Mission of academic societies for health profession education

Abstract

Many innovations have been made in the field of medical education in the past decades in Japan, however, until now it has been tempted to accept and respond to the international trends. We have to make it into the era of deepening and internalizing these trends. Updating the educational skills of medical teachers has so far largely depended on individual efforts. It is necessary to build a system to provide the basics of education and to support diverse careers of health professionals as educators. Regarding educational research, an excess of import has continued. We should support young researchers and disseminate the research outcomes to the world. Research questions such as “how to learn” and “how to teach” will be a start of educational research, and these will be accumulated and contribute to the advancement of health profession education. Medical education and pharmacy education have a “common language and culture”. Under the philosophy “all health professionals are educators”, I hope, both academic societies will act closely in cooperation.