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Table 1 Chronological evolution of medical education models

From: Medical education and the healthcare system - why does the curriculum need to be reformed?

1910

Abraham Flexner proposed a curriculum with biological model that prevailed during the first half of the 20th century.

Mid-1950s

Hugh Rodman and E. Gurney Clark published “Preventive Medicine for the Doctor in His Community”, which put forward the concept of a natural history of disease, supporting the idea of preventive medicine as an alternative for physicians to understand individual and community health-illness problems.

1974

H.L. Blum and Marc Lalonde introduced the model of health fields, where health-illness process depended on four groups of factors (genetics, behaviour, health services and the environment).

1978

Alma Ata Conference adopted the global strategy of Health for All where the focus of medicine was health promotion and illness prevention, and medical schools initiated processes to adapt their curriculum to these schemes.

1986

The Ottawa Charter, signed at the international conference adopting health promotion as a new approach in healthcare in order to overcome the shortcomings of the previous models.