How can artificial intelligence transform the training of medical students and physicians?

Abstract

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, hold promise for transforming medical education and physician training in response to increasing health-care demands and shortages in the global health-care workforce. Meanwhile, challenges remain in the effective and equitable integration of AI technology into medical education and physician training worldwide. This Viewpoint explores the opportunities and challenges of such an integration. We study the evolving role of AI in medical education, its potential to enhance high-fidelity clinical training, and its contribution to research training using real-world examples. We also highlight ethical concerns, particularly the unclear boundaries of appropriate use of AI and call for clear guidelines to govern the integration of AI into medical education and physician training. Furthermore, this Viewpoint discusses practical constraints, including human, financial, and resource constraints, in AI integration, and emphasises the need for comprehensive cost evaluations and collaborative funding models to support the sustainable implementation of AI integration. A tight collaborative network between health-care institutions and systems, medical schools and universities, industry partners, and education and health-care regulatory agencies could lead to an AI-transformed medical education and physician training scheme that ultimately supports the adoption and integration of AI into clinical medicine and potentially brings about tangible improvements in global health-care delivery.