Howard Barrows

Howard S. Barrows (March 28, 1928 – March 25, 2011) was an American physician and medical educator who was Professor Emeritus at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine where he had previously served as Associate Dean for Educational Affairs and Chair of Medical Education. Trained as a neurologist, Barrows is best known today for his many innovations in medical education, particularly teaching using Problem-Based Learning (PBL), developed while he was a professor at McMaster University Medical School, assessing clinical skills using simulated patients, and studying clinical reasoning using stimulated recall techniques.

Barrows was born in Oak Park, Illinois on March 28, 1928. He attended a community college in San Mateo, California and went on to complete a BA in Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1949. He attended medical school at University of Southern California (USC) College of Medicine and completed his M.D. in 1953. He interned at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York city and subsequently served two years at Parks Air Force Base in California as a medical officer. Barrows returned to New York city in 1957 to complete his residency in neurology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.

Barrows joined the USC faculty in 1960, advancing to the rank of Professor of Neurology. In 1971, he joined the recently founded Faculty of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario. It was at McMaster where he developed the PBL curriculum. A decade later, he was recruited to serve as the Associate Dean for Educational Affairs at Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois. At SIU he was instrumental in establishing a PBL track modeled after the Problem-Based Curriculum at McMaster. Under his direction, SIU became a center for the development of PBL teaching materials and faculty training. He played an instrumental role in creating the journal Teaching and Learning in Medicine and served as an associate editor for many years. He also established the Problem-Based Learning Institute in conjunction with the local public school district to promote the use of PBL in secondary education. After his retirement in 1999, Barrows and his wife Phyllis returned to Hamilton, Ontario.

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