The history and continuing problems with two unresolved issues in medical education, premedical and medical curricula and the selection of medical students, are discussed. Useful elements of the current system are identified. (MSE)

The medical humanities program has 50 contact hours with medical students in the required curriculum, well-subscribed fourth-year electives, and programs for residents, fellows, and faculty. Course content is summarized by year. Several crucial decisions in the program's first year have affected its nature and development. (Author/MSE)

A survey of all 1987 graduates (n=112) of all U.S. combined programs found patient care as the major current involvement, with most subjects seeing patients in both pediatric and adult age groups and in primary care only. Perceived deficiencies and preferences in rotation types and quantity were also analyzed. (Author/MSE)

A medical humanities program emphasizing clinically oriented training is described. The four-year required curriculum, in which students accompany attending physicians on rounds, is taught by faculty representing a wide range of medical and non-medical disciplines. The approach is seen to challenge good teachers and evoke humanities themes from…

Stanford University created an interdisciplinary program to train researchers and academic leaders in the field of medical information sciences. The program is described, identifying experiences of interest to people developing such a program. The program's background and history, students, curriculum and philosophy, and lessons learned are…

A survey of 120 medical schools found 61 percent have curricula on professional liability. Many indicated students' training has been compromised or jeopardized by physicians' concerns about medicolegal issues, and many had students named in malpractice suits. Findings suggest issues of professional liability have significantly affected…

Computer-based clinical simulations used in medical education are designed according to decisions about which elements of reality to explicitly include, which to leave to imagination, and when to intervene for educational purposes. Programs offer many options for structuring the simulations, such as varying levels of volunteered information about…

The strategy used by one health maintenance organization (HMO) for balancing residents' training needs and patient health problems, often limited and routine in an HMO, is to allocate patients to residents by matching them with curriculum content. A process for handling patient resistance to such an arrangement was also instituted. (MSE)

A survey of 119 medical schools found that about one-quarter had no required environmental medicine (EM) content in the curriculum. Schools with EM content averaged seven hours of instruction. Sixty-eight percent had faculty with environmental and occupational medicine expertise, primarily in departments of medicine, preventive medicine, and…

A discussion of medical ethics in the medical curriculum reviews its recent history, examines areas of consensus, and describes teaching objectives and methods, course content, and program evaluation at preclinical and clinical levels. Prerequisites for successful institutionalization of medical ethics education are defined, and its future is…

The establishment of faculties of medical library and information science in four Chinese national medical universities is described. The faculties were established in the mid-1980s, and each is fully integrated into its university. Students receive three years of nonclinical medical training and two years of library and information science…

The Working Group on the Pre-Clinical Years of the 1997 National Consensus Conference on Medical Education for Care Near the End of Life identifies promising settings and suggests how they might be used for maximum benefit in end-of-life education. Basic-care competencies are in five domains: psychological/social/cultural/spiritual issues;…

Education of medical students in the basic and clinical sciences must be integrated into a seamless curriculum over four years, team-taught by both a clinician and a basic scientist. Medical students must be able to perform an initial evaluation of a neurological complaint and know when consultation is needed. (Author/MSE)

Three reasons for teaching medical ethics during residency are presented. Key ethical concepts to be addressed include moral aspects of medical practice, obtaining informed consent, dealing with incompetent patients and those who refuse treatment, knowing when to withhold or disclose clinical information, and using medical resources properly. (MSE)

The medical school's ethics and human values program spans the medical curriculum from first through fourth year and extends into several residency programs. Taught by scholars in the medical humanities and clinicians from almost every specialty, courses and seminars draw on philosophy, literature, and law. (Author/MSE)