title: [Medical education at the dawn of the 21st century: a challenge for the French Units of Education and Investigation].
abstract: In the incoming 21st century, traditional medical schools are facing major challenges, if medical education wants to sustain educating physicians capable of answering continuous increasing health care needs of populations they should serve. Institutions should be willing to accept the necessity to modify instructional processes to favor student autonomy and to manage knowledge explosion. A new approach should guide schools in determining undergraduate program content and objectives, in favoring a learning process centered on student and oriented towards community needs, as well as in investing into faculty development in pedagogy. This approach triggers medical schools to establish with their students a new social contract intended to educate them as responsible and autonomous future medical citizens.
authors.affiliation: Université de Sherbrooke, Fleurimont, Quebec, Canada. desmarchais@mcc.ca
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Des Marchais
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000639:trends*; D005544:Forecasting; D005602:France; D006801:Humans