. Think about mentioning specific faculty members, in addition to including specific programs and organizations, as analogous to “citations” in a research paper—they substantiate and strengthen your claims for “why this school.”

#3. Connect the school to your background and experiences

One mistake students frequently make in writing a “why this medical school” secondary essay is that they talk too much about the school without focusing on themselves. Remember, at the end of the day your reader still wants to know about you . Explicitly connect your former background and experiences to the different opportunities at the school and convince your reader that you would be a good fit. In this case, the writer connects their prior experiences working with homeless students and clinical research about disease treatment to service-oriented organizations at Pritzker (e.g. Chicago Street Medicine) and research opportunities (funded fellowships, specific programs/faculty). Seamlessly connecting your background/experiences with the school is an excellent strategy!

#4.Tell stories

As with any secondary, it is extremely important to give anecdotes that naturally lead readers to a conclusion rather than stating the conclusion outright. In this case, the writer talks about their experiences with a specific resident at a homeless shelter they volunteered with. This allows reader to infer that the writer easily connects with individuals from different backgrounds, a conclusion that is more convincing when conveyed through a story rather than stated outright. Imagine if the writer had written “I am someone that easily connects with students from different backgrounds as shown by my previous experience working with homeless students.” This is far less convincing than telling a story.

#5. Dream big

Finally, this essay effectively showcases the writer’s ambitions numerous times throughout. Whether it is “to shape healthcare policies” by conducting research to “bridge the gap” between individuals and policies or “create new programs” for “underserved populations,” the writer strikes you as an individual with a clear idea of what they hope to accomplish in medical school and how they will specifically do so. Don’t be afraid to convey your ambitions and relate them to the school!

FREE Medical School Secondary Essay Examples and Brainstorm Tool [PLACEHOLDER]

Use this workbook to write STELLAR AMCAS descriptions. This section is as important as your personal statement.

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More Excellent Secondary Essay Examples

While reading about how to write a secondary essay for medical school makes doing so seem easy, it is much harder to put this into practice. As such, we have compiled a list of personal statements and secondary essays. Each one of these essays were written by premeds who successfully got accepted to medical schools across the United States. We think these essays demonstrate successful models.

The best resource for example secondary essays is our Cracking Med School Admissions book! We have over 50 personal statements and secondary essay from successful medical school applicants, including essays from our authors! 🙂

Blog post written by Kevin Li and Dr. Rachel Rizal

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Chicago University Rosalind Franklin Secondary Essay Prompts

These are the secondary application essay prompts for Chicago Medical School Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science. To put your best foot forward and maximize your chance of an interview invitation, visit our secondary application editing page .

About Chicago University Rosalind Franklin

Secondary Deadline : December 1, 2023 Secondary Fee : $125 FAP Waiver : Full Fee Waived CASPer Required : Yes Screens Applications : No Accepts Application Updates : No

Chicago Medical School educates physicians and scientists dedicated to providing exemplary, compassionate patient care and excellence in scientific discovery within an interprofessional environment.

To be an outstanding community-based medical school with excellence and innovation in medical education, scientific discovery and clinical care.

Applicants are asked to complete four optional essays to further inform our committee. Each essay answer should be no longer than 150 words.

1) Please specifically discuss how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science community.

2) What creative/innovative ways have you found to continue to build upon the competencies for entering medical students during the pandemic?

3) Briefly share your plans for the upcoming academic year? Do you plan to work, conduct research, volunteer in a health care setting, participate in community service, attend school, travel, participate in leisure activities or other activities.

4) Has persistence ever paid off for you? Describe the situation.

1. Please discuss challenges in your journey thus far to medical school. (150 words)

2. Please specially discuss how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science community. (150 words)

The secondary application essay prompts from this medical school application cycle are the same as above.

1. In the space provided, please discuss challenges in your journey to applying to medical school. (100 words)

2. In the space provided, please include a statement that specifically address how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science community. (100 words)

1. Why did you choose to apply to the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science? Please limit your response to 100 words or fewer.

2. Optional: We encourage you to submit an optional diversity statement that specifically addresses how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science Community. This optional statement may be considered for admission and/or scholarship purposes. Please limit your response to 100 words or fewer.

Disclaimer: The information on this page was shared by students and/or can be found on the medical school’s website. Med School Insiders does not guarantee the accuracy of the information on this page.

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Rosalind Franklin University – Chicago Medical School Secondary Questions

Here are Rosalind Franklin University – Chicago Medical School’s secondary questions.

1. Please specifically discuss how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science community.

2. Briefly share your plans for the upcoming academic year. Do you plan to work, conduct research, volunteer in a health care setting, participate in community service, attend school, travel, participate in leisure activities or other activities?

3. Have you ever had a major setback? What was the cause and how did you overcome it?

4. What areas of your life needs the most improvement, and what plans have you made to improve it?

Please specifically discuss how, if admitted to our program, your admission would contribute to the diversity of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science community. (150 words)

What creative/innovative ways have you found to continue to build upon the competencies for entering medical students during the pandemic? (150 words)

Briefly share your plans for the upcoming academic year? Do you plan to work, conduct research, volunteer in a health care setting, participate in community service, attend school, travel, participate in leisure activities or other activities. (150 words)

Has persistence ever paid off for you? Describe the situation. (150 words)

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Helix 51 Biomedical Incubator Marks Fifth Anniversary, Rapid Expansion

In this section.

RFU's Helix 51 biomedical incubator, the only one of its kind in Lake County, Illinois, celebrated its fifth year of operations in April with the entry of four new companies. The incubator is currently home to 12 early-stage startups, including its first international company. 

“The growth of our Helix 51 incubator over the last five years brings to the RFU campus a range of novel therapeutic and diagnostic alternatives that will hopefully benefit patients around the globe,” said Dr. Ronald Kaplan, RFU’s executive vice president for research. “Helix 51 has also created a pipeline of companies into our Innovation and Research Park.”

Helix 51 features 6,500 square feet of wet and dry labs, a class 100,000 “clean room,” offices, a shared conference room, biological safety cabinets, chemical fume hoods and an array of refrigeration equipment. Companies can also access, with no additional cost, a unique Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program and internship program drawing students from RFU’s College of Pharmacy, Northwestern’s Masters of Biotechnology program, and Kent School of Law’s JD program.

The new companies include:

• MountView Therapeutics , a spinout from Northwestern University and Lurie Children’s Hospital based on the technology of Dr. YouYang Zhao , professor of pediatrics, medicine and pharmacology. The company is developing next generation transformative technologies for gene and drug delivery targeting vascular endothelium to treat human diseases. Dr. Zhao published results in August 2023 in Science Translational Medicine on a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).
• Remote Vital Monitoring Inc. , spun out of the University of Illinois-Chicago, Cook County Hospital and New York University and is based on the work of Dr. James Stone, a neurosurgeon, and colleagues. Their technology will play an important role in monitoring the ongoing development and recovery from Traumatic Brain Injury, which can affect as many as 50 million people annually, costing the global economy $400 billion each year.
• MRI Coil Guru , a company that specializes in the maintenance and repair of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instruments based on the expertise of GE Healthcare-trained service engineer Chavis Thomas.
• Gencell Biotech , a Mexican company headquartered in Guadalajara, working on new therapeutic approaches to diabetic foot ulcer and wound care, as well as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.

Thursday — April 11 04/11/2024

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Guest Essay

In Medicine, the Morally Unthinkable Too Easily Comes to Seem Normal

By Carl Elliott

Dr. Elliott teaches medical ethics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of the forthcoming book “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No,” from which this essay is adapted.

Here is the way I remember it: The year is 1985, and a few medical students are gathered around an operating table where an anesthetized woman has been prepared for surgery. The attending physician, a gynecologist, asks the group: “Has everyone felt a cervix? Here’s your chance.” One after another, we take turns inserting two gloved fingers into the unconscious woman’s vagina.

Had the woman consented to a pelvic exam? Did she understand that when the lights went dim she would be treated like a clinical practice dummy, her genitalia palpated by a succession of untrained hands? I don’t know. Like most medical students, I just did as I was told.

Last month the Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidance requiring written informed consent for pelvic exams and other intimate procedures performed under anesthesia. Much of the force behind the new requirement came from distressed medical students who saw these pelvic exams as wrong and summoned the courage to speak out.

Whether the guidance will actually change clinical practice I don’t know. Medical traditions are notoriously difficult to uproot, and academic medicine does not easily tolerate ethical dissent. I doubt the medical profession can be trusted to reform itself.

What is it that leads a rare individual to say no to practices that are deceptive, exploitative or harmful when everyone else thinks they are fine? For a long time I assumed that saying no was mainly an issue of moral courage. The relevant question was: If you are a witness to wrongdoing, will you be brave enough to speak out?

But then I started talking to insiders who had blown the whistle on abusive medical research. Soon I realized that I had overlooked the importance of moral perception. Before you decide to speak out about wrongdoing, you have to recognize it for what it is.

This is not as simple as it seems. Part of what makes medical training so unsettling is how often you are thrust into situations in which you don’t really know how to behave. Nothing in your life up to that point has prepared you to dissect a cadaver, perform a rectal exam or deliver a baby. Never before have you seen a psychotic patient involuntarily sedated and strapped to a bed or a brain-dead body wheeled out of a hospital room to have its organs harvested for transplantation. Your initial reaction is often a combination of revulsion, anxiety and self-consciousness.

To embark on a career in medicine is like moving to a foreign country where you do not understand the customs, rituals, manners or language. Your main concern on arrival is how to fit in and avoid causing offense. This is true even if the local customs seem backward or cruel. What’s more, this particular country has an authoritarian government and a rigid status hierarchy where dissent is not just discouraged but also punished. Living happily in this country requires convincing yourself that whatever discomfort you feel comes from your own ignorance and lack of experience. Over time, you learn how to assimilate. You may even come to laugh at how naïve you were when you first arrived.

A rare few people hang onto that discomfort and learn from it. When Michael Wilkins and William Bronston started working at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island as young doctors in the early 1970s, they found thousands of mentally disabled children condemned to the most horrific conditions imaginable: naked children rocking and moaning on concrete floors in puddles of their own urine; an overpowering stench of illness and filth; a research unit where children were deliberately infected with hepatitis A and B.

“It was truly an American concentration camp,” Dr. Bronston told me. Yet when he and Dr. Wilkins tried to enlist Willowbrook doctors and nurses to reform the institution, they were met with indifference or hostility. It seemed as if no one else on the medical staff could see what they saw. It was only when Dr. Wilkins went to a reporter and showed the world what was happening behind the Willowbrook walls that anything began to change.

When I asked Dr. Bronston how it was possible for doctors and nurses to work at Willowbrook without seeing it as a crime scene, he told me it began with the way the institution was structured and organized. “Medically secured, medically managed, doctor-validated,” he said. Medical professionals just accommodated themselves to the status quo. “You get with the program because that’s what you’re being hired to do,” he said.

One of the great mysteries of human behavior is how institutions create social worlds where unthinkable practices come to seem normal. This is as true of academic medical centers as it is of prisons and military units. When we are told about a horrific medical research scandal, we assume that we would see it just as the whistle-blower Peter Buxtun saw the Tuskegee syphilis study : an abuse so shocking that only a sociopath could fail to perceive it.

Yet it rarely happens this way. It took Mr. Buxtun seven years to convince others to see the abuses for what they were. It has taken other whistle-blowers even longer. Even when the outside world condemns a practice, medical institutions typically insist that the outsiders don’t really understand.

According to Irving Janis, a Yale psychologist who popularized the notion of groupthink, the forces of social conformity are especially powerful in organizations that are driven by a deep sense of moral purpose. If the aims of the organization are righteous, its members feel, it is wrong to put barriers in the way.

This observation helps explain why academic medicine not only defends researchers accused of wrongdoing but also sometimes rewards them. Many of the researchers responsible for the most notorious abuses in recent medical history — the Tuskegee syphilis study, the Willowbrook hepatitis studies, the Cincinnati radiation studies , the Holmesburg prison studies — were celebrated with professional accolades even after the abuses were first called out.

The culture of medicine is notoriously resistant to change. During the 1970s, it was thought that the solution to medical misconduct was formal education in ethics. Major academic medical centers began establishing bioethics centers and programs throughout the 1980s and ’90s, and today virtually every medical school in the country requires ethics training.

Yet it is debatable whether that training has had any effect. Many of the most egregious ethical abuses in recent decades have taken place in medical centers with prominent bioethics programs, such as the University of Pennsylvania , Duke University , Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University , as well as my own institution, the University of Minnesota .

One could be forgiven for concluding that the only way the culture of medicine will change is if changes are forced on it from the outside — by oversight bodies, legislators or litigators. For example, many states have responded to the controversy over pelvic exams by passing laws banning the practice unless the patient has explicitly given consent.

You may find it hard to understand how pelvic exams on unconscious women without their consent could seem like anything but a terrible invasion. Yet a central aim of medical training is to transform your sensibility. You are taught to steel yourself against your natural emotional reactions to death and disfigurement; to set aside your customary views about privacy and shame; to see the human body as a thing to be examined, tested and studied.

One danger of this transformation is that you will see your colleagues and superiors do horrible things and be afraid to speak up. But the more subtle danger is that you will no longer see what they are doing as horrible. You will just think: This is the way it is done.

Carl Elliott ( @FearLoathingBTX ) teaches medical ethics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of the forthcoming book “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No,” from which this essay is adapted.

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