Exploiting the power of information in medical education

Med Teach. 2021 Jul;43(sup2):S17-S24. doi: 10.1080/0142159X.2021.1925234.

Abstract

The explosion of medical information demands a thorough reconsideration of medical education, including what we teach and assess, how we educate, and whom we educate. Physicians of the future will need to be self-aware, self-directed, resource-effective team players who can synthesize and apply summarized information and communicate clearly. Training in metacognition, data science, informatics, and artificial intelligence is needed. Education programs must shift focus from content delivery to providing students explicit scaffolding for future learning, such as the Master Adaptive Learner model. Additionally, educators should leverage informatics to improve the process of education and foster individualized, precision education. Finally, attributes of the successful physician of the future should inform adjustments in recruitment and admissions processes. This paper explores how member schools of the American Medical Association Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium adjusted all aspects of educational programming in acknowledgment of the rapid expansion of information.

Keywords: Metacognition; active learning; artificial intelligence; clinical informatics; electronic health record; medical education.

MeSH terms

  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Curriculum
  • Education, Medical*
  • Humans
  • Learning
  • Students