My first year of medical school was sudden death — an era of big egos and elitism
Recently, I was given a copy of a paper, published in the Australasian Annals of Medicine in November 1962, entitled ‘The Art of Medicine’.
It was written by educationalist RWT (Ronald) Cowan, the warden of Trinity College, a residential college of the University of Melbourne, from 1946 to 1964 — including my first two years at the college.
His paper provides thoughtful insight into medical education 60 years ago, and is remarkably prescient in predicting how medical education and the delivery of medical care would change.
Until the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme was established in 1951, students (or their families) paid handsomely for a medical education.
