Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

The 48th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

Model core curriculum in neurology -Current status and problems after its application to the medical education program-

Hidenao Sasaki, M.D.

Department of Neurology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine

Taking the needs of society and progress of medicine into account, The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, reformed the education program and established a "model core curriculum" on Mar 2001, which is introduced to the medial universities since then. Principles of this curriculum consist of selected categories such as lists mandatory for current medicine, set up of optional courses, and voluntary attitude for lifelong studying. To search for The Education Program of Medical University, the subcommittee of the Japanese Society of Neurology sent a Questionnaire on this curriculum to all the Medical Universities of Japan. Answers were obtained from 56 out of 87 Universities. According to them, some agree to the concept and content of the curriculum, while others insist that it is still insufficient to educate update Neurology. The clinical clerkship is important for the students to experience the basic process of neurology. However, the study disclosed that program of clinical clerkship to neurology is different among the institutes. The list of curriculum needs additional neurological disorders and symptoms commonly seen, and that clinical clerkship to neurology must be taken into account as one of compulsory rather than optional course.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 47: 889|892, 2007)
key words: model core curriculum, clinical clerkship, neurology, Questionnaire

(Received: 16-May-07)