Moving Toward a Third Generation of Medical Education

The number of health professions education programs continues to increase across the United States and globally, but unequal access to healthcare remains a pressing issue. Health professions education has shifted from a first-generation approach, centered on didactic teaching, to a second-generation approach, centered on problem-based learning. In a Lancet paper, Frenk and colleagues argued for the incorporation of a transformative paradigm within health professions education facilitating the move towards the third generation of health professions education. Drawing on Mezirow and Freire, they argued for the incorporation of a transformative paradigm to improve health professions education by better aligning medical education and population needs. This chapter examines how a transformative approach to health professions education could be implemented and where it would be most effective. It also looks at how a transformative paradigm within health professions education could provide an additional lens to understand health disparities, structural inequity, and diversity.