For years, the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga has been a holdout. Although every other medical school has stopped using animals to teach students, it hasn't — until now, reports The Washington Post.
Almost 200 other medical schools across the nation have halted the practice after years of controversy, according to Robert Fore, EdC, dean of UT College of Medicine Chattanooga.
Earlier this week, he reported his school's decision to do the same. "Effective immediately, the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga has ceased to provide surgical skills training for medical students using live animal models," he wrote in a letter to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
By practicing on animals — including as cats, dogs and pigs — students learned how to properly remove organs, administer anesthesia and cut incisions, according to the report. UT College of Medicine Chattanooga used approximately 300 pigs each year for the practice, according to John Pippin, MD, director of academic affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
The committee has long been an advocate for stopping the practice among all the nation's medical schools, and it launched its initial effort to do so 10 years ago. Now that its efforts have been fulfilled, "[i]t's a watershed moment," Dr. Pippin said, according to the report. "It gets animals out of harm's way and it allows medical school students to learn they can be great doctors without harming animals."
UT College of Medicine Chattanooga wasn't the only holdout. In May, Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said it would no longer teach students using live animals.