Physicians, residents and students expect that almost a third of their duties could be automated by technology in the next 20 years, according to the results of a national survey commissioned by Stanford Medicine and published in January. Nearly half of all physicians (47 percent) and three quarters of medical students (73 percent) are currently seeking out additional training to better prepare themselves for innovations in health care. These pursuits gravitate toward data-oriented subjects such as advanced statistics, genetic counseling, population health, and coding. Among physicians who are seeking additional training, 34 percent are pursuing classes in artificial intelligence.

Nearly half of all physicians, students, and residents use a wearable health monitoring device. Among those who wear them, a majority say they use the data to inform their personal health care decisions (71 percent of physicians, 60 percent of students and residents). A majority of students and residents (78 percent) and physicians (80 percent) say self-reported data from a patient’s health app would be clinically valuable in supporting their care. The group also sees clinical value in data received from sources such as a patient wearable device (79 percent students and residents, 83 percent physicians) and data from consumer genetic testing reports (63 percent students and residents, 65 percent physicians).

However, large gaps in readiness exist for some of the most critical new health care developments such as telemedicine, personalized medicine, and genetic screening. When asked to rate the effectiveness of their education to prepare them for these developments, only 18 percent of current medical students and residents surveyed said their education was “very helpful,” while 44 percent of physicians surveyed said their education was either “not very helpful” or “not helpful at all.”

Source: Stanford Medicine’s 2020 Health Trends Report.