Training Internists for the Changing Medical Scene

Excerpt

In a provocative article in this issue, Schroeder and colleagues (1) raise substantive questions about the need for changes in internal medicine training. By their observation, internal medicine departments historically have been the "flagship units" at most medical schools and have been viewed as "the specialty that most effectively integrated the science and art of medicine," thereby attracting the best and brightest of medical students. Because the authors believe internal medicine is in a maelstrom of changing practice patterns, they contend that significant changes in focus must occur within internal medicine training programs if the programs are to remain relevant