Extramural training of medical students: lessons from Southeast Asia

Several medical schools in Southeast Asia have identified deficiencies in their undergraduate medical education that result in inappropriate training of students for the health-care problems that exist in their respective countries. Curriculum changes have been made that take students out of the laboratory and the subspecialty-oriented university hospital and place them in extramural programs in the community. Both the deficiencies identified and the solutions developed merit study by North American medical educators, especially those teaching primary care in family practice.