The diffusion of the health agenda and the fundamental need for partnership in medical education.

This paper explores the fundamental reasons for partnership in health care and medical education. It reviews the philosophical and policy contexts of health care trends and suggests that many of these trends can be summarized as a process of diffusion relating to: (a) what is on the health agenda, (b) who sets the health agenda and (c) the increasing indeterminacy of the health agenda. Various aspects of the 'social turn' in health care are introduced and offered as a partial explanation for the diffusion of the health agenda. Finally, some of the implications of these discussions for medical education are set out, in particular the need for partnerships within and beyond the academy.