Flexner Report - Consequences of The Report

Consequences of The Report

To a remarkable extent, the following present-day aspects of the medical profession in North America are consequences of the Flexner Report:

• A physician receives at least six, and preferably eight, years of post-secondary formal instruction, nearly always in a university setting;
• Medical training adheres closely to the scientific method and is thoroughly grounded in human physiology and biochemistry. Medical research adheres fully to the protocols of scientific research;
• Average physician quality has increased significantly;
• No medical school can be created without the permission of the state government. Likewise, the size of existing medical schools is subject to state regulation;
• Each state branch of the American Medical Association has oversight over the conventional medical schools located within the state;
• The cost of health care is vastly increased;
• Medicine in the USA and Canada becomes a highly paid and well-respected profession.

The Report is now remembered because it succeeded in creating a single model of medical education, characterized by a philosophy that has largely survived to the present day. "An education in medicine," wrote Flexner, "involves both learning and learning how; the student cannot effectively know, unless he knows how." Although the report is over 100 years old, many of its recommendations are still relevant—particularly those concerning the physician as a "social instrument... whose function is fast becoming social and preventive, rather than individual and curative."