Medical Education in the Time of Tech Transformation

THE HEALTHCARE LANDSCAPE is evolving rapidly, driven by advancements in technology, changes in population demographics, commoditisation of information in a digital world, and the ongoing need for quality care.

- DR ANURAG AGRAWAL

While physicians play a critical role in defining and delivering patient care, there is a growing recognition of the importance of non-physicians in imagining and creating health systems of tomorrow. Health is a superficially simple word, hiding a complexity such that its meaning changes from birth to death, from past to present, and from resource-constrained to resource-abundant. The future of health and healthcare systems is being shaped by new scientific, social and economic forces. In turn, medical education and research too will change; with the rise, fall and realignment of specialties. Here, I look at recent technological trends with the potential to disrupt medicine, and speculate about what it means for medical education and research.