Community based clinical education at the University of Birmingham medicalschool

Throughout the United Kingdom, medical schools have begun to make significa nt changes in the content and delivery of their undergraduate curricula in response to a number of social and educational farces. In particular, many schools have begun to focus increasingly on community-based education. This and other changes mirror developments that have taken place in other count ries and in the context of other health care systems, with such forerunners as Harvard, Maastricht, and McMaster having had a fundamental influence. I n this article, the authors describe the forces for curricular change in th e United Kingdom and the specific recommendations for change made by the Ge neral Medical Council. They then discuss in detail the new curriculum at th e University of Birmingham medical school, focusing in particular on a comm unity medicine module, where students spend ten days per academic year lear ning in general medical practices in and around the city of Birmingham.