The Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st century has issued a major report calling for new ways to educate a new generation of health care professionals in a rapidly changing world.
It’s not a moment too soon for this mission. The commission, including an interdisciplinary group of 20 commissioners from around the world, has issued a series of recommendations to transform health profession education in all countries, rich and poor alike for the 21st century.
As a member of the commission and co-author of the report, it’s clear to me and everyone involved in this project that today’s health professionals are being challenged by new infectious, environmental and behavioral threats superimposed upon rapid epidemiologic and demographic transitions. To say that health systems are struggling to deal with these issues is an understatement.
The commission is calling for a new agenda to develop a common approach in post-secondary education that goes well beyond the silos of existing structures. Just as reforms in the 20th century rode to prominence on a wave of germ theory, producing the Flexner, Welch-Rose, and Goldmark reports to transform medicine, public health, and nursing, today’s education of health professionals must be shaped by a new age of transformative and independent educational approaches that include both individual and population-based approaches.
It’s time to seize the moment. Bring the health professional education system into the 21st century around the world, and educate professionals who are accountable to a social mission of just and equitable healthcare, who use global knowledge and adapt it in local situations.
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