Education and general medical care

Medical education needs to take into account the features of general medical care. Educators should stress the physician's capacity to come to appropriate decisions in the use of diagnostic tests and in referral and should attempt to inculcate the habit of thoroughness. The economics of present-day medical education may undermine its capacity to educate properly for general medical care. Adequate teaching of the discriminating use of diagnostic and therapeutic methods could be promoted directly through research in medical practice. Such research can be carried out despite economic constraints on research in medical schools if the right thinking is applied to important problems.