Trends in North American medical education (original) (raw)

Medical education in the United States of America

Medical Teacher, 2012

This article was written to provide a brief history of the medical educational system in the USA, the current educational structure, and the current topics and challenges facing USA medical educators today. The USA is fortunate to have a robust educational system, with over 150 medical schools, thousands of graduate medical education programs, well-accepted standardized examinations throughout training, and many educational research programs. All levels of medical education, from curriculum reform in medical schools and the integration of competencies in graduate medical education, to the maintenance of certification in continuing medical education, have undergone rapid changes since the turn of the millennium. The intent of the changes has been to involve the patient sooner in the educational process, use better educational strategies, link educational processes more closely with educational outcomes, and focus on other skills besides knowledge. However, with the litany of changes have come increased regulation without (as of yet) clear evidence as to which of the changes will result in better physicians. In addition, the USA governmental debt crisis threatens the current educational structure. The next wave of changes in the USA medical system needs to focus on what particular educational strategies result in the best physicians and how to fund the system over the long term.

The Current Format and Ongoing Advances of Medical Education in the United States

Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, 2014

The objective of this study was to examine the current system of medical education along with the advances that are being made to support the demands of a changing health care system. American medical education must reform to anticipate the future needs of a changing health care system. Since the dramatic transformations to medical education that followed the publication of the Flexner report in 1910, medical education in the United States has largely remained unaltered. Today, the education of future physicians is undergoing modifications at all levels: premedical education, medical school, and residency training. Advances are being made with respect to curriculum design and content, standardized testing, and accreditation milestones. Fields such as plastic surgery are taking strides toward improving resident training as the next accreditation system is established. To promote more efficacious medical education, the American Medical Association has provided grants for innovations in education. Likewise, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education outlined 6 core competencies to standardize the educational goals of residency training. Such efforts are likely to improve the education of future physicians so that they are able to meet the future needs of American health care.

AMEE 2010 symposium Medical student education in the twenty first century A new Flexnerian era.pdf

As we mark the 100th anniversary of the Flexner report which revolutionized the process of medical education, there is again concern that we face a critical need for change in the process of medical education in order to meet the needs of learners, teachers, and patients. In this symposium, panelists shared perspectives on medical education reform from throughout the world, including The Future of Medical Education in Canada, the role of regulators in contributing to reform, the evolution of accreditation standards, the current state of medical education in Southeast Asia, and the perspectives of a medical student on medical education reform. In the ''Audience discussion'' section, themes emerged surrounding medical education as a social good, the need for governmental support of medical education, the cost of medical education and the rise of for-profit medical schools, and embracing a broader view of health professional education. There remain remarkable parallels in calls for reform in medical education at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries but education which is patient-centered and actively involves the voices of our patients and our students is likely to be a hallmark.

A New Pathway For Medical Education

Health Affairs, 2013

Physician education in the United States must change to meet the primary care needs of a rapidly transforming health care delivery system. Yet medical schools continue to produce a disproportionate number of hospital-based specialists through a high-cost, time-intensive educational model. In response, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine established a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes needed to prepare primary care physicians for the evolving system. The commission recommends that medical schools, in collaboration with their graduate medical education partners, create a new education model that is based on achievement of competencies without a prescribed number of months of study and incorporates the knowledge and skills needed for a twentyfirst-century primary care practice. The course of study would occur within a longitudinal clinical training environment that allows for seamless transition from medical school through residency training.

Innovations in medical education: getting closer to our goals. Introduction

2009

For nearly a century, despite revolutionary advances in science, the goal of medical education has never changed: to provide a learning environment that produces highly competent, compassionate, and altruistic physicians who are prepared to care for patients and use scientific methods to approach disease prevention, treatment, and cure. However, the means to that end must evolve because the requisite competencies, the context in which students learn, and the expectations for how they practice have dramatically shifted. In 1910, the Flexner Report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching fueled the first major reforms in medical education in the United States.1 Medical schools were held to higher academic standards, the biomedical model of teaching was established, and academic medical centers became the ideal clinical training venue for quality teaching, research, and patient care. Although these changes were critically important at the time, Cooke et al.2 propos...

Innovations in Medical Education: Getting Closer to Our Goals

Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine: A Journal of Translational and Personalized Medicine, 2009

For nearly a century, despite revolutionary advances in science, the goal of medical education has never changed: to provide a learning environment that produces highly competent, compassionate, and altruistic physicians who are prepared to care for patients and use scientific methods to approach disease prevention, treatment, and cure. However, the means to that end must evolve because the requisite competencies, the context in which students learn, and the expectations for how they practice have dramatically shifted. In 1910, the Flexner Report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching fueled the first major reforms in medical education in the United States. 1 Medical schools were held to higher academic standards, the biomedical model of teaching was established, and academic medical centers became the ideal clinical training venue for quality teaching, research, and patient care. Although these changes were critically important at the time, Cooke et al. 2 proposed that subsequent changes in medicine, such as the pressure on both researchers and clinicians to increase their productivity, have depleted our pool of available teachers who can offer outstanding clinical teaching and role-model the application of research to patient care. Many other factors have influenced medical education, including the exponential increase in our understanding of disease, diagnosis, and treatment, which requires physicians to shift from being