The Flexner Report of 1910 permanently changed American medicine in the early twentieth century. Commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation, this report resulted in the elevation of allopathic medicine to being the standard form of medical education and practice in America, while putting homeopathy in the realm of what is now known as “alternative medicine.”
Although Abraham Flexner himself was an educator, not a physician, he was chosen to evaluate Canadian and American Medical Schools and create a report offering suggestions for improvement. The board overseeing the project felt that an educator, not a physician, would provide the insights needed to improve medical educational practices.
The Flexner Report resulted in the embracing of scientific standards and a new system directly modeled after European medical practices of that era, especially those in Germany. The downside of this new standard, however, was that it created what the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine has called “an imbalance in the art and science of medicine.” While largely a success, if evaluating progress from a purely scientific point of view, the Flexner Report and its aftermath caused physicians to “lose their authenticity as trusted healers” and the practice of medicine subsequently “lost its soul”, according to the same Yale report.
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