Ruralising medical curricula: the importance of context in problem design

The establishment of a new medical school in northern Australia, with its focus on preparing graduates to understand the health care needs of the regional population, has raised an interesting issue in problem design for teaching and assessing in an integrated curriculum. This issue is the extent to which the clinical content of a teaching or assessment problem should consider more subtle contextual issues that help to define the different roles played by rural practitioners, rather than what might be regarded as appropriate for "generic" medical education. This brief paper provides example case studies that highlight the challenge facing curriculum designers developing programs for rural clinical schools.