Physicians have an ethical responsibility to be functionally literate in health statistics and able to explain information such as a test’s positive predictive value to their patients.
Health reform did not adequately address funding for medical education. Physicians must nevertheless make sure the next generation of doctors receives a high-quality education.
The Botswana-UPenn Partnership possesses some essential attributes of successful international partnerships between academic medical centers and resource-limited countries.
It’s important to offer medical students enough experience with homeless and estranged patient populations to foster their sense of self-efficacy and development of positive attitudes.
Pairing medical students with chronically ill community volunteers for 2 years helps those students gain appreciation for the experience of illness, develop self-reflection and perspective-taking, and learn to communicate with people who may be quite unlike them.