Technology: changing the focus of medical education?

Abstract

Sayinthen Vivekanantham, Rahul Prashanth Ravindran Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UKWith technology advancing at such a fast rate, our ability to look up and use information quickly and efficiently has improved significantly. With electronic devices capable of accessing information becoming more prevalent within the hospital setting, how this could influence medical education should be brought into question.As we are now able to look up information quickly within the clinical setting, we ask whether medical students should be expected to learn information that can easily be looked up. Instead, we question whether they should use their time to learn skills related to the application of the information, as well as information that would be needed in acute situations where looking up information would not be pragmatic.