Medical Education: Exploring New Modes in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data

In the topical discussion about medical education reform, experts delivered excellent lectures about the development of medical education at home and abroad and the exploration and thinking of future development trend.

In his speech entitledReflection on the Reform, Innovation and Development of Medical Education in the New Era with the Construction of "New Medicine" as the Main Theme, Wang Qiming, Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, pointed out that new medicine is needed in the new era and it’s an inevitable trend to construct the new medicine. The core concept of new medicine is to strengthen the training of innovative talents in the age of AI.

Prof. Wang Weimin, Deputy Director of Peking University Health Science Center, reviewed the history of medical education, especially the history of residency training, and voiced his thinking about it. He proposed that we should innovate the application of modern educational technology in medical simulation teaching, and transform the traditional medical education mode to the new mode of “medicine + artificial intelligence / big data”.

Prof. Judith Palfrey from Harvard Medical School summarized the development course of residency training in the United States and took the pediatrics as an example to compare the training of community pediatricians with the medical education mode of training pediatricians to participate in the diagnosis and treatment of complex diseases.

Teaching Team Construction and Innovative Talents Training: Chinese and Foreign Experts Sharing Medical Education Experience

“Talent is the first resource of the health course." To cultivate qualified medical talents, we should build excellent teaching teams. In the new historical stage, with people’s growing health needs, the progress of science and technology, and the promotion of the national medical and education reform, there have emerged new opportunities and challenges for the development of international medical education. In the topical discussion about the teaching team construction and innovative talents training, Chinese and American experts shared their experience based on the actual situation in different hospitals.

Prof. Tao Lijian, Executive Deputy Secretary of CPC Committee of CSU, reviewed the development of medical education in comprehensive universities and concluded that “first-class medical schools are generally found in first-class universities” through data analysis. At present, universities know little about the special laws of medical education while medical schools have inadequate knowledge about running a university. We should, on the basis of respecting higher education and universal education, respect medical education, further optimize the reform of their internal management system, pay more attention to balancing the teaching organization, teaching resources and teaching effects and cultivate high-quality medical talents. At the same time, it is important to learn from international experience and give full play to our own advantages, so that we may create our own medical education with Chinese characteristics.

Prof. Mark Swartz from Clinical Competence Center of New York took the process of cognition with pictures as an example to interact with the audience present. He believed that when students are making a diagnosis, the teacher should encourage them to reflect and build critical thinking with clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic and fairness. Prof. N. G. Patil from University of Hong Kong also elaborated on the education and training courses for medical undergraduates and residents based on the experience of the hospitals in Hong Kong.

Chancellors’ Forum: the Development of Medical Education in Comprehensive Universities against the Background of “Double First-Class Construction”

In the dialogue chaired by Chen Xiang, Vice Chancellor of CSU, Xiao Haipeng, Vice Chancellor of Sun Yat-sen University, Chen Jianguo, Vice Chancellor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Tao Lijian, Executive Deputy Secretary of CPC Committee of CSU, Wang Weimin, Deputy Director of Peking University Health Science Center and other leaders of some major Chinese universities in charge of teaching had heated discussions with the participants about how to promote the development of medical disciplines and internationalization of medical education in comprehensive universities against the background of the “double first-class construction” (construction of first-class universities and disciplines).

Vice Chancellor Xiao Haipeng introduced the experience of Sun Yat-sen University. Based on the original medical education, Sun Yat-sen University arranged for medical students to participate in scientific research, clinical and social practice in an early stage and carried out clinical skills competitions and teachers’ teaching competitions and took measures to strengthen the connection between medical disciplines and other disciplines.

Vice Chancellor Chen Jianguo introduced that Huazhong University of Science and Technology established an international medical center, laying a good foundation for the internationalization of medical education. He believed that disciplinary construction should be based on teaching, scientific research, teaching team, talent cultivation and social effects.

Wang Weimin, Deputy Director of Peking University Health Science Center, proposed two concepts, “blending” and “integration”. Medical schools should be blended into universities. In addition to integration with other disciplines, clinical medicine and basic medicine, and disciplines within clinical medicine should also be integrated.

Prof. Tao Lijian, Executive Deputy Secretary of CPC Committee of CSU, said that comprehensive universities should provide a broad platform and excellent resources for medical schools and colleges so that they can better cultivate medical students and contribute to the society. On this basis, medical schools and colleges should strengthen international cooperation and exchanges, broaden their vision and make more specific designs for the cultivation of medical talents. At the same time, it should be taken into consideration that grassroots doctors are needed in the poverty-stricken rural areas. In addition to emphasizing undergraduate education, graduate education and residency training should be combined to lay a good foundation for the future development of medical education.

At the same time, the experts discussed with participants the definition and standard of “internationalization”, how to transit from undergraduate education to graduate education and issues about international exchanges and cooperation of medical schools and colleges in the Q＆A session.

Simulation-based Medical Education: Exploring New Internationally Advanced Fields

Simulation training has been applied in medical education in western countries for more than 100 years and China has adopted it in recent years. With the deepening of national medical talent training strategy and the innovation of modern educational technology, simulation has become a rapidly developed new field in China’s medical education as an important means.

In the topical discussion about simulation-based medical education, Prof. Richard B. Schwartz from Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Prof. Paul Phrampus from WISER of University of Pittsburgh, Prof. Sabrina Koh from Sengkang Hospital, Prof. Dong Yue from Mayo Clinic and other experts shared their internationally advanced experience and introduced the applications and development of simulation-based medical education in details.

Standardization of Residency Training: Focusing on the Cultivation of Professional Spirits

Standardized training of residents is an important part of post-graduation education for medical students. It is very important for training high level clinicians and improving medical quality. It is also one of the important topics of this symposium.

In his speech entitledTraining of Residents’ Professional Spirits and Xiangya’s Practice, Vice President Lei Guanghua of Xiangya Hospital, CSU, pointed out that doctors should focus on patients instead of diseases. The cultivation of residents’ professional spirits is closed related to the improvement of humanistic qualities. As a result, the education of humanities should be included in medical education. Xiangya Hospital emphasizes the continuity in the cultivation of residents’ professional spirits and designs corresponding training and evaluation for each stage in each process, strengthens the cultivation of professional spirits in a variety of forms including teaching, practice, competition and debate; consolidates residents’ professional spirits through cultural influence and emotional encouragement, the teaching of clinical tutors by precept and example and the dialogue between famous doctors and residents. "The tutor stands by the residents to help them make progress and motivates them through trust."

Assistant Prof. Emie L. Esquivel from Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, introduced that standardized training of residents was a process of continuous improvement of their sense of responsibility and the establishment of mutual trust between tutors and residents. Teaching should enable students to build a learning system on their own, be student-oriented, and foster good qualified residents with good trust-dominated tutor-resident relationship as the starting point.

Sino-US dialogue: Development of Medical Education towards Internationalization

During the dialogue between Chinese and American experts presided over by Prof. Chen Lizhang from CSU and Prof. Zhang Liming from UPMC, Chinese representatives including Xing Liying, Deputy Director of the Department of Post-graduation Medical Education of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, Fan Peizhen, Associate Professor in Psychiatry of National Yangming University School of Medicine, and Prof. Lei Guanghua, Vice President of Xiangya Hospital, CSU, explored the concept of standardized residency training in China and the United States and discussed how to improve the standardized residency training from the perspective of differences between China and the United States with American representatives including Assistant Prof. Emie L. Esquivel from Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, Associate Professor Lin Jin of Pediatrics from Mount Sinai School of Medicine at NYU and Timothy Stephrns, M.D. of University of Kansas Medical Center and Chief Physician of Haikou People’s Hospital.

The Chinese representatives mentioned that improving standardized residency training required universities and hospitals to cultivate basic medical talents as well as high-end medical talents. It is important for Chinese education to link closely with the international community. It not only makes higher requirements for the training of residents, but also makes homogenization requirement for clinical tutors.

In the training of residents in the United States, balance between workloads and learning is emphasized. The American representatives noted that residents should improve their independent thinking and clinical abilities, realize their limits, know when to solve problems by themselves and when to seek help from their tutors. The tutors, fully trusting their students, should also correctly judge the residents’ ability to work independently and handle medical issues through careful observation. All of this is to ensure medical safety.

Sub-forums: All Schools of Thoughts Contribute to the Development of Medical Education