Implementing the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicineʼs recommendations into the undergraduate medical school curriculum

Abstract

In 1989, an expert panel appointed by the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine proposed minimum curricular content requirements for health promotion-disease prevention, including recommendations for timing, duration, and course sequencing during medical school. Making clinical preventive medicine an integral part of a primary care rotation is a central feature of the proposal. The panel presents recommendations for using the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, which assesses the effectiveness of 169 types of prevention interventions, in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. Recommendations for incorporating the guide into the undergraduate medical school curriculum are outlined. The recommendations include options for using the guide as part of a curriculum in quantitative skills, in clinical preventive medicine, in a primary care rotation, as a health services and community dimension curriculum, and as part of continuing self-education. Recognizing that teaching methods and curriculum structures are varied in preventive medicine, the panel designed the recommendations to be adaptable to all medical schools' programs. The recommendations are aimed at achieving the goal of making preventive medicine an integral part of the education, training, and practice of physicians.