TY - JOUR T1 - Sports medicine education: Socrates, Science and South Africa JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 585 LP - 586 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2019-100729 VL - 53 IS - 10 AU - Jon Patricios Y1 - 2019/05/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/10/585.abstract N2 - ‘Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think’ Socrates (469–399 BC).1 Greek philosopher Socrates used cross-examination and interrogation of claims to test for potential contradictions or inconsistencies. This is called ‘the dialectic (discussion-based) method’ of inquiry. Although most clinicians are not aware of this, his ideas form the basis of the critical thinking and medical reasoning we employ in reflecting on our own clinical practices, in reviewing research and in reading the papers in this journal.Medical education has recently undergone substantial critical review in many parts of the world. Invaluable for me was a report by the American Medical Association2 on Medical Education Trends (https://edhub.ama-assn.org/module/2706435). The changes being aptly described by Dr Timothy Smith of the AMA as ‘Not your grandfather’s med school…’3 Not only has medical education changed significantly since our grandparents’ generation (eg, the very science-focused, lecture-based teaching evolved into a more clinically oriented approach) but the concept of Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) as a distinct specialty and a core part of the medical curriculum would not even have been entertained. To those of us in the SEM trenches this seems bizarre. The benefits of cardiorespiratory fitness (in no way a new discovery!) succinctly summarised in the infographic by Smirmaul and Arena ( see page 614 ) in this edition seem so … ER -