[Historical development, current status and future perspectives of medical education in Chile]

This paper is a critical review in three parts. The first part reviews the past development of medical education in Chile in five stages (1833-1883, 1883-1933, 1933-1968, 1968-1973, and from 1973 to the present), in which the salient features and events are cited. The second part describes the present status of the five medical education programs; undergraduate medical training, graduate medical training, research, advanced training of teaching personnel, and planning and administration. The third part considers the prospects of medical education in each of those five programs. In this part the author presents his conclusions, for example, that it is necessary to review the number of vacancies for admission to the schools of medicine and to measure the academic and vocational aptitude of applicants; that the basic objectives of graduate training should be studied and formulated; that new course subjects should be added in response to the demands that will confront graduates in the future; that the objectives in areas of specialization should be revised; that it is urgent to assess the relationship of research to medical instruction; that pedagogical aspects should be incorporated into the advanced technical training of professionals, and, lastly, that the process of university planning in Chile needs to be refined.