Introduction: The burden of the costs of medical training remains unclear for strategically important cohorts of students. We therefore explored concern with educational costs in Māori, Pasifika and New Zealand European medical school graduates. Methods: Using data from the Medical Schools Outcomes Database (MSOD) in the years 2011 to 2023, we followed a national combined cohort of 2621 graduates at three time points until postgraduate year 3 (PGY3). We compared the proportions of graduates indicating concern with the costs of medical school education and vocational training (4 or 5 on Likert scale) with those indicating little or no concern (1-3 on Likert scale). Results: At exit from medical school, the cohort of Pasifika graduates showed a significantly higher proportion of concerned individuals regarding vocational training costs (16 (8.9%) of 179 vs 17 (3.9%) of 434 for Māori and 65 (3.2%) of 2008 for New Zealand European, 2=14.9, p=0.0006). In addition, Māori medical school graduates were significantly more concerned with the cost of medical school education at PGY1 (24 (10.9%) of 220 vs 2 (3.1%) of 64 for Pasifika and 74 (6.2%) of 1188 for New Zealand European, 2=7.8, p=0.019). No significant effects were seen at the PGY3 time point suggesting that concerns may reduce over time. Conclusions: With increasing numbers of Māori and Pasifika medical graduates, concern with educational costs may increase in future. However, our results are reassuring in that concern with educational costs in New Zealand remains low overall, even in strategically important cohorts of medical graduates.
Introduction: Pathology is fundamental to patient care but is often perceived by medical students as a background, laboratory-based specialty. Limited early exposure may contribute to misconceptions about the role of pathologists and reduced interest in pathology as a career, particularly in Asia-Pacific medical education contexts. Methods: This paper reports an institutional educational development initiative at Chiang Mai University, Thailand. A voluntary four-day Pathology Open House was offered to first-year medical students, providing early experiential exposure to authentic pathology practice through observation, limited hands-on activities, and informal interaction with faculty, residents, and laboratory staff. A post-program questionnaire incorporating retrospective pre-program ratings was used to assess students’ self-reported perceptions. Results: Participants reported higher self-assessed scores following the program in their understanding of the professional role of pathologists and awareness of pathology’s contribution to patient care. Patient-facing activities, particularly observation of fine needle aspiration procedures, were perceived as the most impactful. Highly technical laboratory activities were viewed as less engaging unless explicitly linked to clinical outcomes. Conclusion: An open-house–style program represents a feasible, low-resource approach to addressing professional invisibility and supporting early specialty exploration in pathology. This institutional report may inform similar initiatives in other medical schools across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
