title: What is a good doctor? The impact of 'fruitful irrelevance' in medical education.
abstract: Medicine is a science and evidence-based profession. Therefore, medical education and training should offer optimal conditions to help students to become a medical expert. However, in order to become a 'good doctor' the development of additional skills should also be stimulated. By including subjects like philosophy of science, medical history and sociology, the link between literature and medicine, and other 'unrelated and irrelevant' academic subjects, medical education programmes can stimulate that future doctors will broaden their mind. This will contribute to their professional performance.
authors.affiliation: University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan C C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Borleffs
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009426:Netherlands; D010820:Physicians / Q000592:standards*; D024382:Professional Role