The challenges of AIDS education for physicians

Education has been identified as one of our best weapons in the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic, both to help reduce the spread of the virus and to improve the care of patients with the disease. Medical educators have been asked to take on a difficult task: to assure that physicians acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to make them as effective as possible in dealing with the HIV infection. This article reviews some of the factors which influence the effectiveness of AIDS educational programs for physicians and some of the challenges which medical educators must face.