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    Foster Education, Training, and Continuing Professional Development

    Investing in the education, training, and development of educators is essential to prepare them for the growing role of AI in medicine and to enable them to guide learners through this transformation. Educators need the skills to critically evaluate AI, teach its applications and limitations, and integrate AI tools into education while preserving the principles of human-centered care. By building a strong foundation of AI knowledge, educators can thoughtfully integrate AI into medical education, ensuring that technological progress complements the core values of medical training. Promoting a culture of lifelong learning helps educators stay up to date with AI’s evolving role in medicine and anticipate the professional development opportunities needed to be effective. In addition, this growth mindset will promote critical thinking, which is necessary to avoid complacency and ensure vigilance when AI automation becomes routine.

    From Principle to Practice

    Apply this principle to your practice using the following strategies:

    • Provide access to learning resources. Institutions should seek and provide access to structured professional development programs, such as workshops, seminars, and online courses, that equip educators with foundational AI knowledge, including basic terminology, existing methods to evaluate AI tools, and key considerations for identifying appropriate practical applications. These programs should emphasize ethical considerations, including addressing bias, data privacy, and responsible use of AI.
    • Adopt a competency framework. Adopting a competency-based framework allows institutions to assess educators’ readiness for integrating AI into medical education by identifying key knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to effectively teach and utilize AI tools. This framework should include both foundational and advanced competencies, enabling differentiation between novice and expert levels, and be reviewed regularly to address evolving AI technologies. Using a competency framework engages multiple stakeholders in planning for professional development; individual educators can assess their own development needs, entities responsible for professional development can design or access appropriate existing trainings, and institutions can determine how and where to invest in professional development expertise and efforts. Implementation of a competency framework can assist in the evaluation of professional development training and ultimately ensure that educators are equipped to meet the demands of AI in medical education and to prepare learners for AI’s growing role in health care.
    • Review and revise existing programs. In addition to new training opportunities, institutions should also explore how AI can complement and enhance existing content, making it more relevant to contemporary medical practice. Regular evaluation and revision of current professional development initiatives are essential to ensure AI concepts are effectively integrated into existing medical education frameworks.
    • Promote diversity in expertise. Assembling a multidisciplinary team of experts is key for creating comprehensive AI professional development programs. Such teams can include medical educators, AI specialists, clinicians, and continuing professional development experts. Medical educators ensure AI tools enhance teaching practices, and AI specialists provide technical insights into the capabilities and limitations of AI, while clinicians connect AI theory to real-world clinical applications. Engaging diverse perspectives ensures a comprehensive education and training approach, helping educators understand AI’s potential, limitations, and ethical considerations for responsible integration into medical education.
    • Create shared resources for national collaboration. National collaborations made up of academic health centers and various national societies and professional associations should establish a centralized clearinghouse for continuing professional development resources. Collaborative platforms can provide rapidly accessible, high-quality programming and materials, thereby promoting consistency and shared understanding across entities. Sharing resources and innovations supports scalability by granting all institutions access and allows for dynamic input from across the community.