1) In 1982, the Arabian Gulf University College of Medicine and Medical Sciences (AGU), a new regional medical school based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, was established by a consortium of six Arabian Gulf countries and has succeeded in effbcting changes in medical education in the region.
2) High school graduates must be nominated by the relevant ministry in their respective countries to apply to the AGU. Two thirds of the students are women.The entire curriculum is conducted in English, and the AGU provides remedial classes to improve students' English skills during the first year.
3) The AGU has adopted the educational philosophy of problem-based learning since its inception.During the clinical clerkship phase, students revisit basic medical sciences with emphasis on their clinical application.The creativity and innovation of the AGU's programs in the commumity are designed to meet community needs and invite the greater participation of community faculty

1）King’s College London School of Medicine is the largest medical school in UK with 470 students for each year in their 5 year course with variation of a fast track 4 year for graduate students and extended 6 year for some entrants. The current curriculum endeavours to meet the requirements addressed in “Tomorrow’s Doctors （2009）” prepared by General Medical Council.
2）An integrated curriculum has been implemented and students’ encounter with patients will start from the first year of medical school. During the 1st and 2nd year, students learn basic medical science through issues raised in case–based scenarios, which include discussion of clinical ethics and involves inter professional education （IPE）.
3）During the 3rd and 4th years, hospital clinical rotations are provided and seminars and bedside teaching are main components of the weekly schedule. Clinical clerkship is provided for final year students who are expected to become ready as junior doctors; 8weeks in medicine, 8 weeks in surgery and 8 weeks in General Practice.
4）Eighteen ％ of clinical rotation component is conducted in community where General Practitioners （GPs） take active roles in teaching. King’s longitudinal health education programmes have been provided to enable students to understand community and to take initiative roles in advancing health and well being of their future patients, populations and communities.
5）Although hospital rotation programmes may vary among hospitals, logbooks are utilised to insure students have undertaken standard clinical opportunities and activities, while OSCEs and written examination are utilised to assess students’ achievement.

To provide a “gold standard” for care of trauma patients, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma developed Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) in 1979. Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) courses are based on ATLS and provide a prehospital trauma care philosophy that stresses the need to multisystem trauma as a unique entity with specific requirements. We participated in “provider courses” and “instructor courses” of PHTLS and were the first Japanese to be certified as PHTLS instructors. PHTLS was designed as a scenario-based program for prehospital care-providers of all levels. PHTLS courses are internationally recognized continuing education programs utilizing various teaching skills. This is the first report on PHTLS courses, which we believe are beneficial for prehospital emergency health care professionals and educators.

In the Model Core Curriculum for Medical Education revised in 2016, the aim to teach "social determinants of health (SDH) " appeared for the first time. In times of social disparity, socio-economic conditions, including unemployment and low income, sometimes discourage people from doing follow up visits to the clinic due to the copay. This happens despite the universal coverage of health insurance. The socio-cultural environment also affects individual health. For example, the sexual minority suffers from depression and suicidal risk due to prejudice in our society. The WHO states that SDH are mostly responsible for health inequities and should be tackled by health professionals. In this article, we discuss why we should teach medical students SDH and how we could implement the program to an already overloaded curricula.

Medical Education Journal is the official journal of the Japanese Society for Medical Education. There are seven categories including original research papers and practice research articles. It is essential that original research is designed based on clear research questions and conducted using valid and reliable methodology. Literature review and discussions utilizing theoretical frameworks should not be omitted. This article illustrates the critical points in preparing full research papers and the lessons learned from unaccepted manuscripts. New category, Practice report: introduction of a new approach, is explained in this issue.