In recent years, many observers of medicine have expressed concerns that new doctors are not as well prepared as they should be to meet society's expectations of them. This view is held also by some within the medical profession and, more specifically, the medical education community. To address these concerns, medical educators must understand how changes in society's views of health and disease and changes in the organization, financing, and delivery of health care shape expectations of physicians. They must then use this understanding to inform the design, content, and conduct of medical education programs.

In January 1996 the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) embarked on a major new initiative - the Medical School Objectives Project (MSOP) - to assist medical schools in their efforts to respond to these concerns. The goal for the first phase of the project was to develop a consensus within the medical education community on the attributes that medical students should possess at the time of graduation, and to set forth learning objectives for the medical school curriculum derived from those attributes.