Basic Orientation and Education of the Medical Student

In the field of medical education there appears to be abundant evidence of growing dissatisfaction with existing programs and of attempts to study current practices critically in order to determine whether changes are necessary and, if so, what changes should take place. There are available to the reader a considerable number of historical reviews, critiques of current programs and suggestions for the future. In many one finds recurrent references to the need for medical students to obtain a broader concept of human biology so that they may apply intelligently and effectively the knowledge accumulated and the skills acquired during their training to the promotion of health, to the prevention of disease and to the study and care of the sick. There is recorded, too, in these reports the need for a scheme of education which would lead to an understanding not only of the disease process but of the total