"We don't think that we'll end up with that kind of curriculum," says Curriculum Coordinator Flora Atkins. "Everyone is extremely interested, and there is probably a small group which feels it is the way to go."

Atkins says the problem is a lack of space at Columbia for such a program. "We don't have the facilities," she says. She also says that the program is "much too faculty intensive."

Atkins says of her own school's program, "We have some terrible failings. There is not enough problem solving." Other several changes to the basic sciences sequence, Columbia's curriculum has not changed in 20 years, she says.

"We have a very traditional curriculum. Students come here for that, and do well," Atkins says.

But regardless of whether other medical schools implement a program similar to the New Pathway, it has attracted attention from physicians across the country. Atkins says five administrators from Columbia visited Harvard to see the program in action.

"Everyone is talking about [the New Pathway] at AAMC [Association of American Medical Colleges] meetings," she says. "The influence that Harvard has had in doing this has been great."

Friday: A look at a Public Television series that is following seven medical students over a ten-year period to examine the effectiveness of the New Pathway program.