gms | German Medical Science

A common theme of the many reforms of medical curricula undertaken in the last 15 years has been to widen the scope of curricular outcomes. The traditional approach required that students acquire a massive amount of knowledge during their studies but demanded little else from them. The current view on required curricular outcomes is stated for instance in the British General Medical Council document Tomorrow’s doctors. Students must not only learn essential knowledge, but also essential skills including communication skills. And they must develop attitudes and behaviour, suitable for a doctor, by the time they graduate [Ref. 1]. These are goals that are easy to formulate but difficult to implement. The 2008 instalment of the Graz conference on medical education, held September 18-20 once again in Graz, highlighted some important issues:

Skills:

• Training in research methodologies as part of medical education (van Schravendijk, Brussels)
• Doctor-patient-communication (Kiessling, Basel)
• Attitudes:
• Why does Gender have a role in Medicine (Muhr, Uppsala)
• Bioethics in the medical curriculum (interdisciplinary round-table discussion)

These topics were not only covered in lectures, but also extended in workshops, a poster party and a lot of networking time by about 60 participants from 7 countries.

In addition the program included a presentation and a workshop on EU-TEMPUS projects (De Lepeleer and Govaert, Gent; Cavaljuga, Sarajevo), as well as an analysis of the factors that govern a students chance to succeed at the Medical University of Vienna (Mitterauer et al., Vienna). All this was facilitated by the wonderful hospitality extended to us by our hosts from the Medical University of Graz. The detailed program as well as the presentations given can be found at the conference web site: http://grazconference.oeghd.at.