Strategies in the education of humane physicians

Various reforms to change the character of medical education have been implemented since the 1960s at American medical schools. The public demand for a more "humane" physician resulted in the incorporation of new sciences in the medical curriculum--behavioral sciences in the 1960s and 1970s and humanities in the 1980s. It is argued that broader structural changes in the American health care system underlie the need for these educational reforms, which in practice allow the medical profession to maintain its autonomy and control over its work. For comparison the curricular innovations in medical education in the Nordic countries are examined.