[The physician's image 2000--requirements of education]

The duties of the "Physician 2000 A.D." will continue to be determined by the needs of curative medicine. Therefore, in spite of many changes in medicine and in society as a whole, care for the individual patient will remain the predominant obligation of the future medical doctor. In order to comply with these obligations, the doctor must command a great power of judgement. To develop this faculty, apart from the acquisition of factual knowledge, empathy and a careful training in the art of critical observation are required. The present organisation of medical education in Germany over-states the acquisition of factual knowledge to some extent and under-rates the importance of empathy and the need for systematic training of the faculty of critical observation. This faculty can only be fully developed if it is trained right from the beginning of a medical student's education. In Germany changes in the regulations governing medical education are long overdue. This is particularly so with respect to the present system of examinations which over-emphasizes the results obtained by answering multiple-choice questions.