Roles of various organizations in internal medicine curriculum reform.

Abstract

The curriculum in internal medicine for medical students and residents is being driven increasingly by the service demands of our teaching hospitals and is badly in need of fundamental reform. In reasserting the primacy of education as the driving force for the curriculum, numerous tasks must be done to achieve successful reform. These tasks are well within the scope of the several organizations that command leadership positions in the discipline of internal medicine and that represent the spectrum of activities required to discharge the specialty's public responsibility. These organizations include the Association of Professors of Medicine (APM), the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM), the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), The Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine (RRC-IM), the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American College of Physicians (ACP), the American Society of Internal Medicine (ASIM), and the Federated Council of Internal Medicine (FCIM). The challenge posed by the need for curriculum reform is to rouse these organizations to concerted action. Each of the seven organizations must assume a specific role and a unique set of responsibilities in the epic reforms envisioned.