University Center for Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva, Israel: An interim perspective

The Ben Gurion University Medical School, established in 1974, has three major goals. The first seeks to develop an integrated programme for delivery of preventive, curative and rehabilitative care to the total population of a defined region. The second envisages the merging of this integrated health care system with the University Center for Health Sciences under a single authority. The third goal is to educate, in this new framework, a different type of physician whose primary objective will be to provide service in an integrated hospital/community health care system. The commitment to achieve an integrated service and manpower development programme is a most important innovation, which should not only result in a more relevant education of health personnel but also stimulate more effective planning and implementation of the health service. The curriculum and the teaching/learning process are designed to reflect the three major institutional goals. Both in planning the content of the programme and in the teaching/learning process, attention has been focused on problem-solving, integration, sequencing, and the specification of necessary competencies derived from an analysis of tasks or functions. The Ben Gurion experience shed valuable light on how a programme can be planned and implemented with these principles in mind. It also provides significant information on the difficulties encountered and how at least some of these have been overcome. Careful attention is given to ensure effective interrelationship between institutional goals, content and process of instruction and evaluation.