My critique is a fairly broad one, that really applies to almost all of higher education:
Until very recently (i.e. The 00's), we went to institutes of higher learning because that's where the knowledge was. The professors had it and thick, dense, expensive, unapproachable textbooks had it.
So you went to school, went to class, took notes, and learned what the professors distilled to you.
That is how the system worked.
You also largely lived in your own little bubble, with the assumption that similar/the same knowledge was being passed down at other universities.
Now though, we are all connected. I don't need to be in a classroom with a professor to learn from them. I can watch a video, view an interactive slide show, take an online quiz with performance feedback and thorough explanations of the answers.
There is really no compelling reason for the traditional classroom model to continue. Students are already eschewing it, as we know that med school attendance rate is down to something like 20% (unless your school requires attendance).
What schools should do is work together, identify the absolute best teachers, and put those best teachers out there in video lectures/interactive formats online. I don't need the path professor from my own medical school who happens to be a crummy teacher but has to fill the lecture slots, when I could have Goljan instead.
The professors also don't have to keep giving the same talk year after year after year. They can give it once, record, it, make an online module, and then update prn if content changes.
Medical schools should be crowd-sourcing and working together to define a common curriculum. They won't though, because of the individualist nature of institutions, the desire to adhere to tradition, and of course the financial aspects.
