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.
A system of tutorials preparing students for the Primary F.F.A.R.A.C.S. examination is described. It is suggested that this system would be suitable for teaching students in a peripheral training hospital.
Behavioural self-analysis projects were introduced into the second year medical curriculum in behavioural sciences at the University of Malaya. Students performance and evaluation of the experience were compared with those of American medical students. It was concluded that receptivity of medical students to principles of behaviour therapy is relatively similar in the two societies.
The code of ethics derived from the Hippocratic Oath needs to be supplemented by a formal curriculum in Medical Ethics and Medical Humanities in our Medical schools. The need and justification for it, a review of the medical ethics curricula in American. European. British and Australian Universities, together with an outline of the proposed curriculum is described.
This paper describes the analysis of the written professional examinations administered at the Medical School, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), during the academic year 1979-80. It is a product of a collaborative activity involving medical teachers and two short-term consultants of the World Health Organization. The examination papers were analysed in order to identify content areas disproportionately emphasized in the examinations; to determine the quality and appropriateness of the examination items used; and to review the extent of continuity and integration across departments and courses. This paper is intended to introduce an approach to curriculum review which is based on analysis of the examination system. The procedures and sample outcomes are described and the implications for curriculum development and evaluation are discussed.