Proposal for a medical master class system of medical education for common complex medical entities.

It is imperative that the management of complex outpatient medical problems be taught using an apprentice system of education. The implementation of highly experienced and outcome successful "master physicians" to train outpatient practicing clinicians will provide a powerful frame of reference and a highly imitatable model on which clinicians can base their presentations of information and medications to patients with complex medical problems such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, obesity, or tobacco addiction. Because doctors have always learned by observation, we must ensure that those who they observe will be "worth watching" and that those watched can provide skills of patient management currently not taught in the Flexnor-styled medical educational system, which effectively ended the apprentice system of training. The reintroduction of a carefully crafted apprentice system will foreseeably improve patient care and reduce morbidity, mortality, medical errors, and medical expenses.