Trends in medical education, an example from a developing country

Iran is presently designing a long-term plan for promoting science, technology and innovation in medicine. An important part of this plan will be a strategy for future planning for medical education considering the important trends affecting the future of health status and medical education in Iran. Here, we sought to clarify such trends in Iran and compare them to trends reported for similar developing countries.

For this qualitative study, the opinions of stakeholders and experts were obtained during three focus group discussions, each lasting four hours and including 10 - 12 participants (132 total man-hours). Data were collected using audiotapes, which were then transcribed. Interim analysis was used for member checking and triangulated data from other recent studies were used to increase the trustworthiness of findings.

Participants identified the following trends as affecting the health system and medical education in Iran: aging of the population; epidemiologic transition; changes in patients' expectations of health services; increases in the popularity of alternative and traditional Iranian medicine; growth in information and communication technologies; changes in the roles of tutors; new emphasis on basic sciences and new and interdisciplinary fields; increases in the emphasis on research and scientific production; loss of educated persons to other countries (e.g., brain drain); and new advances in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.

The circumstances and future of a given community's health should be kept in mind when policymakers plan for changes in medical education. The present study found that trends affecting healthcare and medical education in Iran are similar to those in other countries (even developed countries), suggesting that Iranian policymakers could potentially adopt the policies and strategies that have proven useful in other countries when planning for medical education.