Dr Cervantes Castro1 recently stated the need to reassess the study programs and graduates profile of the schools of Medicine around the country, analogous to what was accomplished in the USA and Canada in the last century by Dr Abraham Flexner (who is not a doctor but an educator).
The main conclusion derived from this mentioned report2 can be summed up as follows: the country needs fewer but better doctors.
Mexico still apparently has the same conditions in undergraduate and graduate programs.
There are 3 countries in the world that have over 150 schools of Medicine: the USA, India and Brazil.3 Today, Mexico is on the 6th place in the world regarding the number of schools of Medicine.
In our country, certification is not easy to get. Due to so-called “academic freedom” there is resistance to being subject to the process of assessment and measurement of academic quality. Attempts to close schools due to the low performance of its programs could be considered an insult to education or turn into situations of a political nature which were far from the original intention.
An alternative which could be considered is certification by the Consejo Nacional de Medicina General of the graduates in a more continuous and homogenous way, with a corresponding demand for their continued professional development in the future.
Please cite this article as: Sandoval-Gutiérrez JL. ¿Es posible un Flexner mexicano en el nuevo siglo? Cir Cir. 2015;83:359.