The June 2009 report (free online), "Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians," from the Association of American Medical Colleges in association with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which proposes scientific competencies for future medical school graduates and for undergraduate students who want to pursue a career in medicine, includes Competency E8: "Demonstrate an understanding of how the organizing principle of evolution by natural selection explains the diversity of life on earth".
Note also the following two paragraphs in the section titled: Issues of Concern and Goals:
"This report stems largely from the concern that premedical course requirements have been static for decades and may not accurately reflect the essential competencies every entering medical student must have mastered, today and in the future. The competencies for premedical education need to be broad and compatible with a strong liberal arts education. The work of the committee is based on the premise that the undergraduate years are not and should not be aimed only at students preparing for professional school. Instead, the undergraduate years should be devoted to creative engagement in the elements of a broad, intellectually expansive liberal arts education. Therefore, the time commitment for achieving required scientific competencies should not be so burdensome that the medical school candidate would be limited to the study of science, with little time available to pursue other academically challenging scholarly avenues that are also the foundation of intellectual growth.
"One goal of this project is to provide greater flexibility in the premedical curriculum that would permit undergraduate institutions to develop more interdisciplinary and integrative science courses, as recommended in the [2003] BIO 2010 report. By focusing on scientific competencies rather than courses, undergraduate institutions will have more freedom to develop novel courses to achieve the desired competencies without increasing the total number of instructional hours in the sciences in the face of continuing increases in medically relevant scientific knowledge. Achieving economies of time spent on science instruction would be facilitated by breaking down barriers among departments and fostering interdisciplinary approaches to science education. Indeed, the need for increased scientific rigor and its relevance to human biology is most likely to be met by more interdisciplinary courses."
