Co-organised symposium of AMSE and AMEE at the AMEE 2017 conference in Helsinki

The Association of Medical Schools in Europe (AMSE) and the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) held a joint symposium at the annual 2017 AMEE conference in Helsinki. The key theme was the rapidly changing health care delivery and how medical schools can respond to ensure graduates are fit for the future.

Trudie Roberts (President AMEE) and Peter Dieter (President AMSE) co-chaired the well-attended symposium. A number of international speakers introduced their perspective on key aspects of the ongoing and future change in health care delivery and the upcoming challenges for medical schools. Val Wass, UK, addressed the critical question of what skills future doctors will need in order to face the cumulative complexities of co-morbidity, aging, global migration, climate change and population alongside individual health. Wendy Reid, UK, asked how the UK is addressing the gap between the need of medical graduates to work in primary care and the low number currently entering into general practice. Harm Peters, Germany, reported on the resistance to change across Europe from traditional secondary care specialty based “siloed” teaching to a more integrated structure which embraces a patient’s actual journey through modern health care. Gary Rogers, Australia, focused on the question of how medical schools can ensure that graduates are sufficiently prepared for their work in the future. How medical schools can tackle inequities in health care and produce graduates to serve deprived urban or rural communities was a further important question. Finally, Rille Pihlak, junior doctor representative in the AMEE Executive Committee, introduced the perspective of junior doctors and how they see the future, the skills of future doctors and the role of technology in future medical education.