Health Professionals for the 21st Century: a Student View
Florian L Stigler, Robbert J Duvivier, Margot Weggemans, Helmut J F Salzer
Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria (FLS, HJFS); Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands (RJD); and University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands (MW);
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The report of the Global Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century, in The Lancet, 1 calls for a new era of professional education. The production of this report was a tall task, and we applaud the commissioners for taking on such a challenge. Its publication has the potential to profoundly change the way we train future health professionals.
Talk at the Launch of the Commission Report
November 30, 2010
Samuel O. Thier, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy Emeritus, Harvard Medical School
Congratulations on a truly bold effort and an imaginative product.
Attempting to transform the education of the health professions is a daunting task. Having that education informed by and responsible to the needs of health systems is an even more daunting task. Your figure 3 illustrates beautifully the relationship between the educational and health systems that you wish to achieve.
A New Epoch for Health Professionals’ Education
Richard Horton
The Lancet, London NW1 7BY, UK
The history of education is not a continuous straight line of progress. Like any discipline, it is marked by periods of extraordinary advance, more or less intelligent reflection, and stultifying stagnation. The history of education among the health professions is no exception. After a century of rapid progress (initiated in the western medical tradition by the 1910 Flexner Report1), consolidation, but more recent ossification, health professionals’ education is poised once again to enter a new epoch of transformation.