Exploiting the power of information in medical education

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
• clinical informatics
• electronic health record
• artificial intelligence
• medical education

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank their home institutions, fellow members of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium, and the AMA for their support of innovation.

The AMA Supplement is sponsored and supported by The American Medical Association.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect American Medical Association policy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded in part by the American Medical Association.

Notes on contributors

William B. Cutrer

William B. Cutrer, MD, MEd, School of Medicine Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.

W. Anderson Spickard

W. Anderson Spickard III, MD, MS, School of Medicine Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.

Marc M. Triola

Marc M. Triola, MD, Grossman School of Medicine New York University, New York, NY, USA.

Bradley L. Allen

Bradley L. Allen, MD, PhD, School of Medicine Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA.

Nathan Spell

Nathan Spell III, MD, School of Medicine Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Steven K. Herrine

Steven K. Herrine, MD, Sidney Kimmel Medical College Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia PA, USA.

John L. Dalrymple

John L. Dalrymple, MD, Medical Education Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Paul N. Gorman

Paul N. Gorman, MD, School of Medicine Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, ME, USA.

Kimberly D. Lomis

Kimberly D. Lomis, MD, Medical Education Outcomes American Medical Association, Chicago, IL, USA.