Essential aspects of the reorganization of medical education at the University of Chile School of Medicine

The Medical School of the University of Chile is enforcing deep transformations in its curricular setting, to cope with the physician model of the next century. It is following the universal trends that look for new objectives, methodologies, scenarios and resources in medical teaching. These goals should be accomplished very soon, allowing the School to be in the lead of curricular transformations. These changes have overflowed the limits of curricular renovation and a process of institutional reorganisation is aiming to increase its efficacy and yield. The bases of this reorganisation are the search for excellency, the renovation of academic staff with the incorporation of better trained professionals, the integration of basic and clinical disciplines in coherent programmatic proposals and the configuration of structures to organise and articulate medical knowledge. Optimisation of education has also extra-institutional implications with the establishment of accreditation systems for professionals and educational institutions. These systems are mandatory world wide and guarantee the capability of educational institutions and their products. The School of Medicine is committed in this achievement along with the Association of Medical Schools and The Superior Education Council.