As educators, we guide our learners during their medical studies, supporting them to become good doctors. What it means to be a good doctor is not easily defined, although most educators hope their students will become compassionate providers of high quality care. Education of good doctors has always been a complex task, and necessary shifts to education and care during the COVID pandemic accentuated some challenges in realising our goals.

Few of the problems we face are new; rather, most can be seen as ongoing tensions that need to be managed rather than solved. For example, how patient care is balanced with learner needs or ways technologies are used wisely. However, attempts to reform medical education have too often ignored the past, leading to a repetitive revisiting of similar concerns.

This seminar will showcase how attention to history — especially when combined with theoretical insights from education science — provides fresh insights into current problems to better support the training of good doctors for future generations.

All HKU staff and students are welcome. For enquiries, please contact us at imhse@hku.hk.

Professor Cynthia Whitehead
Professor
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

Poster