ABSTRACT
Abraham Flexner's observations, published in his critical and influential 1910 report on American medical education, is just one indication that public concerns about professional matters within medicine have been around for a long time. Nevertheless, it may surprise many people that physicians in the 1990s openly debated whether professionalism should be taught formally in medical schools, rather than relying on time-honoured physician role models.2 This, however, was a clear response to rising concerns expressed, within and outside the medical profession, about professional standards. 'Physicians' professionalism and hu manism', it was said in 2002, 'have become central foci of the efforts of medical educators as the public, various accrediting and licensing agencies, and the pro fession itself have expressed concerns about the apparent erosion of physicians' competency in these aspects of the art of, rather than the science of, medicine.'3
