Some Recent Developments and Future Challenges in Medical Education

Medical education is, for the last two decades, undergoing a steady process of restructuring to become more student-centered rather than tutor-centered system/computer aided learning. Such a move started in the 1970s, as a result of introducing problem-based learning (PBL) as a student-centered educational strategy. Considerable curricular changes were made by many medical institutes to implement PBL. This approach, however, necessitated the training of tutors and the creation of a learning environment, which is not adequately attained yet. The advancing information technology (IT) is anticipated to provide the necessary tools to achieve that objective. The students may be granted the opportunity to have more freedom in selecting their learning material and to enjoy a degree of distance-learning. The consequence of applying IT in medical institutes would, probably, enforce the trend towards moving to a student-centered learning environment, inducing hesitant tutors to become more compliant with the change. The future medical curriculum is anticipated to be more student-centered, more modular, more integrated, more PBL-oriented and more inter-institutionalized, with less memorizing and with more learning about learning. In addition, medical education as a whole at least in part, would be, performed at distance. The future medical tutor may have to be more PBL-oriented, more qualified in learning strategies, competent in small group (probably single-student) learning, more of a 'mentor' or a 'facilitator' than of a 'teacher', able to train students at higher cognitive levels rather than being an 'authority' in its field, fluent in IT, and interactive with learning via other learning-collaborating institutions.