Time for another revolution? The Flexner Report in historic context, reflections on our profession.

Full Abstract

The Flexner Report, published in the early 20th century, turned medicine toward a firm scientific foundation and raised standards of education and practice. This corrected many of the profession's deficiencies present at the turn of the century such that medicine became capable of improving the health of humanity. While the focus of education on the sciences suited the needs of the era, the pendulum may have swung too far. As medical schools clamored for funding from wealthy capitalists to achieve new standards, they lost autonomy and adopted unsaid values that were possibly a danger to humanity. This dynamic may have led to the manifestation of medicine's dark history marked by the eugenics movement and the Tuskegee Project. This history demonstrates how medicine can impact humanity detrimentally when the broader scope of the humanities and arts is lost. In spite of this understanding, medical education has been dogmatic and resistant to change. The paper ends with a description of the crisis in modern medicine that is on par with the problems it faced in the early 1900s and concludes that it is indeed time for another revolution.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Mindrum, Michael R (MR);

Affiliation: University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05401, USA. mrmind01(-atsign-)msn.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Editorial; Historical Article

Journal: Coronary artery disease (Coron Artery Dis), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Aug; vol 17 (issue 5) : pp 477-81

Dates: Created 2006/07/17; Completed 2006/11/28; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 16845257, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Capitalism
Education, Medical - ethics; history; standards
Ethics, Medical - education; history
Eugenics - history
Evaluation Studies as Topic
History, 20th Century
Humanism
Humans

Models, Educational
Organizational Culture
Organizational Objectives
Schools, Medical - ethics; history; standards
Social Responsibility
Socioeconomic Factors
Sociology, Medical - history
United States

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

Professional sovereignty revisited: The Network Transformation of American Medicine? 30 Jul 2004
Reprivatizing the public household? Medical care in the context of American public values. 30 Jul 2004
Starr on the corporatization and commodification of health care: the sequel. 30 Jul 2004
The relevance of medical sociology to psychiatry: a historical view. 30 Jan 2005
Medical sociology and public health: interdisciplinary relationships 1950-90. 30 Dec 1990
Social context and historical emergence: the underlying dimension of medical ethics. 30 May 1990
Women's health research: public policy and sociology. 30 Dec 1994
Social medicine and medical sociology in the twentieth century. Introduction. 30 Dec 1996
Social medicine and medical sociology 1950-1970: the testimony of a partisan participant. 30 Dec 1996
The social space of illness. 30 Dec 1996

See 100+ related articles.