This week in Washington, DC the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association are hosting a conference on the state of medical education. Coming 100 years after the publication of the Flexner Report, the conference also coincides with several proposals to reform how medical faculty teach.
Several panelists have critiqued the standard model of medical education, which relies on prolonged exposure to a predetermined content. They favor quality over quantity and more flexible models of learning. Speakers have also suggested placing more emphasis on outcomes. This would require more rigorous assessment of teaching and careful attention to what kinds of jobs graduates take.
So far the talk about reform has stayed mostly at the level of talk. The focus on flexibility and quality is not controversial, but implementing them may be. As long as faculty get rewarded for teaching the way they always have, little change will reach medical students.