The evolution of medical education and what scares us about it

Abstract

In the early Middle Ages, future doctors were not students; they were apprentices. Teaching consisted of knowledge about herbs and surgical skills, “taught” by older, experienced peers. In monasteries, monks occupied themselves copying classic texts in the scriptorium. These sources, however, were not consulted by apprentices at the time. In convents and nurseries, manuals of medical botany, especially the ones about herbs of their local orchards, were preferable reading. The first record on medical training in literature is attributed to Charaka, a Hindu physician who in 500 BC referred to the distinctive idea of a “master” from whom one could learn the art and medical practice. In the tenth century, in a somewhat pre-academic teaching style developed in Salerno and later in the Alexandrian model, Mentors were respected celebrities, authorized and of great powers. Shortly afterwards, Constantin came to Monte Cassino to translate Arabic medical writings into Greek (internationalizing medicine) and the University of Bologna was founded on September 18, 1088, by and for students.