The MD degree is a broad undifferentiated degree attesting to general knowledge in medicine and the basic skills required for the practice of medicine. Essential abilities and characteristics required for completion of the MD degree consist of certain minimum physical and cognitive abilities and sufficient mental and emotional stability to assure that candidates for admission, promotion, and gr...

BACKGROUND Portfolios are increasingly used in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. Four medical schools have collaborated with an established NHS electronic portfolio provider to develop and implement an authentic professional electronic portfolio for undergraduate students. We hypothesized that using an authentic portfolio would have significant advantages for students, particula...

It is now widely accepted that the United States is on the cusp of deepening shortages of physicians. This article will briefly review how these shortages could have been anticipated, how they are being manifested, and how policymakers were drawn to the contrary conclusion, and it will discuss the challenges that now exist as the nation undertakes to expand undergraduate and graduate medical ed...

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Human factors (HF) is a discipline often drawn upon when there is a need to train people to perform complex, high-stakes tasks and effectively assess their performance. Complex tasks often present unique challenges for training and assessment. HF has developed specialized techniques that have been effective in overcoming several of these challenges in work settings such as aviation, process con...

Closure of medical schools or the barring of "live patient" contact during an epidemic or pandemic is potentially disruptive to medical education. During the SARS epidemic, the use of web-based learning, role play, video vignettes and both live and mannequin-based simulated patients minimised disruptions to medical education. This article examines the pedagogical innovations that allow clinical...

INTRODUCTION Over the last decade, the use of medical marijuana has expanded dramatically; it is now permitted in 16 states and the District of Columbia. Our study of family physicians in Colorado is the first to gather information about physician attitudes toward this evolving practice. METHODS We distributed an anonymous web-based electronic survey to the 1727 members of the Colorado Academ...

While the main thrust of medical audit has been towards improving clinical performance, there has been increasing recognition of its impact as a method of continuing medical education. Thus, the Royal College of Physicians stated that "education is the most useful product of audit,"' and the Royal College of Surgeons noted the educational importance of audit "for both seniors and juniors."' Fur...

Medical education is at a crossroads. Although unique features exist at the undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education levels, shared aspects of all three levels are especially revealing, and form the basis for informed decision-making about the future of medical education.This paper describes some of the internal and external challenges confronting undergraduate medical education. Key i...

Public health competencies, especially as they relate to the management of chronic disease, will be of increasing importance to the global health-care workforce. The General Medical Council's recommendations on basic medical education have helped to entrench the position of public health and related disciplines. Tomorrow's Doctors has recently been updated. This article describes the indicative...