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Review
. 2022 Oct 29;400(10362):1539-1556.
doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02092-X.

Challenges and opportunities for educating health professionals after the COVID-19 pandemic

Julio Frenk  1 , Lincoln C Chen  2 , Latha Chandran  3 , Elizabeth O H Groff  4 , Roderick King  5 , Afaf Meleis  6 , Harvey V Fineberg  7
Affiliations
Review

Challenges and opportunities for educating health professionals after the COVID-19 pandemic

Julio Frenk et al. Lancet. .

Abstract

The education of health professionals substantially changed before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2010 Lancet Commission examined the 100-year history of health-professional education, beginning with the 1910 Flexner report. Since the publication of the Lancet Commission, several transformative developments have happened, including in competency-based education, interprofessional education, and the large-scale application of information technology to education. Although the COVID-19 pandemic did not initiate these developments, it increased their implementation, and they are likely to have a long-term effect on health-professional education. They converge with other societal changes, such as globalisation of health care and increasing concerns of health disparities across the world, that were exacerbated by the pandemic. In this Health Policy, we list institutional and instructional reforms to assess what has happened to health-professional education since the publication of the Lancet Commission and how the COVID-19 pandemic altered the education process.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests We declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
An adaptive response to disruption of the education of health professionals
Figure 2
Figure 2
Framework of health-care professional competencies
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Plugging the medical brain drain.
    Kamarulzaman A, Ramnarayan K, Mocumbi AO. Kamarulzaman A, et al. Lancet. 2022 Oct 29;400(10362):1492-1494. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02087-6. Lancet. 2022. PMID: 36522198 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
  • Challenges and opportunities in interprofessional education and practice.
    Samarasekera DD, Nyoni CN, Amaral E, Grant J. Samarasekera DD, et al. Lancet. 2022 Oct 29;400(10362):1495-1497. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02086-4. Lancet. 2022. PMID: 36522199 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
  • Medical education reforms in China.
    Qiao J, Wang Y, Kong F, Fu Y. Qiao J, et al. Lancet. 2023 Jan 14;401(10371):103-104. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02629-0. Lancet. 2023. PMID: 36641195 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

References

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    1. Flexner A. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; New York City, NY: 1910. Medical education in the United States and Canada. From the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, bulletin number four, 1910. - PMC - PubMed
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