The Future of Medical Education and Practice

• Date: 01 June 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.229
• Published date: 01 June 2017

Editorial

The Future of Medical Education and Practice

Arnauld Nicogossian, Bonnie Stabile , Otmar Kloiber, and Edward Septimus

Technological breakthroughs are continuously changing our world. Informa-

tion technology has revolutionized our lives. In a not-too-distant future, robotics

and artif‌icial intelligence will further reshape our environment, and might even

usher in a new era of space travel, migration, and physical development. The

workforce prof‌ile and requisite skills will also be affected, so our learning and

academic curriculum must evolve.

Today’s medical education, practice, and health care, still rooted in mid-20th-

century principles, are slow to adapt to these changes. For centuries, medicine

focused on diagnosis of diseases and palliative care. Technology helped us to be

more precise with those tasks and is moving us toward health maintenance and

disease prevention. Despite considerable progress in understanding, especially of

the social determinants of health, the prevention of diseases, risk management,

and translational and behavioral sciences continue to lag.

More than 200 years has elapsed since Jenner proved the benef‌it of

vaccination against infections, avoiding unnecessary morbidity and mortality. Yet

many groups are still contesting its benef‌it, often with pseudoscientif‌ic methods.

In the mid-1800s, Gregor Mendel described recessive and dominant traits,

opening the f‌ield of genetics. Almost 100 years later, the discovery of the “double

helix” by Watson and Crick (1953) transformed the f‌ield of medicine. Following

the introduction of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, rapid gene

sequencing and genetic engineering, a new multi-billion-dollar biotechnology

industry is being continuously created. The human genome mapping project, the

development of molecular medicine with new, highly effective therapies, and

revolutionized assisted reproductive medicine collectively evoke hope, as well as

controversy about the ethical limits of medicine.

Life sciences knowledge is advancing at an ever-accelerated pace

thanks to international collaboration, the creation of large-scale health data

banks, information technology tools, and new data mining and analysis

techniques. The introduction of 3-D printing, together with genome editing

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2017

162

doi: 10.1002/wmh3.229

#2017 Policy Studies Organization