Medicine's Debt to Abraham Flexner

Abraham Flexner: A Man, Teacher, and Reformer

“…Prior to the "Flexner Report", for profit diploma mill medical schools, "essentially money making in spirit and object", had "educational quacks" graduating anyone "who had settled his tuition" [5,12].…”

Flexner’s Words

“…Within months of Abraham Flexner's report Medical Education in the United States and Canada, almost half of the medical schools in North America closed [13]. Prior to Flexner's inspections, medical schools had no prerequisite education, were generally for profit, had no required connection to universities, and usually included no hospital or lab work [13]. Into this climate of scholastic complacency and profiteering entered Flexner: "impatient, aggressively outspoken, and bitterly critical of colleagues" [1].…”

“…Third, unbiased research and laboratory investigation should be conducted in the schools and inform the education of students 1 . Prior to the report, for profit diploma mill medical schools, "essentially money making in spirit and object," had "educational quacks" graduating anyone "who had settled his tuition" 13 . Some criticize Flexner's emphasis on research, blaming him for the "publish or perish" contemporary environment in medical schools 14 .…”