Curriculum planning in dermatology.

Curriculum planners should familiarize themselves with the recommendations for medical education in the UK made by the Quality Assurance Agency and the General Medical Council. The dermatology curriculum must maximize undergraduate learning experiences in dermatology, but lengthy curricula lead to rote learning and do not promote understanding. The core dermatology curricula might be built around the clinical problems graduates are likely to encounter as preregistration house-officers, but should also prepare students for their future careers in whatever specialty. Graduates should know when it might be appropriate to refer a patient to a dermatologist. Learning experiences in dermatology might be threaded into the curriculum at a number of stages and student-selected components might provide opportunities to explore dermatological topics in depth. The views of a broad constituency will give the core curriculum validity and consensus might be reached with the Delphi technique or by using multidisciplinary groups. Temptations to overload the curriculum should be resisted. Medical curricula should give students time to experience the art of medicine as well as to explore the science behind clinical practice.