Systemic Barriers to Curriculum Adaptation for Rapidly Changing Knowledge in Medical Education: Qualitative Study

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Digital Health
• Curriculum Development

Background:

• Digitalization is transforming healthcare delivery and patient experience.
• Medical curricula face challenges in adapting to rapidly evolving knowledge.
• Current curriculum adaptation processes are often slow and lack interdisciplinary integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• Examine perspectives on curriculum changes needed for medical digitalization.
• Investigate difficulties in adapting medical curricula to growing knowledge.
• Identify strategies for more agile curriculum development.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of governing policy frameworks.
• 14 video interviews with curriculum governing bodies and operational boards at two medical universities.

Main Results:

• Digitalization will reshape medicine, requiring digital literacy and data skills in graduates.
• Curricula are fragmented due to poor module coordination, hindering holistic knowledge integration.
• Lack of intermodule alignment is a key barrier to curriculum change.
• Learning objectives can aid in monitoring content and integrating new topics like digitalization.

Conclusions:

• Current curriculum monitoring and updating processes are static and inefficient.
• Curriculum development needs to shift from static, fragmented structures to agile, integrated systems.
• Utilizing learning objectives dynamically can facilitate holistic integration of rapidly changing medical knowledge.