Community-engaged medical education is a way to develop health promoters: A comparative study

BACKGROUND: Although the importance of health promotion and empowerment of the community has been recognized for many years, there are still many barriers to adopting health promotion in the world. One of the solutions is socially accountable medical education and community engagement. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the medical programs of five medical schools that practiced community-engaged medical education to medical education in Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This comparative study has been performed in 2022 by the four-stage Bereday method, including description (the educational programs of the selected medical schools were examined), interpretation (a validated checklist was prepared according to community-based strategies), proximity (similar and different information was identified), and comparison (solutions were recommended to improve health promotion and community engagement in Iran's medical education program. The purposive sampling method was used to select five universities. RESULTS: Although successful initiatives have been attempted to integrate public health promotion and community orientation into the Iranian curriculum, they do not appear to be sufficient in comparison to leading countries. The main distinction is that the community is actively engaged in all stages of curriculum design, implementation, and evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: Although Iran's medical education program has a long way to go in terms of social accountability, by including more community-oriented initiatives into the curriculum, health needs of the community can be met and physician shortages in poor areas can be alleviated. It is recommended to implement modern teaching methods, to recruit diverse faculty and community members, and to increase the community placement in medical education.