Medical education in the former Soviet Union

After World War I, medical education in the Soviet Union and medical education in the United States headed in strikingly divergent directions. In keeping with the recommendations of the Flexner report, medical education in the United States became a university-based academic discipline based in the natural sciences. In contrast, the Soviet Union created a series of free-standing medical institutes whose admission, curricular, and pedagogic policies were centrally controlled in strict conformity with political doctrine. Notable features of the Soviet system were narrowly defined professional education; early specialization, beginning in the first year of medical school; and emphasis on empirical clinical training at the expense of scientifically based education. Despite the historical differences between Soviet and American medical education, there are several issues that face present-day medical educators in both the United States and the Soviet successor states. These include an overabundance of specialists, the need to provide equitable professional opportunities for physicians of both sexes, and the need to provide access to medical education for qualified candidates from underrepresented social or ethnic groups or from geographically remote regions.