200 Years of Teaching Medicine: The Chilean Experience as an Example of the Changes in Medical Education during the Processes of Independence in Hispanic America

Abstract

The process of Latin American independence allowed the rapid dissemination of the ideas of the European enlightenment and the expansion of positivism, which had been censored by the Spanish crown, which was deeply attached to the Catholic Church. The new environment laid the foundations for changes in medical education, which moved from a scholastic, rigid, and backward pedagogical approach and program, to a more reflective one, updated with the development of science. The structure of the studies, use of a more extensive bibliography, professionalisation of the physician and the organisation of their education in relation to a structured practice, critical thinking, scientific research, and to an understanding of the cultural change in the physician’s role in their society, had its beginnings early in the post-independence period. These changes opened the way to the transition to modern medicine today.