Efforts to scale up medical education in developing countries must increase, study says

In a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine, "Francesca Celletti from the WHO, Geneva, Switzerland, and colleagues argue that a transformation in the scale-up of medical education in low- and middle-income countries is needed," according to a PLoS press release (10/18).  The authors write in the study, "In order to transform population health outcomes, the current efforts to scale up medical education must increase not only the quantity, but also the quality and the relevance of the providers of the future. A transformative approach to medical education is needed -- one that is defined by a commitment to social responsibility and insists on inter-sectoral engagement to determine how students are recruited, educated, and deployed as doctors" (Celletti et al., 10/18).