Collection

You may argue: If every professor teach their own specialty, who is going to cover general medicine?

No one – and, in fact, no need.

The situation is similar to the concept of society or public interest in economy: Although it sounds noble for every individual to pursue the interest of the entire society rather than being selfish, it is not only not practical, but, indeed, as pointed out by Adam Smith, not necessary. Everyone of us could and should focus on our own interest (as long as we are following the rule of the game, that is, the law of our society). The market would work out the rest and the general public would see the benefit. After all, each and everyone of us is part of the society.

By the same argument, every professor should put most of their effort on teaching their own specialty – who else is in a better position to teach that subject? When every professor covers their own territory, when there is a healthy composition of academic staff in a department, and when students have a balanced exposure to each teacher, the result would be an excellent curriculum of general medicine.


Of course, the last pre-requisite that I mentioned above implies each teacher would have to see every student – but only briefly – and it is impossible for them to build up a good mentor type of relationship.