Epistemology, medical science and problem-based learning: Introducing an epistemological dimension into the medical-school curriculum

Debates about medical education are closely bound to issues of the quality and adequacy of training. At base, such debates are also inevitably about the foundations of medical knowledge and how such knowledge might best be embodied in training. The shift to a problem-based learning (PBL) model in the curriculum of a majority of medical schools, with its emphasis on student-driven, context-dependent learning, has heightened awareness of what is at stake. Concerns about the knowledge implications of this model are forcing the deeper engagement by medical educators with fundamental questions about the nature of the profession of medicine today and what it may become in the future.