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Abstract
The mechanistic concept of man about himself and his environment was supported by discoveries in the fields of science and technology leading to better control of natural events. Medical science developed along these lines, and the curricula of medical education reflected the dominance of hospital medicine, parasitology, bacteriology and later chemotherapy.
The growing influence of sociology and psychology stimulated educational research and development, principles and methods of teaching as well as the evaluation of staff and students.
The recent challenge to services based on hospital science has been encouraged by a more critical approach to the still unmet health needs of society, by economical considerations and by morbidity changes in the industrialized nations. Community or primary health care begins to see man and his suffering in a different context. Medical education is responding to this challenge but must remain flexible to face further adaptations so as to respond to a changing world. Although medical education could prepare students for their future tasks in a world suffering from infectious and parasitic diseases, illnesses determined by man's behaviour in his increasingly urban and industrialized environment are far more difficult to control.
As there is no ultimate answer to, and guarantee for, health, nor a reliable prediction of human disorders both psychic and somatic, medical education will have to accept professional fallibility in spite of all efforts to produce expert physicians. To strike a balance in each situation might be a demand that exceeds present educational know‐how, but there is always a future to look forward to.