FLEXNERIAN REVOLUTION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON MEDICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

The evolution of medical education in America has a key moment in history that was defined after the report of the Schools of Medicine of the United States and Canada conducted by Abraham Flexner in 1910, this study divided the medical education in a pre-flexnerian and post-flexnerian era. The Flexner study characterized the medical education system in the United States as a deficient system, lacking regulation and without established standards. Medicine, taught and exercised without scientific principles repre- sented an important problem of public health and safety. Given this scenario, the Ameri- can Medical Association decides to promote an evaluation of most medical schools in order to propose changes in the medical education system. Flexner, an educational theorist, performed the analysis of curricu- lum, evaluation and practices exercised in 155 educational centers. The proposal known as the Flexnerian Revolution shakes the medical education system that prevailed in North America in 1910. Emphasizing the lack of standardization, integration, research and the deficiency of medical training with a professional identity, Flexner proposed changes that eventually led the medical teaching in North America. The present is a bibliographic revision using manual sear- ches on PubMed and Google Scholar that conducted to a brief presentation of historical aspects of medical education in North America, its influence in Latin America and the present curricular integration prevalence among many medical schools.