Heart of medicine: Crucial to nurture not just competent professionals but true healers. — 123rf.com
The way we teach and learn medicine is changing rapidly.
Once confined to lecture halls and thick textbooks, medical education now spans online platforms, distance learning, and personalised learning powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
To keep pace with these transformations, educators must ensure that future doctors are equipped not only with clinical knowledge and technical skills, but also the values and skills that underpin safe, modern and compassionate care.
AI is one of the most visible and disruptive forces reshaping healthcare. It already supports diagnosis, treatment planning, robotic surgery, follow-up, counselling and telemedicine.
Deep learning tools help radiologists and pathologists detect diseases earlier and with greater accuracy, while AI-assisted surgery extends the boundaries of what is possible in the operating theatre.
For medical students, this means training must include not just understanding these technologies but also learning how to use them wisely, critically and confidently. Yet technical competence alone is not enough.
Professionalism and ethics remain the cornerstone of good practice. In an era when generative AI can be misused, future clinicians must learn to harness its power responsibly, always balancing innovation with integrity and compassion.
Interdisciplinary learning
Healthcare is, and always will be, a team endeavour. Doctors rely on pharmacists for safe
prescriptions, nurses provide the backbone of patient care, and allied health professionals bring critical expertise that shapes recovery and quality of life. Yet, for too long, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, biosciences and nursing have been taught in isolation.
Breaking down these barriers is essential. By creating shared learning experiences across disciplines, educators can foster mutual understanding and respect early in a student’s career. This prepares future health professionals to function as cohesive, high-performing teams – an essential ingredient for effective patient care.
Resilience and empathy
Being a good doctor requires constant adaptability. Diseases evolve, technologies shift, and patient needs change. Doctors must navigate these realities with agility while keeping patients and communities at the heart of their work.
This capacity is tested most intensely during housemanship. Long hours, steep learning curves and heavy responsibilities often weigh on young doctors. Many experience stress or even question their career choice.
These experiences highlight a crucial truth: medical education cannot focus solely on technical skills and clinical knowledge. Resilience and a sense of purpose are just as critical.
By nurturing these values early, we can prepare young doctors to grow through the challenges of their profession and flourish.
Alongside adaptability, empathy is equally vital. It becomes most powerful when doctors see illness not only through clinical eyes but also through the lens of families who long for reassurance and human connection.
This reminds us that medicine is not just about curing disease, but also about easing suffering and bringing comfort in moments of vulnerability.
Importantly, empathy requires no extra hours in a crowded day. It lies in simple yet profound ways: a kind word, a listening ear, or simply being present.
These small acts of humanity can be as healing as any treatment and remind us why medicine, at its core, is a profoundly human endeavour.
As we educate the next generation, we must remind them that medicine is both science and humanity.
By embedding AI literacy, teamwork, adaptability, resilience and empathy into education, we can nurture not just competent professionals but also true healers – the kind of doctors patients and families remember long after illness has passed.
Dr Khine Pwint Phyu is head of Learning and Teaching, and Assoc Prof in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the School of Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Taylor’s University. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
