Beyond Flexner: Medical Education in the Twentieth Century

For decades, educators, historians, and social commentators accorded major responsibility for the reform of medical education in the United States to the Flexner Report of 1910. More recently, historians have begun to challenge the impact of the Report and the desirability of the changes attributed to it. This volume takes the themes articulated in the Report and traces their development. With each theme being discussed by a specialist in the subject area, the book provides a comprehensive review of medical education in the twentieth century. These themes, many of which have not been discussed in other books, include the basic sciences, the clinical curriculum, women in medicine, black medical education, and sectarian medical education. In addition, the volume includes chapters on the evolution of the health care delivery system, trends in financing medical education, the use of outpatient settings for clinical education, the current status of the medical curriculum and needed changes, and health manpower needs. The work concludes with a chapter discussing the current proposals for change and how they relate to the problems and reforms of the Flexner era. The work will be of interest to medical school administrators, policy makers, and faculty members as well as to practicing physicians.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Abraham Flexner in Historical Perspective by Robert P. Hudson The Growth and Divergence of the Basic Sciences by Barbara Barzansky Clinical Education Since Flexner or Whatever Became of William Osler? by Edward C. Atwater Women in Medicine Since Flexner by Mary Roth Walsh Abraham Flexner and the Black Medical Schools by Todd L. Savitt The Fate of Sectarian Medical Education by Norman Gevitz American Health Services Since the "Flexner Report" by Odin W. Anderson Trends in the Financing of Undergraduate Medical Education by Janet D. Perloff Trends in the Use of Outpatient Settings for Medical Education by Barbara Barzansky and Janet D. Perloff The Medical Curriculum: Developments and Directions by DeWitt C. Baldwin, Jr. Will the Supply and Distribution of Physicians be Appropriate for National Needs in the Year 2000? by David A. Kindig and Hormoz Movassaghi Abraham Flexner: Lessons from the Past with Applications for the Future by Barbara Barzansky Selected Bibliography Index

About the Author :
BARBARA BARZANSKY is Assistant Director of the Division of Undergraduate Medical Education of the American Medical Association. Her two most recent books are The Medicare System of Prospective Payment (Praeger, 1986) and Innovation Processes in Medical Education (Praeger, 1988). NORMAN GEVITZ is Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine and Medical Education at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He is the author of The D.O.'s: Osteopathic Medicine in America (1982) and Other Healers: Unorthodox Medicine in America (1988).

Review :
?It will be essential reading for anyone interested in American medical education in the twentieth century.?-Journal of General Internal Medicine ?What would Abraham Flexner have thought if he could visit us today? Whatever his response, he would not have been shy about letting us know his opinions. And I believe he would have liked this book and urged those involved in the education of young physicians to read it and to think about the issues raised by the many good essays.?-Bull. Hist. Med. "It will be essential reading for anyone interested in American medical education in the twentieth century."-Journal of General Internal Medicine "What would Abraham Flexner have thought if he could visit us today? Whatever his response, he would not have been shy about letting us know his opinions. And I believe he would have liked this book and urged those involved in the education of young physicians to read it and to think about the issues raised by the many good essays."-Bull. Hist. Med.