Despite the importance of how the premedical education curriculum is organized, the basic direction of the curriculum has not been evaluated at a fundamental level. In order to explore the basic directions of the premedical education curriculum, this study examined medical education as a university education, the historical basis of premedical education, and the direction of the premedical education curriculum. Historically, as medical education was incorporated into the university education system, premedical education developed based on basic science and liberal arts education. Accordingly, the direction of the premedical education curriculum began to split into two approaches: one believing in a basic science-based education intended to serve as the foundation of medical training, and the other believing in a liberal arts-based education intended to cultivate the qualities of a doctor. In recent years, however, the binary division in the direction of premedical education has ceased to exist, and the paradigm has now shifted to an agreement that premedical education must cultivate the basic scientific competence required for learning medical knowledge as well as the social qualities that a doctor should have, which are cultivated through the liberal arts. Furthermore, it has been asserted that the direction of premedical education should move toward the qualities that will be required in the future. With the fourth industrial revolution underway, the role of doctors is now being re-examined. This means that today's medical education must change in a future-oriented way, and the direction of the premedical education curriculum must be on the same page.

When a new educational system for college students in South Korea was established in 1946, the National Committee for Educational Planning adopted a 6-year curriculum of medical education, consisting of a 2-year premedical component and a 4-year medical component. For more than half a century, the premedical curriculum has received little attention. However, it is very important for premedical students to have a range of experiences that could be useful in their future medical careers. In 2005, another change was made to the system of medical education, in which medical schools without a 2-year premedical curriculum were established. This began to stimulate interest in premedical education, and more and more professors have become interested in premedical education as 6-year medical colleges have become more popular than before. Since 2015, the Education and Cultural Center of the Korean Association of Medical Colleges has annually hosted a workshop for redesigning premedical education; these workshops quickly fill up with registrants, reflecting the participants' lively interest in premedical education. The problems of premedical education are mostly due to students' and educators' attitudes. A more effective approach will be needed in the educational system of the future to train highly competent medical doctors. To judge whether an educational program is successful, its aims must be clearly articulated. For this reason, medical colleges must prepare premedical education curricula based on their educational aims. It is expected that the system of premedical education will be strengthened in the future due to the growing awareness of its importance.

Premed education in the college of medicine at the Catholic University of Korea aims to promote student creativity and excellence in accordance with the mission of the college: to have a sense of calling, leadership, and competency. The Catholic Medical College premed curriculum includes 75 credits which are composed of 65 credits for required courses and 10 credits for elective courses. It consists of courses in basic science, medical science, liberal arts and humanities (premedical OMNIBUS). It also involves community programs in 'Vision and Mission,' 'Leadership Training,' and 'Academic Conference.' In addition, students are allowed self-directed choice of their courses and learning for one quarter.

The main points of issue with the former premedical curriculum of Seoul National University College of Medicine (SNUCM) were the absence of educational objectives, decline in student motivation caused by uniform education, students' lack of a sense of belonging, and lack of humanistic education. In accordance with these issues, there were five aspects considered for the improvement of the premedical curriculum: reform based on the newly established educational objectives that corresponds with the 6-year medical school curriculum as a whole, expansion of elective courses and the development of personalized curriculum for the improvement of students' learning motives, expansion of social sciences and humanities curriculum for the development of students' capabilities as good doctors, active participation of medical professors in premedical education, and expansion of informal education and the student support program. According to the assessment done after the implementation of the reformed curriculum, premedical students were gratified with its establishment and management of multifarious liberal arts and major subjects. In preparation of the more rigorous entrance quota of the premedical school at SNUCM, there is ongoing reform of required major subjects and establishment of new subjects in the premedical curriculum in pursuit of unity with the 6-year medical curriculum. Moreover, there is ongoing development of an e-portfolio system for the association of premedical and medical education, integration of formal and informal curriculum, and reinforcement of student observation and formative evaluation. Further discussion on the assessment and betterment of premedical curriculum is needed.

After Yeungnam University's College of Medicine was established in 1979, the curriculum for a preclinical medical education course was developed and implemented. Several modifications have since been made to the curriculum which was driven by changes in national policies and in the medical education environment. In recent years, it has become necessary to complement the weaknesses or shortcomings in the curriculum that were discovered during the basic medical education assessment process of the medical college. Since 2009, Yeungnam University has run two medical courses: a 6-year college of medicine course and a 4-year medical school course. However, as a result of changes in national policy, Yeungnam University decided to offer only the 6-year college of medicine course with an entirely new curriculum which will be implemented in 2017. The new curriculum for the preclinical medical education course consists of 36 credits of cultural essentials courses, 44 credits of major required courses, and 2 credits of major elective courses. The curriculum development requires the support of the university and/or college, the ensured independence of the curriculum development organization, and the cooperation and attention of fellow professors. Continuous efforts are needed to check, evaluate, and improve the curriculum.

One important purpose of premedical education is to help students attain core competencies during the two-year premedical program. Since premedical curriculum is the foundation of medical education, it is necessary to develop the premedical curriculum in accordance with the overarching curriculum of a medical school. Inje University's College of Medicine (IUCM) has attempted to integrate competency-based medical education into the premedical education curriculum. The revised premedical curriculum aims to develop students' intrinsic competencies during premedical years. In an effort to do so, IUCM defined competencies for premedical education, analyzed and designed premedical courses according to the defined competencies, and suggested learner-centered instructional methods. As a result of implementing the revised premedical curriculum, students have reported both positive experiences and difficulties. Based on the results, it will be necessary to continuously improve the premedical curriculum as well as develop appropriate methods for evaluating student achievement of the defined competencies.

The educational goal of premedical education is to provide the desired college-level training in liberal arts as well as sciences, and to equip students with a basis for future medical studies. The purpose of this study was to introduce a premedical curriculum at Chonnam National University Medical School and to provide baseline data for developing an improved premedical curriculum. The reformed premedical curriculum has been followed since 2017. Formal premedical curriculum consists of basic education and character education through liberal arts study and major courses related to medical education. In addition to the formal premedical curriculum, students are supported through various programs that help develop interpersonal and intrapersonal competences.

Interprofessional education (IPE) fosters effective team-based collaborative practice among members of different health care professions to advance high-quality and safe patient care. Although the importance of IPE has been recognized and IPE initiatives have expanded rapidly in the past decades, substantial difficulties in IPE assessment still exist. At present, a lack of consensus on the optimal approach to IPE assessment contributes to uncertainty about the level of attainment of collaborative team performance. This paper aims to provide an overview of the benefits and current challenges associated with IPE assessment. Furthermore, a multifactor model with an assessment matrix and assessment blueprints from a recent study is briefly discussed. We also provide examples of assessment blueprints for the team management of stroke patient discharge covering a competency examination at the levels of individuals, the team, and the task.

There is a more urgent call for educational methods of machine learning in medical education, and therefore, new approaches of teaching and researching machine learning in medicine are needed. This paper presents a case using machine learning through text analysis. Topic modeling of news articles with the keyword 'asbestos' were examined. Two hypotheses were tested using this method, and the process of machine learning of texts is illustrated through this example. Using an automated text analysis method, all the news articles published from January 1, 1990 to November 15, 2016 in South Korea which included 'asbestos' in the title and the body were collected by web scraping. Differences in topics were analyzed by structured topic modelling (STM) and compared by press companies and periods. More articles were found in liberal media outlets. Differences were found in the number and types of topics in the articles according to the partisanship and period. STM showed that the conservative press views asbestos as a personal problem, while the progressive press views asbestos as a social problem. A divergence in the perspective for emphasizing the issues of asbestos between the conservative press and progressive press was also found. Social perspective influences the main topics of news stories. Thus, the patients' uneasiness and pain are not presented by both sources of media. In addition, topics differ between news media sources based on partisanship, and therefore cause divergence in readers' framing. The method of text analysis and its strengths and weaknesses are explained, and an application for the teaching and researching of machine learning in medical education using the methodology of text analysis is considered. An educational method of machine learning in medical education is urgent for future generations.

This study explores the phenomenon of learner reflection in writing. Sixty-nine reflection logs were submitted by students after medical interview role plays. Using thematic analysis methodology, the following three steps were carried out: (1) the entire contents of the logs were analyzed and coded, (2) the coded contents were reclassified and categorized into higher themes, and (3) all reflection logs were re-analyzed to derive the frequency according to their classifications. The learners' reflection contents were classified into 'preparation,' 'experience,' and 'future plan.' The levels of reflection were 'simple information and appreciation,' 'acquisition and application of knowledge,' and 'analysis and criticism.' The types of reflection were identified only at the level of 'analysis and criticism' and could be classified into 'relativization,' 'objectification,' and 'internalization.' Students' reflection levels were highest in the levels of 'acquisition and application of knowledge' (49.3%), and 'analysis and criticism' (37.7%). A total of 14.5% of the students showed 'internalization.' In order to enable internalized reflection at a critical level, instructional strategies to induce and promote reflection are needed.