Knowra Flexner Report Flexner Report A 1910 Carnegie Foundation report by Abraham Flexner that surveyed medical schools in the United States and Canada. Its findings helped drive a shift toward science-based medical education and stricter school standards.
Medical education in the United States : The system of institutions, curricula, clinical training, and standards that prepares physicians in the United States. The report became a landmark in the system’s shift toward university-based, laboratory-supported training.
Abraham Flexner : An American educator whose 1910 report on medical schools influenced medical education reform. He conducted the survey and authored the report that bears his name.
Laboratory medicine : The use of laboratory methods and tests to investigate disease and support diagnosis. The report treated laboratory science as a foundation of modern medical instruction.
Homeopathy : A system of alternative medicine based on highly diluted substances and the principle of treating like with like. The report criticized schools devoted to homeopathy and other systems outside its preferred scientific curriculum.
Medical school closures in the United States : The shutdown of U.S. medical schools, especially during early twentieth-century reforms and consolidation. Schools that failed the report’s standards closed, sharply reducing the number of medical schools.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching : A philanthropic organization founded in 1905 to promote teaching and educational research. It commissioned and published Flexner’s investigation of North American medical schools.
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine : A Baltimore medical school founded in 1893 and organized around university study, laboratory science, and clinical training. Flexner presented its integrated academic and clinical model as an exemplar for reform.
Eclectic medicine : A nineteenth-century U.S. medical movement that selected and adapted remedies, especially botanical ones. Its schools represented a distinct tradition that the report’s standards helped marginalize.
Historically Black medical schools : U.S. medical schools founded to educate Black students, many of whom faced exclusion from white institutions. Closures following the report left few institutions training Black physicians, including Howard and Meharry.
Council on Medical Education : An American Medical Association body established to assess and improve medical education. Its school classifications and data helped shape the investigation’s scope and reform agenda.
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