The new emphasis on value-based care, managing populations and chronic diseases means that medical education must be reimagined.
A panel of physicians gathered during a morning session at the SXSW Conference in Austin to discuss the need to redesign medical curriculum. That starts with a realization that “the competencies physicians need to be good healthcare providers and leaders are different now than they were 10 or 20 years ago,” said Susan Cox, M.D., executive vice dean for academics, chair, department of medical education, Dell Medical School, at the University of Texas at Austin.
Among the needed changes:
- More and more patients need to know how much something will cost and physicians must provide them with this information, including offering them information on finding cheaper treatments.
- Medical students need to be educated about health insurance, underinsured versus uninsured, co-pays, and co-insurance and must be able to inform patients on comparative values.
- The students need to embrace shared decision-making. Greater interaction between providers and patients is required to adequately manage conditions.
- Finally, much more emphasis should be placed on training future physicians to address the broad-based health challenges of their communities, including working with social-service and other nonmedical organizations.
To read a piece on this in Hospitals & Health Networks, please hit this link.
