If the sick are to reap the full benefit of
recent progress in medicine, a more uniformly arduous and expensive medical
education is demanded.—Abraham Flexner1
Medical education in the United States today is strikingly standardized
and demanding. It was not always so. Prior to the widespread implementation
of educational reforms, medical training was highly variable and frequently
inadequate. It was not until the early decades of the 20th century that a
"uniformly arduous and expensive" system of medical education was instituted
nationally.