Background: Medical education must adapt to different health care contexts, including digitalized health care systems and a digital generation of students in a hyper-connected world. The aims of this study are to identify and synthesize the values that medical educators need to implement in the curricula and to introduce representative educational programs. Methods: An integrative review was conducted to combine data from various research designs. We searched for articles on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and EBSCO ERIC between 2011 and 2017. Key search terms were “undergraduate medical education,” “future,” “twenty-first century,” “millennium,” “curriculum,” “teaching,” “learning,” and “assessment.” We screened and extracted them according to inclusion and exclusion criteria from titles and abstracts. All authors read the full texts and discussed them to reach a consensus about the themes and subthemes. Data appraisal was performed using a modified Hawker ‘s evaluation form. Results: Among the 7616 abstracts initially identified, 28 full-text articles were selected to reflect medical education trends and suggest suitable educational programs. The integrative themes and subthemes of future medical education are as follows: 1) a humanistic approach to patient safety that involves encouraging humanistic doctors and facilitating collaboration; 2) early experience and longitudinal integration by early exposure to patient-oriented integration and longitudinal integrated clerkships; 3) going beyond hospitals toward society by responding to changing community needs and showing respect for diversity; and 4) student-driven learning with advanced technology through active learning with individualization, social interaction, and resource accessibility. Conclusions: This review integrated the trends in undergraduate medical education in readiness for the anticipated changes in medical environments. The detailed programs introduced in this study could be useful for medical educators in the development of curricula. Further research is required to integrate the educational trends into graduate and continuing medical education, and to investigate the status or effects of innovative educational programs in each medical school or environment.

Unresolved conflicts among healthcare professionals can lead to difficult patient care consequences. This scoping review examines the current healthcare literature that reported sources and consequences of conflict associated with individual, interpersonal, and organisational factors. We identified 99 articles published between 2001 and 2015 from PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Excerpta Medical Database. Most reviewed studies relied on healthcare professionals’ perceptions and beliefs associated with conflict sources and consequences, with few studies reporting behavioural or organisational change outcomes. Individual conflict sources included personal traits, such as self-focus, self-esteem, or worldview, as well as individuals’ conflict management styles. These conflicts posed threats to one’s physical, mental, and emotional health and to one’s ability to perform at work. Interpersonal dynamics were hampered by colleagues’ uncivil behaviours, such as low degree of support, to more destructive behaviours including bullying or humiliation. Perceptions of disrespectful working environment and weakened team collaboration were the main interpersonal conflict consequences. Organisational conflict sources included ambiguity in professional roles, scope of practice, reporting structure, or workflows, negatively affecting healthcare professionals’ job satisfactions and intent to stay. Future inquiries into healthcare conflict research may target the following: shifting from research involving single professions to multiple professions; dissemination of studies via journals that promote interprofessional research; inquiries into the roles of unconscious or implicit bias, or psychological capital (i.e., resilience) in healthcare conflict; and diversification of data sources to include hospital or clinic data with implications for conflict sources.

Yoo H, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2020 Nov;36(1):e13. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e13

In an era of high technology and low trust, acknowledging and coping with uncertainty is more crucial than ever. Medical uncertainty has been considered an innate feature of medicine and medical practice. An intolerance to uncertainty increases physicians' stress and the effects of burnout and may be a potential threat to patient safety. Understanding medical uncertainty and acquiring proper coping strategies has been regarded to be a core clinical competency for medical graduates and trainees. Integrating intuition and logic and creating a culture that acknowledges medical uncertainty could be suggested ways to teach medical uncertainty. In this article, the authors describe the concepts of medical uncertainty, its influences on physicians and on medical students toward medical decision making, the role of tolerance/intolerance to uncertainty, and proposed strategies to improve coping with medical uncertainty.

It has been well reported that the emotional experiences of medical students in the gross anatomy laboratory could have significant impacts on their professional identity formation. This qualitative study aimed to investigate students’ emotions towards cadaver dissection and the educational role of memorial ceremonies. A total of 37 students from eight teams were recruited in the team-based dissection course during two consecutive academic years (2016 and 2017) at one medical school. In focus group interviews, students were encouraged to express and discuss their emotions regarding cadaver dissection and memorial ceremonies. The participants described their apprehension and anxiety during their first encounter with cadavers that diminished through gradual exposure. Unfortunately, their positive emotions such as gratitude and responsibility also tended to decline under the pressure of excessive workloads and frequent examinations. Memorial ceremonies, including not only large-scale events but also daily rituals, had educational effects that they prevented the decline of students’ responsibility and respect during the dissection course. Educators should assist medical students in overcoming their initial distress and maintaining respectful attitudes throughout the dissection course. Memorial ceremonies can be effective educational tools for fostering appropriate attitudes and ethical practice in the gross anatomy laboratory.

Purpose: Given the increasing significance and potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technology on health care delivery, there is an increasing demand to integrate AI into medical school curricula. This study aimed to define medical AI competencies and identify the essential competencies for medical graduates in South Korea. Method: An initial Delphi survey conducted in 2022 involving 4 groups of medical AI experts (n = 28) yielded 42 competency items. Subsequently, an online questionnaire survey was carried out with 1,955 participants (1,174 students and 781 professors) from medical schools across South Korea, utilizing the list of 42 competencies developed from the first Delphi round. A subsequent Delphi survey was conducted with 33 medical educators from 21 medical schools to differentiate the essential AI competencies from the optional ones. Results: The study identified 6 domains encompassing 36 AI competencies essential for medical graduates: (1) understanding digital health and changes driven by AI; (2) fundamental knowledge and skills in medical AI; (3) ethics and legal aspects in the use of medical AI; (4) medical AI application in clinical practice; (5) processing, analyzing, and evaluating medical data; and (6) research and development of medical AI, as well as subcompetencies within each domain. While numerous competencies within the first 4 domains were deemed essential, a higher percentage of experts indicated responses in the last 2 domains, data science and medical AI research and development, were optional. Conclusions: This medical AI framework of 6 competencies and their subcompetencies for medical graduates exhibits promising potential for guiding the integration of AI into medical curricula. Further studies conducted in diverse contexts and countries are necessary to validate and confirm the applicability of these findings. Additional research is imperative for developing specific and feasible educational models to integrate these proposed competencies into pre-existing curricula.