We are human, not artificial intelligence—medical teaching innovation in Taiwan

Abstract

We appreciated Sandro Vento's Correspondence addressing the merit of a conducive environment in medical learning.1Vento S Medicine should be learned in a conducive environment.Lancet. 2023; 401: 267-268Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar With artificial intelligence development booming in recent years, there is a lot of interest in applying artificial intelligence to medical education to quickly produce many new doctors to resolve the problems of insufficient medical resources. However, lots of arguments have emerged about whether quickly produced new doctors have sufficient humanity in clinical practice. Here, we provide alternative experiences of medical education in Taiwan, which might be helpful for medical education providers around the world. Different from medical education in high-income countries, traditional medical education in Taiwan merges both Eastern and Western styles and focuses on “big class, big education” (ie, hundreds of students learn together in a hall). Such traditional medical education is suitable for well motivated students. However, because of the Taiwanese educational system (ie, entering medical college due to high examination grades but not personal interest), medical students might learn medicine with only partial motivation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, “big class” education was conducted, and medical education providers sought alternative strategies. Several kinds of workshops and hands-on classes, such as evidence-based medicine workshops2Taiwan Evidence-Based Medicine AssociationHistorical meeting.https://www.tebma.org.tw/event/historyDate: 2023Date accessed: January 29, 2023Google Scholar and InnovaRad workshops3Tsai IC InnovaRad - medicine education workshop.https://www.innovarad.tw/recent/Date: 2023Date accessed: January 29, 2023Google Scholar have been innovated. The most important difference between traditional education and these new workshops is that the latter focuses on hands-on teaching and not only lectures. As a medical education provider, we noticed such conducive environments in workshops led the students to be more productive. P-TT is a teacher in the InnovaRad workshops. All other authors declare no competing interests.