Abraham Flexner

Abraham Flexner (1866–1959) was an American educator whose 1910 report prompted sweeping reforms in medical education in the United States and Canada.

Flexner Report: A 1910 study of medical education in the United States and Canada that urged stronger scientific standards and clinical training. Flexner’s report became the main instrument through which his recommendations changed medical education.
Biomedical science: Scientific research on the biological processes relevant to health and disease. Flexner argued that medical training should rest on rigorous instruction in basic sciences.
The American College: Abraham Flexner’s 1908 book criticizing the organization and teaching of American higher education. This earlier study helped establish the educational reform approach he later applied to medical schools.
Eclectic medicine: A nineteenth-century American medical system that emphasized botanical remedies and drew on multiple healing traditions. Its schools belonged to the diverse forms of medical education that Flexner’s standards marginalized.
Henry Pritchett: An American astronomer and educator who led the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Pritchett commissioned the investigation that Flexner conducted and authored.
Medical education in the United States: The system of institutions and training through which physicians in the United States learn medicine. Flexner’s recommendations helped establish its modern emphasis on university science and clinical instruction.
Clinical clerkship: A supervised period of medical training in which students care for patients in clinical settings. He promoted learning medicine through structured work with patients, not classroom lectures alone.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: An independent organization founded in 1905 to improve teaching and educational institutions. The foundation commissioned Flexner to investigate medical education in North America.
Homeopathy: A system of alternative medicine based on the principle that substances causing symptoms can treat similar symptoms. Homeopathic colleges were among the institutions whose scientific claims Flexner challenged.
William H. Welch: An American physician and medical educator who helped establish Johns Hopkins as a center of biomedical research. Welch’s institutional model strongly informed the reforms Flexner promoted.

Linked from 6 pages