2003 Volume 34 Issue 2 Pages 89-95
Medical education in Japan has undergone dramatic changes, but nothing less than a paradigm change is required for the educational model for social medicine. In the 23 years since 1978, we have developed a community-based public health education program. The curriculum consists of a core of family health practice, student lectures, systematic teachers' lectures, participatory research on community health, and health policy-making. The community-based educational model was effective in developing students' active problem-based learning, abilities in health communication, and understanding of community needs as a biologic-psychologic-cultural-geographic complex; the empowerment of students and the community; and a comprehensive approach to the community care management which integrates health promotion and social welfare. We evaluated the community-based curriculum design, which exposes students to a wide variety of medical, social, and psychological problems in a community as a useful public health educational strategy.
