Physicians and Medicine in the Twenty-first Century

The AAMC's GPEP report was a comprehensive document that dealt with all aspects of medical education. As far as the curriculum is concerned, some of the recommendations by the panel of experts were:

1. Medical schools should develop procedures and adopt explicit criteria for the systematic evaluation of student performance.
2. Medical schools should emphasize the development of independent learning and problem-solving skills.
3. The level of skills and knowledge that a student should reach in order to enter graduate medical education (residency training) should be defined more clearly.
4. Medical schools should encourage their students to concentrate their elective programs on the advancement of their general professional education rather than on pursuit of a residency position.
5. Medical students' general professional education should include an emphasis on the physician's responsibility to work with individual patients and communities to promote health and prevent disease.

Obviously, each medical school will interpret these guidelines for curriculum changes according to its own philosophy of education. This will add greater variability to the learning experiences one can have at different institutions. It will obviously be another significant factor to consider when selecting a medical school.

Medical education will place less emphasis on mastery of content and greater emphasis on the learning process. The latter will include critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and the retrieval of information. In addition, attention will be focused on independent, self-directed learning skills. Medical school curricular time will increase for topics related to preventive medicine, public and community health, nutrition, geriatrics, behavioral sciences, and medical ethics. There will be greater educational opportunities in community health centers and out-patient clinics. Medical schools will place more emphasis on primary care and seek to channel a very substantial part of each graduating class into such residency programs. Thus, physician training will emphasize the health care needs of the community and nation, rather than being self-determined or determined by institutional agencies. Medical students will become better prepared for team-oriented practices.