Discusses what has been learned about building school/community partnerships through the "Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program," a national demonstration program of service-learning in health-professions education. Issues include: the challenge of distinguishing service learning from clinical experience; community attitudes…

The evolution of dental education will not occur until dental schools develop new, creative organizational systems that promote team learning, dialogs, and active faculty leadership, and can document the relevance of institutional mission to taxpayers. Schools that become centers for challenge and discovery will reap the rewards in the current…

Frustrated by the ways in which large managed-care companies are controlling physicians' lives and professional practice, the American Medical Association has voted to form a union to represent physicians and medical residents. Academic physicians have shown less interest than others. (MSE)

A survey of 383 faculty in family medical-residency programs explored perceptions of 60 professional, scheduling, compensation, and regional factors as they related to overall job satisfaction and career plans, and 59 factors related to the initial decision to enter academic family medicine. Results indicate high levels of satisfaction, feeling…

Discusses the provision of continuing professional development (CPD) for health professionals by open and distance learning, focusing on the experience of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). Describes the needs-analysis and pilot evaluation of a primarily text-based resource, reporting high satisfaction with content…

Injuries are predictable and preventable. Prevention may be applied at bedside or in the community. Greater emphasis on injury control would radically alter the health care provider's role, and shift the direction of communication from the physician to the community and to the individual patient. Success with prevention strategies requires new…

Discusses the approaches taken to integrating teaching of basic sciences, clinical sciences, and biopsychosocial issues by eight medical schools participating in a large-scale curriculum development project. All schools promoted study of the humanities and biopsychosocial sciences throughout the curriculum. Attention is given to the problems…

A survey of optometry faculty (n=263) produced a ranking of 77 optometric journals by the frequency respondents reported they read or scanned them. Data on whether the journal is refereed and included on the Medline database are also provided. Findings indicate that journals based on membership in an organization were read or scanned more often…

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy is developing a program to assist in teaching skills instruction for pharmaceutical faculty, help faculty assess their own and peers' teaching, create criteria for determining teaching excellence, and institute a certification system for the designation Master Teacher in Pharmaceutical Education.…

Describes "authentic" problem-based learning (PBL) as a specific teaching method that addresses all the educational objectives possible with PBL: acquisition of a rich body of deeply understood knowledge; development of effective clinical problem-solving skills; and development of an insatiable curiosity and a desire for continuous learning…

Two Dartmouth Medical School (New Hampshire) medical students and their faculty sponsor collaborated to develop an elective course in women's health. Development and implementation of this course and the process by which it was later made part of the required curriculum are described. The success of the effort highlights the crucial role students…

A review of 250 faculty applicant bibliographies in 1995 from eight medical institutions representing six medical specialties investigated the legitimacy of each journal, abstract, and book citation, finding 56 misrepresented citations among 2149 verified articles, distributed among 39 applicants. Most were discrepancies in authorship order, and…

Traces trends in health care, including growth of managed care, increased consumer choice, and changes in administration and funding of academic health centers, and examines the challenges they create for teaching, research, and practice. The Oregon Health Plan and its effect on Oregon Health Sciences University are used for illustration. (MSE)

Two conference presentations are summarized: (1) the Human Genome Project and other genetic discoveries and technologies, that offer improvements in diagnosis, disease prevention, and treatment, and that change the relationship between the academic medical center (AMC) and the pharmaceutical industry; and (2) new emphases on health-care outcomes…

To enhance the information technology literacy of optometry students, the Southern College of Optometry (Tennessee) developed an academic assignment, the Electronic Media Paper, in which second-year students must search two different electronic media for information. Results suggest Internet use for searching may be a useful tool for specific…