Medical Education Overseas

Abstract

The Medical and Technical Education Study Group of the International Co-operation Year held a symposium on " Methods of Teaching Large Numbers of Medical Personnel in Developing Countries " at the Ciba Foundation on 30 November, under the co-chairmanship of Dr. J. R. Ellis (London Hospital) and Professor K. R. Hill (Royal Free Hospital). The symposium was opened by Sir Arthur Porritt, who gave an account of the recent Commonwealth Medical Conference at Edin burgh. He outlined the proposed establish ment of supernumerary appointments in this country, at both university and regional hos pitals, to enable doctors to visit developing countries more easily on secondment, and stressed the importance of the general duty officer who was trained in environmental, preventive, and social medicine. Many developing countries rejected the concept of the " medical assistant," and demanded fully trained doctors. Dr. S. Gau vain (London) discussed the results of a small survey carried out with postgraduate students on the relative merits of the didactic lecture and the seminar. The former had been found to be the more popu lar with students, but there seemed to be little difference in the examination results achieved by either method.