Educating physicians for population-based clinical practice

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Abstract
Medical students should be trained to treat populations of patients rather than individual patients to better prepare themselves to practice medicine in the 21st century. Modern American medical education and practice has been based on the fee-for-service, one-to-one physician-patient relationship. The obligations of the modern physician should be expanded to include a set of physician-population obligations such as those that occur in the prepaid group practice setting. Medical students should be trained to achieve the highest quality of medical care for the lowest cost. They should receive training in the'population sciences'to learn the epidemiologic basis of disease prevention and treatment. They should be trained to interact with high-risk members of the population who are reluctant to come into the office for treatment. Community-oriented medical insurance and practice has already changed the atmosphere in which most physicians practice.

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