Changing emphases in public health and medical education in health care reform

Globalisation of economies, diseases and disasters with poverty, emerging infectious diseases, ageing and chronic conditions, violence and terrorism has begun to change the face of public health and medical education. Escalating costs of care and increasing poverty have brought urgency to professional training to improve efficiency, cut costs and maintain gains in life expectancy and morbidity reduction. Technology, genetics research and designer drugs have dramatically changed medical practice. Creatively, educational institutions have adopted the use of: (1) New educational and communication technologies: internet and health informatics; (2) Problem based learning approaches; Integrated Practice and Theory Curricula; Research and Problem Solving methodologies and (3) Partnership and networking of institutions to synergise new trends (e.g. core competencies). Less desirably, changes are inadequate in key areas, e.g., Health Economics, Poverty and Health Development, Disaster Management & Bioterrorism and Ethics. Institutions have begun to adjust and develop new programs of study to meet challenges of emerging diseases, design methodologies to better understand complex social and economic determinants of disease, assess the effects of violence and address cost containment strategies in health. Besides redesigning instruction, professional schools need to conduct research to assess the impact of health reform. Such studies will serve as sentinels for the public's health, and provide key indicators for improvements in training, service provision and policy.