Future medical education: Preparing, priorities, possibilities

Introduction: As educators who are guiding the preparation of future health professionals, we must do what we can to recognize and meet the needs of those our graduates will serve. Fulfilling that goal depends on our responding to relevant changes in society and to evolving understanding of learning processes. Preparing: To have educational programs that evolve appropriately when preparing learners for the future, we too must evolve. We need to prepare by recognizing shifts in population health and other societal trends that bring implications for the kinds of clinicians needed. External trends can require changes in our thinking and practices so that we reform any outdated educational traditions. Priorities: Societal changes relevant to medical education and health care are happening so rapidly that we need to select from existing trends those that are most pressing and impactful. As we set our priorities, we need to understand the process of facilitating lasting changes in people and institutions. Possibilities: In addition to responding to the changes that are arriving, we need to be initiating additional changes. Here, I suggest some reforms needed in health professions education, if our students are to become the clinicians that their future patients deserve.