[Curriculum of health promotion and disease prevention for the 21st century--the 5th revision of preventive medicine learning objectives--].

The preventive medicine learning objectives, first developed in 1977 and subsequently supplemented, underwent necessary revision of the contents for the fourth time to create the fifth revision. However, the required educational contents of health promotion and disease prevention have been changed by the new trends of medical education such as PBL and integrated curriculum, the rapid change of the health and medical environment and the globalization of medicine. The Korean Society of Preventive Medicine formed a task force, led by the Undergraduate Education Committee in 2003, which surveyed all the medical colleges to describe the state of preventive medicine education in Korea, analyzed the changing education demand according to the change of health environment and quantitatively measured the validity and usefulness of each learning objective in the previous curriculum. Based on these data, some temporary objectives were formed and promulgated to all the medical schools. After multiple revisions, an almost completely new series of learning objectives for preventive medicine was created. The objectives comprised 4 classifications and 1 supplement: 1) health and disease, 2) epidemiology and its application, 3) environment and health, 4) patient-doctor-society, and supplementary clinical occupational health. The total number of learning objectives, contained within 13 sub-classifications, was 221 (including 35 of supplementary clinical occupational health). Future studies of the learning process and ongoing development of teaching materials according to the new learning objectives should be undertaken with persistence in order to ensure the progress of preventive medicine education.