Refocusing Medical Education Reform: Beyond the How

摘要

Integration of the basic and clinical sciences has been at the heart of medical education reform efforts for nearly a century. Neither the rate nor magnitude of actual progress suggests that reform is anywhere near completion, which presents a challenge to educators to seek ways to overcome significant obstacles to change. Robin Hopkins and colleagues, authors of the Perspective in this issue of Academic Medicine that has prompted this invited Commentary, are among those proposing interesting and useful answers to why integration has not been better achieved. This Commentary affirms the importance of finding better ways to accomplish curricular reform, while contending that real curricular reform must move well beyond the integration of basic and clinical sciences. Drawing from the 2014 report of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Commission to Build a Healthier America, the authors cite evidence of significant disparities and growing health challenges facing Americans today. They discuss three key recommendations from the report: attending to early childhood experiences, providing healthy choices within communities, and, particularly, rethinking the education of health professionals. Next, the authors detail the implications of these recommendations for medical education, stressing both the urgency and importance of moving to adopt these as directions for real reform that will address today's health care challenges.