Current status of Kampo medicine curricula in all Japanese medical schools

Abstract

BackgroundThere have been a few but not precise surveys of the current status of traditional Japanese Kampo education at medical schools in Japan. Our aim was to identify problems and suggest solutions for a standardized Kampo educational model for all medical schools throughout Japan.MethodsWe surveyed all 80 medical schools in Japan regarding eight items related to teaching or studying Kampo medicine: (1) the number of class meetings, target school year(s), and type of classes; (2) presence or absence of full-time instructors; (3) curricula contents; (4) textbooks in use; (5) desire for standardized textbooks; (6) faculty development programmes; (7) course contents; and (8) problems to be solved to promote Kampo education. We conducted descriptive analyses without statistics.ResultsEighty questionnaires were collected (100%). (1) There were 0 to 25 Kampo class meetings during the 6 years of medical school. At least one Kampo class was conducted at 98% of the schools, ≥4 at 84%, ≥8 at 44%, and ≥16 at 5%. Distribution of classes was 19% and 57% for third- and fourth-year students, respectively. (2) Only 29% of schools employed full-time Kampo medicine instructors. (3) Medicine was taught on the basis of traditional Japanese Kampo medicine by 81% of the schools, Chinese medicine by 19%, and Western medicine by 20%. (4) Textbooks were used by 24%. (5) Seventy-four percent considered using standardized textbooks. (6) Thirty-three percent provided faculty development programmes. (7) Regarding course contents, “characteristics” was selected by 94%, “basic concepts” by 84%, and evidence-based medicine by 64%. (8) Among the problems to be solved promptly, curriculum standardization was selected by 63%, preparation of simple textbooks by 51%, and fostering instructors responsible for Kampo education by 65%.ConclusionsJapanese medical schools only offer students a short time to study Kampo medicine, and the impetus to include Kampo medicine in their curricula varies among schools. Future Kampo education at medical schools requires solving several problems, including curriculum standardization.

Web‐based evaluation system for closing the education gap in Kampo medicine between facilities

“…To address this issue, we established a validation set consisting of all fourth-year MS at the two different medical universities who had been blinded to the three common questions and had taken each Web-based test after KM education in 2016. Various differences have been reported in the number and length of KM education classes, in the presence or absence of full-time KM instructors, and in the content of the curricula and textbooks used for KM education between Japanese medical universities and colleges [5]. In the present study, MS at university B had significantly more correct answers to the three common questions than MS at university A ( Table 3).…”

“…Various differences have been reported in the number and length of KM education classes, in the presence or absence of full‐time KM instructors, and in the content of the curricula and textbooks used for KM education between Japanese medical universities and colleges . In the present study, MS at university B had significantly more correct answers to the three common questions than MS at university A (Table ).…”

Obstacles to the use of complementary and alternative medicine by primary care physicians: Preliminary study

“…Those factors, in turn, might have led to ‘Lack of CAM education’. In fact, ‘Lack of CAM education’ is the case in the curricula of medical schools in Japan .…”

Questionnaire-Based Development of an Educational Program of Traditional Japanese Kampo Medicine

“…In the 2011 survey of Arai et al (2012), two universities reported no Kampo classes in the curriculum; one university was on the road to a new curriculum, while in the other university, Kampo was offered in liberal arts and science courses. Accordingly, Kampo medicine was incorporated into the medical curriculum at the 78 medical schools (98% of the 80 medical schools) in 2011.…”

“…In Japan, the number of compulsory Kampo-related classes during the six years of medical school have been reported to range between 0 and 25, with a median of 6 classes (Arai et al 2012). In the 2011 survey of Arai et al (2012), two universities reported no Kampo classes in the curriculum; one university was on the road to a new curriculum, while in the other university, Kampo was offered in liberal arts and science courses.…”