Publisher's Synopsis
The ACME-TRI -- Assessing Change in Medical Education-The Road to Implementation -- project was conducted to determine how medical schools were and were not responding to repeated calls for change during the 1980s in the ways that medical students are educated. As the title of the project suggests, the report -- assessing change -- was the first step. The next steps -- implementing change -- in the education of medical students were under way even as the report was being written. This special issue provides evidence of some of the activities already in place on the road to implementation.
The articles presented illustrate some of the changes in medical education programs. They highlight an approach to managing the change process in a medical school and managing change for medical students encountering a new approach to teaching; a variety of approaches to student-centered learning and ambulatory-based educational experiences; new approaches to assessing students' clinical and cognitive skills; innovative applications of computers to medical student education; and, perhaps most important, approaches being developed at medical schools that acknowledge the importance of teaching and the faculty members' contributions to medical student education.
The articles demonstrate two important points. First, there is work under way and in place by dedicated faculty at many medical schools across the nation to improve the educational program. Second, the schools in which work has been done represent institutions that have succeeded in creating environments in which education is a high priority. The result has been the advancement of educational reform.
