It is imperative that these solutions are explored and tested in current CBE programmes so that the impact of programme drawbacks may be reduced. This would be the way-forward selleckchem to strengthening the implementation of CBE in medical curricula. An assortment of models were seen to be used for community-based teaching in the UK, where programmes varied in their methods of delivery, durations of exposure and points of undergraduate education at which the teaching was delivered. This is congruous with guidance from the GMC publication ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’, which

states that it was for each medical school to design its own curriculum to suit its own circumstance. It should be noted that community-based education broadly encompasses varied delivery formats, including both clinical and non-clinical experiences. Unfortunately, the diversification of CBE poses a challenge for developing a standardised set of criteria for evaluating the outcomes of CBE. Consequently, it becomes difficult to establish a national framework for quality assurance of medical curricula, and to make recommendations for improving the implementation of CBE. In order to achieve the expectations laid out for ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’,4 there is a principal need to define the competencies that are required to prevent illness and promote health in the primary care or community-based setting.

Ladhani et al,38 for example, categorised six themes of community-based education competencies within nursing and medicine: public health; cultural diversity; leadership and management; community development and advocacy;

research and evidence-based practice; and generic competencies. Subsequently, a national framework may be derived from these key competencies so as to measure the effectiveness of community-based teaching in achieving these targeted goals. The development of a national framework was explored and suggested by Cotton et al,39 where a list of criteria for quality practice-based teaching in the UK was consensually derived from views of medical educators and students at a national conference. However, since its development, there has been no literature found on the use of these criteria to objectively evaluate community-based education at a local, regional or national level. More work in this area should be encouraged Brefeldin_A to achieve a national standard for community-based education in the UK. Little data was found on the cost implications of community-based teaching. Given the wide variations in the format of CBE programmes conducted across the UK, it is difficult to make general conclusions about the cost impact of community-based teaching. Nonetheless the findings from Oswald et al’s17 study sets a benchmark for other similar community teaching within the UK.