Quality Management and Medical Education in Saudi Arabia

More than 100 years ago Abraham Flexner’s report changed medical education in the United States (USA) and consequently worldwide. He simply used a gold standard against which all medical schools at that time were measured (Cook et al., 2010). The report at that time was concerned mainly with undergraduate medical education. Since then medical education has developed immensely and flourished into many branches and specialties, becoming a continuum: undergraduate medical education, postgraduate medical education (training and residency programmes) and continuing medical education. Clearly both the quantity and quality of medical education have undergone major improvements over the intervening 100 years, but still there are quality issues at all levels of medical education recognized in both developed and developing countries that need to be addressed (Tekian & Al-Mazroa, 2011; Cook et al., 2010; Hasan, 2010; Ehlers, 2099; Took, 2008; Sood & Adkoli, 2000; Maddison, 1987; Lowry, 1993; Al-Shehri et al., 2008, 1993, 1994; Al-Shehri & Al-Gamdi 1999; Al-Shehri, 1996, 1993, 1992).