Learning, teaching and assessment in health professional education and scholarship in the next 50 years

This paper explores how health professional education and scholarship is likely to evolve over the next 50 years. Recognising the ambitious nature of this goal, we have adopted an approach of “looking back to predict the future”, drawing on past trends and lessons learnt to offer some predictions and recommendations. In doing so, we are mindful that recent advances in technology, especially related to generative artificial intelligence (AI), have added a further layer of complexity. The rapid rate of maturation of these technologies and the accompanying array of AI-based software solutions suggest that the educational landscape is likely to change dramatically—and continuously—over the foreseeable future. Within this context, it may seem premature to predict the future or make recommendations. However, in this paper we argue that urgent action is needed by educators to engage with the evolving landscape and to proactively develop models to harness the full potential of emerging technologies. Six themes are addressed, including: 1) the evolving role of educators and education providers, 2) innovative educational models and ethical frameworks, 3) future-focused competencies, 4) authentic assessment, 5) interprofessional education and 6) educational scholarship. This paper proposes a set of recommendations with the intention of stimulating critical discourse that can potentially lead to ongoing exploration of relevant issues.