Community-oriented medical education: comparison of tracks in Mexico and New Mexico

Most major innovations in medical education have occurred in a small number of new schools. Attempts to create change in traditional schools are far more complex. Relevant models for such change are few and there is an urgent need for institutions pioneering such changes to learn from each other's experiences. Two conventional medical schools described in this paper have attempted to create community-oriented institutional change by establishing experimental undergraduate curricular tracks. One is in a developing country, Mexico, the other in a technically developed country, the United States. These new tracks in medical education evolved independently of one another, yet they have many similarities and have experienced common problems. A formal exchange between the two schools has led to new insights in medical education and improvements to both programmes. Exchange agreements like the one reported here would be valuable for other medical schools in both developing and technically developed countries.