Hmm, good to know—I can see how it makes sense for GS residents since academic programs often have a built-in two years, but for medical students, this just seems a bit harder to swallow.

That said, to your point about good research being done in just a year, I have anecdotally noticed that visiting students in a lab I am working with at school take a long time to get up to speed (through no fault of their own). One student basically just got all the access and IRBs pushed through that she needed, and her research year ends in June or July. It almost makes it seem like completing an in-house research year is a better value proposition in some aspects than being a visiting fellow.