Analytic thinking: educating students for the practice of modern medicine.

The medical school curriculum is dominated by efforts to teach the mass of facts that comprise an ever-expanding pool of biomedical knowledge. As a result, little time remains for learning the scientific method, how to evaluate medical information, and how to apply analytic processes for the prevention, diagnosis, and management of disease. A new component in the medical curriculum at Emory University School of Medicine, a course titled Analytic Medicine, is proposed as a first step toward correcting these deficiencies. Analytic Medicine is intended to provide the opportunity and the necessary skills, through a problem-oriented approach, for medical students to learn to reason scientifically and to utilize analytic processes, including computers, in making clinical decisions.