Medical education
More recently, there have been significant efforts in the United States to integrate health systems science (HSS) as the "third pillar" of medical education, alongside preclinical and clinical studies.
Physicians often attend dedicated lectures, grand rounds, conferences, and performance improvement activities in order to fulfill their requirements.
Additionally, physicians are increasingly opting to pursue further graduate-level training in the formal study of medical education as a pathway for continuing professional development.
[22][23] A landmark scoping review published in 2018 demonstrated that online teaching modalities are becoming increasingly prevalent in medical education, with associated high student satisfaction and improvement on knowledge tests.
However, the use of evidence-based multimedia design principles in the development of online lectures was seldom reported, despite their known effectiveness in medical student contexts.
[24] To enhance variety in an online delivery environment, the use of serious games, which have previously shown benefit in medical education,[25] can be incorporated to break the monotony of online-delivered lectures.
[29][30] Furthermore, studies utilizing modern visualization technology (i.e. virtual and augmented reality) have shown great promise as means to supplement lesson content in physiological and anatomical education.
[31][32] With the advent of telemedicine (aka telehealth), students learn to interact with and treat patients online, an increasingly important skill in medical education.
Students are assessed based on professionalism, communication, medical history gathering, physical exam, and ability to make shared decisions with the patient actor.
[39][40] See: Along with training individuals in the practice of medicine, medical education influences the norms and values of its participants (patients, families, etc.)
This either occurs through explicit training in medical ethics, or covertly through a "hidden curriculum" –– a body of norms and values that students encounter implicitly, but is not formally taught.
[b] In certain institutions, such as those with LCME accreditation, the requirement of "professionalism" may be additionally weaponized against trainees, with complaints about ethics and safety being labelled as unprofessional.
[59][60] Increased mortality and morbidity rates occur from birth to age 75, attributed to medical care (insurance access, quality of care), individual behavior (smoking, diet, exercise, drugs, risky behavior), socioeconomic and demographic factors (poverty, inequality, racial disparities, segregation), and physical environment (housing, education, transportation, urban planning).
[60] A country's health care delivery system reflects its "underlying values, tolerances, expectations, and cultures of the societies they serve",[61] and medical professionals stand in a unique position to influence opinion and policy of patients, healthcare administrators, & lawmakers.
[56][62] In order to truly integrate health policy matters into physician and medical education, training should begin as early as possible – ideally during medical school or premedical coursework – to build "foundational knowledge and analytical skills" continued during residency and reinforced throughout clinical practice, like any other core skill or competency.
[58] This source further recommends adopting a national standardized core health policy curriculum for medical schools and residencies in order to introduce a core foundation in this much needed area, focusing on four main domains of health care: (1) systems and principles (e.g. financing; payment; models of management; information technology; physician workforce), (2) quality and safety (e.g. quality improvement indicators, measures, and outcomes; patient safety), (3) value and equity (e.g. medical economics, medical decision making, comparative effectiveness, health disparities), and (4) politics and law (e.g. history and consequences of major legislations; adverse events, medical errors, and malpractice).
However limitations to implementing these health policy courses mainly include perceived time constraints from scheduling conflicts, the need for an interdisciplinary faculty team, and lack of research / funding to determine what curriculum design may best suit the program goals.
Remedies may include having online courses, off-site trips to the capitol or health foundations, or dedicated externships, but these have interactive, cost, and time constraints as well.
[59][63][65][66][67] Lastly, more national support and research will be needed to not only establish these programs but to evaluate how to both standardize and innovate the curriculum in a way that is flexible with the changing health care and policy landscape.
[78][82] Didactic courses in cadaver dissection are commonly offered by certified anatomists, scientists, and physicians with a background in the subject.
Each medical journal in this list has a varying impact factor, or mean number of citations indicating how often it is used in scientific research and study.
