| Relevance of the Flexner Report to contemporary medical education in South Asia. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 20107364 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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A century after the publication of Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (the Flexner Report), the quality of medical education in much of Asia is threatened by weak regulation, inadequate public funding, and explosive growth of private medical schools. Competition for students' fees and an ineffectual accreditation process have resulted in questionable admission practices, stagnant curricula, antiquated learning methods, and dubious assessment practices. The authors' purpose is to explore the relevance of Flexner's observations, as detailed in his report, to contemporary medical education in South Asia, to analyze the consequences of growth, and to recommend pragmatic changes. Major drivers for growth are the supply-demand mismatch for medical school positions, weak governmental regulation, private sector participation, and corruption. The consequences are urban-centric growth, shortage of qualified faculty, commercialization of postgraduate education, untenable assessment practices, emphasis on rote learning, and inadequate clinical exposure. Recommendations include strengthening accreditation standards and processes possibly by introducing regional or national student assessment, developing defensible student assessment systems, recognizing health profession education as a field of scholarship, and creating a tiered approach to faculty development in education. The relevance of Flexner's recommendations to the current status of medical education in South Asia is striking, in terms of both the progressive nature of his thinking in 1910 and the need to improve medical education in Asia today. In a highly connected world, the improvement of Asian medical education will have a global impact. |
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Authors:
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Zubair Amin; William P Burdick; Avinash Supe; Tejinder Singh |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges Volume: 85 ISSN: 1938-808X ISO Abbreviation: Acad Med Publication Date: 2010 Feb |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2010-01-28 Completed Date: 2010-02-23 Revised Date: 2011-07-14 |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 8904605 Medline TA: Acad Med Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 333-9 Citation Subset: AIM; IM |
Affiliation:
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Department of Pediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Zubair_Amin@nuhs.edu.sg |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Accreditation* Asia, Southeastern Curriculum* Developing Countries Education, Medical / standards* Faculty, Medical / standards, supply & distribution* Humans Indian Ocean Islands |
| Comments/Corrections | |
Comment In:
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Acad Med. 2011 Jun;86(6):662; author replies 662-3
[PMID:
21613882
]
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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