Basic Medical Education

IN its technical aspects medical education in the United Kingdom is traditionally amateur. Curricula conform only within the widest of guidelines; teaching methods and performances are rarely assessed; examinations are often antiquated in concept and execution and the results rarely validated; the syllabus is organised frequently with the convenience of teachers the overriding desideratum and in its balance (sic) evidencing the personal interests (or prejudices!) of the most influential Faculty members; curricular duties are considered by most staff to be an avoidable chore; and until recently the Dean and his assistants (if he had any) were usually full-time academics. Some of these are inevitable given the structure of medical school staffing-professorial units are a recent creation; but others stand as indictments. In contrast the objeictives of undergraduate education, though never inspiring a complete consensus, have been readily stated and more uniformly accepted; the responses by U. have been (under the permissive eye of the G.M.C.) considering the inflexibility of "institutionalised" curricula, with a few exceptions encouraging, and the new Schools in particular have been positively adventurous. Nevertheless, the aura of amateurism remains: the (American) Journal of Medical Education started in 1926; the British Journal of Medical Education only in 1967, five years after its Indian counterpart! Increasingly this ennui is being redressed, the author of the present book contributing over two decades. The book is therefore authoritative with a practical rather than discursive style, and though necessarily superficial in some of its treatments, seems to the reviewer an admirable simple handbook for anyone with (or without) interests or responsibilities in the field. It is in three parts: Part 1 (4 chapters) deals briefly with the historical swing of medical education and its contemporary components-students, teachers, and Schools; Part II (4 chapters) considers curricula, learning and teaching methods, means of assessment, and the problem of introducing a new syllabus; and Part III (one chapter) is a general appraisal. There are appendices on specimen curricula (including that from Western Reserve), a 246 item bibliography, and an excellent index. The writing is clear, succinct, and in places the writer sustains an agreeable narrative style. In fact on all counts a successful single volume overview for the general Faculty member of many of the practical points of teaching and examining modern medical undergraduates. fN this new book the author, an experienced forensic pathologist of considerable standing in medico-legal circles, breaks fresh ground. Unlike many …