Innovative Medical Schools Achieve Curriculum Reform
Expansion of policy analysis of medical education reform
In 1993, Harvard University School of Public Health produced a report on innovations in medical education at American and Canadian medical schools.
The project was part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) national program Preparing Physicians for the Future: A Program in Medical Education.
Key Findings
The investigators examined eight American and two Canadian medical schools that had undertaken serious efforts to design and implement significant reform before 1990, and reported the following findings to RWJF:
- Smaller schools were more likely to reform their medical training programs than were larger schools.
- Bigger schools are less affected by turbulence in their external environments than smaller schools.
- Smaller schools may also be less able to implement and institutionalize reforms because of resistance from faculty and administration.
- Public schools can innovate as boldly as private schools.
- Younger schools were the broader-scope innovators.