British Journal of Rheumatology 1996;35:269-274 EDUCATION RHEUMATOLOGY AND MEDICAL EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN

Rheumatology has been relatively under-represented in UK medical school curricula to date. The incidence of rheumatic disease in the community is not reflected by the amount of time spent on it in undergraduate medicine. In addition, the emphasis in medical colleges is on the less common conditions like systemic lupus erythematosus and vasculitis, rather than the commoner treatment of sore shoulders and backs. This article reviews the current changes in the philosophy of medical education in the UK and the response of the General Medical Council of Great Britain towards updating curricula. It explains some of the new teaching and assessment methods being increasingly used in today's medical colleges, and encourages rheumatologists to become actively involved in teaching and curricular reform. KEY WORDS: Rheumatology, Medical education, Assessment, Clinical skills. RHEUMATOLOGISTS appreciate that musculoskcletal problems are a very common cause of pain and disability, both in hospital [1] and within the community [2, 3]. However, the extent of this disability is not reflected in the amount of experience students and trainee general practitioners (GPs) obtain with rheumatology and related subjects in medical schoo