Simulation in Plastic Surgery Training: Past, Present and Future

The face of medicine is characterized by rapid and constant evolution. New procedures, new technology, and new solutions to clinical challenges are forever changing the field. However, medical education has been historically stagnant. From the advent of medicine until Abraham Flexner’s landmark report on the state of medical education in 1910, the apprenticeship model reigned. Training was highly variable and largely dependent on one’s supervisor. As a result, by the turn of the 20th century the quality of health care in the United States (US) was cause for concern. Flexner’s report proposed several radical changes to medical education and in doing so, redefined the fundamental contract between physicians and society (Flexner, 1910).