The leading aim of medical education is to develop an individual’s ability of creative and critical reasoning, to comprehend new experience based on the methods of educational and research activity. Requirements in medical education, curriculum structure, criteria, teaching methodology, and nature of programs vary worldwide. However, curricula are usually divided into compulsory and elective pre-clinical and clinical subjects. Electives can contribute to professional and personal development of medical students in specific areas of interest outside of the standard curriculum. Elective courses can be referred to two main types: subject-oriented, which enable students to develop their own cognitive interests in the chosen area, get profound knowledge in the sphere of interest as well as to form skills for important practical tasks; interdisciplinary, the aim of which is to take knowledge and methods of one discipline and apply them in another one to provide more profound learning experience and broader perspectives. On the other hand, electives are thought to be less regulated and monitored than compulsory disciplines, thus having less benefit for students.

The article presents perspectives of reforming higher medical education in Ukraine based on European and American standards. The main goals to be accomplished until 2025 include: to improve the quality of medical education; to renew the content of education based on achievement of modern medical education and evidence-based medicine. Therefore, new standards of education, taking into consideration recommendations of World Federation of Medical Education, should be elaborated, discussed and officially approved. The aim of reforms in higher education is creation of unified criteria, methodologies and control systems as well as mutual recognition of diplomas on higher education, promotion of students’ and lecturers’ academic mobility. In 2017, a number of reforming laws were adopted in Ukraine aimed at transforming the system of health care in Ukraine. These innovations confirm the importance of increasing entrance requirements for applicants to higher medical educational establishments.

Studying the history of the formation and development of the medical education system revealed the peculiarity of its indi-vidual stages, the specifics of the economic level of American society, political situation, social needs and culture of formation in a certain period. At each stage, the task of meeting the educational needs of American society was addressed. The article ana-lyzes the state of research of the investigated problem in domestic and foreign scientific sources. It is generalized that the main attention of scientists is focused on the general issues of formation of the medical education system: its beginning, moderni-zation and reform at different stages of development. The historical and pedagogical aspect of studying the system of doctors’ professional training is one of the most important in the research, as it provides an understanding of the achievements or draw-backs of the past. Modern higher medical education in the United States is a unique phenomenon, largely due to its historical development, full of social and economic challenges, and the ability of American government to respond quickly and effectively to the needs of the time. An important milestone in the development of American medical education was the creation of coor-dinating and monitoring organizations. The National Board of Education was established to coordinate the education system, and the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges were established in medical educa-tion. This was the beginning of the introduction of educational standards provided in medical schools. Significant changes in the field of higher medical education in the United States started with the publication of a report by A. Flexner, who proposed to reduce the number of medical schools, complicate requirements for admission to medical schools, involve staff and students in research, strengthen state control in licensing medical schools. These Reformation processes became the point of gradual devel-opment of modern American medical education. In the twentieth century, the accumulation of knowledge and the development of medical science contributed to the differentiation of the medical profession in certain subsections

The article deals with the issues of developing students’ creative skills at medical educational institutions. Intensification of students’ creative potential occurs through the formation of thinking, research and communication skills, ability to interact with information means and technologies. Second-year students of General Medicine Faculty were involved in the experiment at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University in Ukraine. Experimental and control groups included 172 students in each one. We singled out two groups: a control group – training based on
the available basic course “Professional English in Medicine” and an experimental group – training based on a combination of two courses: the basic course “Professional English in Medicine” and the elective course “Special Medical Terminology”. Homogeneity of the control and experimental groups was checked using Student’s t-test. Testing 0-hypothesis showed no significant differences between samples for the reliability level 0.05 (5% probability). At the first stage of the experimental study, students’ performance was considered at the beginning of the experiment in the control and experimental groups. Students were divided into three levels: high (82–100 points), medium (64–81 points) and low (50–63 points). Certainty of differences between groups was tested using Pearson’s chi-squared test (χ2), according to which the critical value was  = 5.991, and the corresponding empirical value = 0.414. Thus, any differences between the results of the control and experimental groups are random variations with a probability of less than 5%, and, therefore, the samples are homogeneous by the research indicator. Verification of reliability of the obtained results in improving the level of creativity in students was checked by Pearson’s chi-squared test (χ2), according to which the critical value equaled 5.991 and the corresponding empirical value = 6.11. Thus, any differences between the results of the control and experimental groups are with a probability of less than 5% and based on the result of introduction of an active pedagogical factor into the educational process, and, therefore, the difference between the control and experimental groups is expected for the studied indicator. To define creative abilities, we used Joy Paul Guilford’s parameters and factors for interpreting variations in creativity: sensitivity to problems; flexibility and fluency; originality; synthesis, analysis; reorganizing or redefining; complexity and evaluation;
to determine verbal aspect of students’ creativity, we applied the techniques suggested by Walther Moede and Sarnoff A. Mednick. All students performed significant improvement in the ability to generate a lot of ideas; they also showed a steady increase in such forms of creativity as sensitivity to problems, flexibility and fluency. Slight increase was noticed in reorganizing or redefining, complexity and evaluation. The students’ ability to solve problems by realization of relevant analytical and synthetic operations must be taken into consideration while developing creativity and creative communication of medical students.

The article highlights the new approach to teaching a foreign language to medical students as a reasonable mixed method of traditional teaching and the use of modern technologies. Teaching process at higher medical educational institutions is based on innovative didactic technologies, mechanisms and procedures. Many theories suggest implementation of combined classroom and online teaching called blended or hybrid learning. The aim of this investigation is to develop practical recommendations for successful integration of blended learning with traditional teaching medical students at the Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University. Web-basedtechnology stimulates and promotes self-learning, keeps the learner at the centre of the learning process using personality-oriented and technology-mediated approaches. E-learning promotes autonomy and motivates students to learn throughout the life performing specific tasks before or after classroom learning. The research involved 47 groups of students studying General Medicine at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University (602 second-year students, 2017-2018 academic year). The experiment consisted of 40% of e-learning and 60% of classroom teaching. Assessing performance, we concluded that students' academic performance results improved from 15% to 23% depending on the language skill due to the integration of blended learning strategies into the teaching process. Blended learning also assists students to choose and interpret required tasks, to assess cases related to future medical profession, and to apply compulsory information, which requires proficiency and practical skills.