Medical education in the light of the World Health Organization Health for All strategy and the European Union

Most governments and health professionals clearly recognize that the education of professionals must be adapted to practice in order to meet the needs of the population and of health systems. The role of medical schools, in a world where specialization is becoming a requirement to practice and is highly regulated, needs to be redefined. Medical schools need to transform their specialist training into a community-oriented, generalist education. In this light, the article analyses the European Union directives on medical education, and the recommendations of the World Health Organization (to meet the challenges of the Health for All Policy) and the World Federation for Medical Education. All are designed to reorient medical education to meet the health needs of the population, to reduce health costs, to ensure quality and to permit the free movement of sufficiently qualified health professionals.