Redefining medical education by boosting curriculum with artificial intelligence knowledge

Abstract

In 1910, Abraham Flexner published The Flexner Report. After visiting 155 medical schools across the United States and Canada, he established the biomedical model as the gold standard of medical training. 1 Among other things, he created a standardized four-year curriculum, recommended a minimum qualification for admittance, and establishes an accreditation process. 2 Previous to his report, the majority of medical schools had been founded merely for profit reasons and thus went about their business without any set of rules for admission or accreditation. Flexner's influence still guides the current curricular reform, and more than a century later, we still believe the fundamental aims proposed by him are relevant. However, we must also consider that to restructure today's education track optimally, it is necessary to embrace new technologies. Making changes to the medical school curriculum In the recent past, medical curriculum reformations were made to meet requirements urged by the accreditation system. These changes are essential, but they are not enough. As Wartman and Combs state in their 2019 article, a genuinely impactful reimagining cannot correctly take place within the existing regulatory structure. 3 As such, adjusting the accreditation and licensing framework should be strongly considered. 4 The 21st-century curriculum should include components that strengthen the physician's capacity to practice with more precision in such a data-rich, rapidly advancing environment that is supported by ever-improving AI. Since the vast amount of available medical information has literally surpassed our brains' storage capacity, teaching medical students to acclimate to and embrace AI applications should be a central focus of today's curricular reform. Traditionally, medical education has revolved around memorization. As a result, students and physicians are spending much of their time attending to tasks that could be more easily completed by a machine. For instance, first-year residents devote an average of 16 out of every 24hours worked to indirect patient care, of which at least 10hours are dedicated to interacting with medical records. They spend a mere three hours (or less) engaged in direct patient care. 5 Considering that healthcare should focus on the patient and not their records, this is entirely unacceptable. Another study concluded that primary care physicians (PCPs) spend approximately six hours a day just interacting with the electronic health records (EHR) during and after clinic hours. 6 This monstrous proportion contributes to work-life imbalance, dissatisfaction, high attrition rates, and a burnout rate that exceeds 50%. 7 PCPs feel burdened by mostly menial administrative tasks that are antithetical to the reasons they chose their profession in the first place while adding little value to patient care. 8 In a study published by Neumann et al., distress associated with life and job dissatisfaction is a crucial reason for medical students and residents displaying a decline in empathy: anxiety, tension, and stress can significantly reduce one's ability to relate and sympathize. 9 Crucial concepts like communication, shared decision making, leadership, team building, and empathy make up typically only a minor part of the medical school curriculum. 10 Instead of focusing on