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FLEXNER, ABRAHAM 1866-1959

MEDICAL EDUCATOR

Report

Abraham Flexner, brother of Simon Flexner, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and became well known as an educational reformer and an expert on medical education. In the early 1900s many medical schools existed solely for the profit of their owners, and even students without a highschool education were accepted and graduated as long as their tuition was paid. In his critical report Flexner referred to such schools as "proprietary institutions." Many of the teaching hospitals were unsanitary and lacked the necessary clinical facilities. An in-depth study by Abraham Flexner was partially responsible for bringing these practices to an end and reforming medical education in order to produce a better-educated medical community.

Flexner's Education

The education of Abraham Flexner consisted of a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1886, a master's degree in psychology from Harvard University in 1906, and the study of comparative education at the University of Berlin. Throughout his schooling Flexner came to believe in the superiority of German universities and believed that the United States should restructure its educational system in like fashion. This opinion was expressed in 1908 in a book published by Flexner called The American College. The book was a wealth of information gained by Flexner throughout his years as a preparatory-school teacher and administrator, and its publication was a definitive point in his career.

A Study of Medical Schools

The American College identified Flexner as an educational reformer and led to his employment by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The head of the foundation, Henry Pritchett, read the book and thought that Flexner should undertake a study for his organization "to ascertain the facts concerning medical education and the medical schools themselves."

The Need for Reform

After two years of extensive research and after visiting all of the medical schools in the United States and Canada, Flexner published his report in 1910. The report, Medical Education in the United States and Canada, not only exposed the appalling conditions prevalent in medical education but also offered creative suggestions as methods of reform.

Recommendations

Flexner recommended that 120 of the 155 medical schools in existence be closed. His main objective was to "reduce the number and increase the output of medical schools." Flexner was critical of the way medical schools had been developed "regardless of need, regardless of the proximity of competent universi-ties, regardless of favoring local conditions," and offered that a medical school is ideally "a university department; it is most favorably located in a large city, where the problem of procuring clinical material, at once abundant and various, solves itself." Flexner's report was influential and far-reaching. His book and the one following it, Medical Education in Europe, changed professional and public opinion, as well as the practices of universities.

Raising Educational Standards

In 1913 Flexner joined the staff of the General Education Board, created by the Rockefeller Foundation to improve the educational standards of the United States. He served on the board for fifteen years as assistant secretary, secretary, and head of the Division of Studies and Medical Education. He published several reports during this time, including Medical Education: A Comparative Study in 1925. Flexner's work at the General Education Board was varied and included awarding research grants in the area of humanities, establishing research facilities at medical schools, and disbursing the $50 million given by the Rockefellers to improve medical education.

Realizing His Ideas

Flexner's primary interest remained medical education, and many of his ideas were realized when he was given $5 million by Louis Bamburger and his sister, Mrs. Felix Fuld. Flexner used the money to establish the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1930. The institute brought scholars, including Albert Einstein, together and gave them freedom to pursue conceptual research. The institute remains a leading educational center and is a testament to Flexner's belief in scholastic excellence.