In the fall of 2008, MEDICC Review published a roundtable discussion with six of eight deans representing schools of health sciences with a strong social accountability mandate, who had just founded a new collaborative: the Training for Health Equity Network (THEnet). The topic was the changing paradigm of medical education. MEDICC Review returns to hear their perspectives on how their schools contribute to universal coverage, the theme of this issue.
In 2008, the Global Health Education Consortium (GHEC) created the Training for Health Equity Network (THEnet), bringing together schools in different parts of the world that share a core mission: to recruit students from, and produce physicians for, underserved communities. In determining the competencies such physicians will need, these schools also share an approach to medical education that looks beyond the traditional curriculum and seeks the involvement of communities and other stakeholders. Their input helps define the knowledge, skills, and attitudes around which new curriculum is built, and helps guide the selection of educational methodologies, taking into account context and resource constraints.
The nascent THEnet now has a nucleus of eight member schools, each dedicated to fulfilling a strong social accountability mandate. The network is designed to assist them by providing a collaborative platform conducive to experimentation; dialogue; and creation and sharing of tools, experiences and evidence. It will also support systematic outcome evaluations, innovation, and joint research to strengthen the knowledge base on successful strategies for increasing the number and quality of doctors in neglected communities. By bringing these schools together, developing synergy among them and publishing their results, THEnet hopes to more broadly promote the transformation of medical education and medical practice into more socially accountable endeavors that improve health system equity and performance.
Leaders from six of these innovative medical schools spoke with the Guest Editors of this issue of MEDICC Review, a conversation we bring you below. They are: Dr Juan Carrizo, Rector of the Latin American Medical School (ELAM), Cuba; Dr Fortunato L. Cristobal, founding Dean of the School of Medicine at Ateneo de Zamboanga University (AZU), the Philippines; Dr Pedro D�az, member of the National Academic Coordinating Committee of the National Training Program for Comprehensive Community Physicians (NTPCCP), Venezuela; Dr Richard Murray, Dean and Head of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University (JCU), Australia; Dr Roger Strasser, founding Dean of Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), Canada; and Dr Paul Worley, Dean of Flinders University School of Medicine (FUSM), Australia.
The following erratum has been corrected in all versions of this article.
The correct website for the Ateneo de Zamboanga University School of Medicine in the Philippines is: http://som.adzu.edu.ph
