Including health promotion and illness prevention in medical education: a progress report.

The inclusion of health promotion and illness prevention strategies in undergraduate curricula varied considerably, but was strongest in programmes claiming social accountability and responding to medical education standards of the more influential regulators. However, the contribution of medical education to improvements in health care and the health of populations is difficult to measure. It may be timely to revisit the purpose and practicality of broadening the scope of undergraduate medical curricula in public health medicine.