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Rationale: Public health and preventive medicine (PHPM) has been recognized internationally as a physician specialty, but national parallels and differences exist between training contexts. This paper reviews PHPM training and employment in Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Methods: Information gathered from relevant accreditation bodies and literature searches was used to create descriptive profiles of national training demographics and structure and a narrative outlining trends and challenges facing the specialty. Results: Notable similarities and differences exist between national contexts. Key themes were differences in training strategies and practice scope, specialty stakeholders, certification structure, and funding. Recognition challenges faced the specialty across all six countries. Other challenges included unclear competencies and training strategies and a need for PHPM specialists to highlight their role in combating population health threats. Additional differences existed between comparator countries on the structure of training, funding sources for training programs, availability of training posts, and linkages with other physician specialties. Conclusion: Highlighting these themes is a first step to fostering training collaborations between PHPM specialist physicians to augment transnational action on global public health challenges and also supports PHPM physician educators with innovative solutions from abroad that might address domestic specialty challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planning and implementing educational programs in medicine optimally requires a background in educational theory and practice. An avenue of training open to such practitioners is a master's degree in medical education. A single 1998 report lists the programs known at that time and information about them remains scarce. The authors have re-examined all current programs offering master's degrees in medical or health sciences education in the English-speaking world, including the Netherlands. The authors contacted the programs identified in the 1998 report to establish how many were still in operation. The search was extended using Pubmed and other search engines. A further verification targeted a selected sample of 10 prominent US medical schools. Twenty-one currently operating programs were identified: six in the US, eight in the UK, three in Canada, three in Australia and one in Holland. Seven of nine original master's programs were still in existence. URLs, website and other logistical information about each program are tabled. A master's degree in medical or health sciences education is the most specific method for medical faculty to obtain a credentialed grounding in educational theory and practice. The authors provide up-to-date contact information for current programs and summarize other related essential logistical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing recognition of the need to increase cultural diversity undergraduate education in the UK, the US and Canada, there is a lack of cohesion in the development and delivery of cultural diversity teaching in medical schools in these three countries. This article highlights 12 tips for developing cultural diversity education in undergraduate medical programmes by integrating it in institutional policies, curriculum content, faculty development and assessment. These tips can be used to help ensure that students gain needed knowledge, skills and attitudes consistent with a view of patients as complex individuals with unique needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]