Commentary: A Century of Progress in Medical Education: What About the Next 10 Years?

Abraham Flexner's seminal 1910 report, Medical Education in the United States and Canada, is widely credited with instigating important changes in U.S. medical education that have shaped today's system of training physicians. Although Flexner's report publicly articulated recommendations for widespread change, the stage had been set for reform for quite some time. In this commentary, the author examines the landscape of change in medical education at the turn of the 20th century, highlighting the roles of several important contributors, especially the American Medical Association's Committee on Medical Education. Now, 100 years later, academic medicine is poised for further reforms to enable medical schools and teaching hospitals to meet the needs of 21st-century patients and physicians. The author outlines the challenges that must be addressed today and argues that the immediate future-specifically, the next 10 years-must see reforms on the scale of those enacted a century ago in order to achieve a sustainable 21st-century model of medical education.