Talk:Flexner Report

Some clues on the enjailed doctors because of the Flexner Report

After the first world war, an important campaign made possible by American Medical Association ask for the ban of drugs addict medical centers. Betwwen 1914 and 1938, 25 000 doctors are inculpated for taking care of druged addict and 3 000 of them were incarcerated. (It's a french->US translation, sorry, can't see the original book) It's from "Frank Browning et John Gerassi, Histoire criminelle des États-Unis, Nouveau monde, 604" also known as "The American Way of Crime: From Salem to Watergate, a Stunning New Perspective on American History Hardcover by Frank Browning, John Gerassi" The link betwen flexner report, American Medical Association and legal power can't be a direct link, because a report is not a legislative document, nor directly quoted by lawmakers, but it is well accepted that modern bio-medecine USA laws came from this report : The Flexner Report and the Standardizationof American Medical Education - Beck - 2004 I'll let further wikipedians decide this is enough to say that doctors where sent to jail because of the Flexner Report. Trying to me more subtile, we may say that they were not real doctors for AMA, or where not acting as professional doctors. I desagree with that idea but writing "doctors where sent to jail" seems a bit sensationalistic.

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I don't think this sentiment concerning the Flexner Report is really considered in the entry. Thank you for any additions that are made due to this comment. I believe that there are some people who believe that the Flexner Report was at least partially motivated by the Carnegie Foundation's investments in pharmacuetical drugs. That organization had a vested interest that medical philosophies that are non considered alternative medicines that did not primarily use pharmacuetical drugs were methodically eliminated from the United States. The Flexner Report, in some circles, is viewed as a power move made to make the medical communitiy dependent on drugs by eliminating any other medical philosophies from even being practised in the United States (it became illegal to practice medicine without a degree from an accreditted institution). -> for there defense we cannot said that medical groups did not try to take benefit of the situation (frop AMA page) Ap (29 August 1987). "U.S. Judge Finds Medical Group Conspired Against Chiropractors". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 20 May 2019.

Quality of Medical Education

Requesting reference for statement regarding quality of medical education being "invariably high." How then, are so many incompetent doctors produced? The statement is quite subjective and therefore requires a strong reference.Jkhamlin (talk) 16:08, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Do you have a RS reference for the claim that a large proportion of doctors are incompetent? I agree that "invariably" should probably be removed. Verbal chat 16:11, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

In fact there is a huge lack of references and some of the writing isn't encyclopaedic in style (including the section referred to). Verbal chat 16:14, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Flexner report led to some firing of senior faculty?

I removed the citation that was applied to the claim that some senior faculty members were fired as a result of the Flexner report. The citation was an article about a single professor of medicine (John Wishart), and the article only indicates that it was possible (not certain) that he was fired as a indirect effect of the flexner report. This is far from anything generalizable as a more broad effect of the report, and the possibility of a single professor being fired is hardly notable. In fact, another portion of the article indicates that the university actually hired more professors as a result of the report. Here is the citation, if anyone is interested:

• Claydon, Emily (2012). "The Life of John Wishart (1850–1926): Study of an Academic Surgical Career Prior to the Flexner Report". World Journal of Surgery. 36 (3): 684–688. doi:10.1007/s00268-011-1407-x. PMC 3279636. PMID 22270978. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

If anyone has any better sources supporting the claim that the flexner report led to firings of professors, please add them. For now, I have left the statement in the article, and attached to it a "citation needed" template. Rytyho usa (talk) 02:04, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

How/Why Institutions adhered to Flexner Report

I think this page is missing addressing a key component of the Flexner report - which is why any medical schools or governments took the advice and recommendations of the report seriously. Will do some research and might get back to this if I find anything out. Macstringer (talk) 05:46, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

I'd love to know if you found anything ~2026-12064-53 (talk) 14:26, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

"...While many credit Flexner with spearheading the modernization of medical education, he played a part in a process that began years before his Report. With revolutionary scientific progress, eminent physicians had convinced both the American Medical Association (AMA) and AAMC of the need for reforms in medical education in the face of a multitude of schools turning out poorly trained doctors.

"By 1904, the AMA had set up a Council of Medical Education (CME). Four years later, CME reported on their two-year inspection of all the country’s medical schools, then numbering 162, finding half to be inadequate. The AMA began rating medical schools accordingly, and state medical boards beefed up licensure requirements, in part by using these ratings.

Notably, CME didn’t publish its findings. With aggressive competition between many medical schools—and this being the era of 'trust-busting' – the AMA contracted with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to take the expected heat for telling the country’s medical schools to sink or swim.

"Enter, then, Abraham Flexner who recently had impressed Carnegie’s director with a critique of America’s colleges. Flexner proved a quick study on best medical education practices from Johns Hopkins and went out on an 18-month investigative trek around the continent. At the time, medical schools were already feeling the pinch to modernize for several years. Some were already preparing to close, some were merging or becoming a university department, and many were scrambling for scarce funds...."

[From "Flexner’s 1910 Report: Modern Academic Medicine Redefines a Hero into its Favorite Scapegoat," Linda Rosa, Physician Outlook, 6.15.2022. Linda Rosa (talk) 20:01, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

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Wiki Education assignment: Modern Medicine

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 January 2024 and 10 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): AveryKB (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by BeforeNewton (talk) 16:19, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

The 7 Black Medical Schools

Flexner wrote on page 180 of his Report "The Negro needs good schools rather than many schools..." The five Black schools that closed were small and ill-equipped; altogether they were graduating 20% of Black physicians, with 80% of coming out of Meharry and Howard. Flexner thought the small Black medical schools would need a great deal of funding to survive – funding better spent on Meharry and Howard: the former needing a hospital and dispensary. "The upbuilding of Howard and Meharry will profit the nation much more than the inadequate maintenance of a larger number of schools." (page 181) Flexner would later serve on Howard's board, eventually becoming chair of the board. He also would set up a postgrad program for Black physicians and work for state-funded public education for Black children in the South, noting that many Black children didn't have the education needed to matriculate into medical schools. See "Flexner’s 1910 Report: Modern Academic Medicine Redefines a Hero into its Favorite Scapegoat," by Linda Rosa, RN, in Physician Outlook, 6/15/2022 Linda Rosa (talk) 21:26, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

"Sanitarian"

Flexner wrote in his 1910 Report: "A well-taught negro sanitarian will be immensely useful; an essentially untrained negro wearing an M.D. degree is dangerous." (Flexner thought all untrained physicians were dangerous, especially those who practiced homeopathy, four humors therapy, spiritualism.)

Sanitarians in the 19th and early 20th Centuries were medical doctors and researchers specializing in public health. (Ben Freedman, “The History of the Sanitarian,” The Sanitarian, Sep-Oct 1954; 17(2):67-79) They were held in high esteem.

Flexner was echoing the primary missions of Meharry and Howard Medical Schools that the Black community was best served by physicians treating and researching the host of deadly diseases that plagued society – the leading causes of death being smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, TB and plague.

Moreover, specializing in public health didn’t exempt Black medical students from the highest standards expected of all physicians. Linda Rosa (talk) 21:43, 26 June 2026 (UTC) See "Flexner’s 1910 Report: Modern Academic Medicine Redefines a Hero into its Favorite Scapegoat," by Linda Rosa, RN, in Physician Outlook, 6/15/2022 [https://physicianoutlook.com/2022/06/15/was-flexner-a-misogynistic-racist/#:~:text=Flexner%20“Academic%20Medicine's%20Favorite%20Scapegoat”%20in%20Physician%20Outlook's%20Print%20Issue%20Volume%2013 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Linda Rosa (talk • contribs) 21:52, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

WP:ANYONE

Please consider adding reference to this article: "Flexner’s 1910 Report: Modern Academic Medicine Redefines a Hero into its Favorite Scapegoat," by Linda Rosa, Physician Outlook, June 15, 2022. https://physicianoutlook.com/2022/06/15/was-flexner-a-misogynistic-racist/#:~:text=Flexner%20%E2%80%9CAcademic%20Medicine's%20Favorite%20Scapegoat%E2%80%9D%20in%20Physician%20Outlook's%20Print%20Issue%20Volume%2013 Linda Rosa (talk) 13:14, 30 June 2026 (UTC)