a comparative study of community medicine and public health curriculum at medical schools in iran and north america

Background: community medicine and public health are the core subjects in medicaleducation. one of the main competencies of general physicians in the nationalcurriculum is having knowledge and skills in health promotion and disease preventionin the health system. any curriculum revision in community medicine departmentsneeds to incorporate the evidence and use pioneer countries’ experiences in this issue.this study aims to compare community medicine and public health coursesin medical schools between iran and selected universities in north america.methods: the elements of a community medicine curriculum for medical students werecompared in a descriptive-comparative study using the bereday model. these elementsincluded objectives and competencies, educational strategies, teaching and learningmethods, assessment, and educational fields in a community medicine curriculum iniran and in selected universities in north america. a literature search was conducted incinahl, scopus, medline, web of science, ebsco, and on university websites.results: essential aspects of community-based strategies among community medicineand public health curriculum of general medicine in universities in canada and theunited states included a longitudinal approach, training in urban and rural primarycare centers, teaching by family physicians and health center staff, a spiral curriculum,focus on social determinants of health, taking of social and cultural histories and socialprescriptions, learning teamwork, and using lic (longitudinal integrated curriculum).conclusion: the objective of community medicine and public health curriculum inselected north american universities was to prepare general practitioners who work inlevel 2 and 3 hospitals and to improve their skills to provide high-quality services tothe community. some of the successful points in the selected universities that could bereplicated in iranian faculties of medicine included using integration strategy, a spiralcurriculum, and an lic approach.