A new survey has cast light on a very crucial aspect, the career choice of medical students, based on their perception of the evolving technological advances. In shorter and simpler words, medical students are digging deeper to understand the impact of the latest technological advancements to interpret the scope of human intervention in the medical care sector in the coming years.
With the advent of Ai-integrated techniques, a large share of the medical care facilities have already become human-independent and relies on AI-powered machines for interpretations and diagnosis. With more advanced AI-integrated technologies in the pipeline, the scope of medical students in the field of radiology may shrink further.
However, without a strategically conducted data-driven study no conclusions can be drawn. Therefore, a research team conducted a study to interpret the expectations and choices related to the medical student’s career decisions given the increasing role of technology in medical care.
The Students’ Perception
According to the new data, some medical care students think that the way technology, especially, Artificial Intelligence is evolving and progressing, it might render a few specialties entirely irrelevant over a few more years.
The study included 532 students to check the impact of the growing involvement of technology in the medical care sector on the student’s career choices. Out of these students, 23% remarked that they would not like to opt for diagnostic radiology as a career choice.
They felt that in future, the scope of opportunism will be more limited in the radiology sector as many of the job roles available for human resources will then become obsolete. Consequently, they will have fewer career opportunities in the radiology sector.
The researchers published the data and the outcomes in Academic Radiology recently. Michael K. Atalay is an MD, PhD at the Diagnostic Imaging Department of Rhode Island Hospital. He also has an association with Brown University’s ‘Warren Alpert School of Medicine.
Michael and his colleagues clarified in this article how the current comprehension and beliefs regarding the evolving technological arena will impact the future of the medical care sector. To explain the influence, the team remarked that predicting the exact trend in which the medical care sector will evolve following technological advancements is quite an impossible task.
However, the experts believed the prevailing perception of the medical students of the unprecedented involvement of technology in medical care is sure to impact the future choice of career of the students pursuing their medical studies at present. Depending o the specialties, the impact on a student’s future career choice may vary between subtle and substantial.
Domain Specific Response
According to the students, streams like pathology, anesthesiology, and diagnostic radiology are likely to become more technology0drive with fewer opportunities for human skills. Apart from these specific domains of medical care, most students thought that involvement in technology would make their career prospects stronger.
The researchers surveyed the same class of students twice to check how their perceptions changed over time. Accordingly, they conducted the survey in 2017 and 2021. In 2017, 50% of the participating students showed their concern about the limited scope of radiology due to the growing importance of technology in the field.
Surprisingly, the 2021 data revealed that 71% of the students were concerned about radiology as a career choice for the same reasons.
The researchers mentioned that most students felt radiology to be the specific lateral of medical care that will go under extensive change with involvement in technology. They further concluded that students think the radiology sector will have limited opportunities for human employees in the future.
Even though all these concerns are based on anticipations and speculations, this might keep many talented and deserving students from choosing radiology as their career choice, depriving the domain of some of the best human employees.
The Way Out
The team of researchers further suggested the recruitment efforts to consider the upstream influence of the evolving technology perception. The team felt that AI awareness is more critical at this juncture of time to effectively handle the anxiety and concerns harbored by the medical care students today.
If they get to learn about the AI advantages and its implications in detail, the scope of speculations based on mere perceptions will decrease. As a result, their choice of career for the future will be guided by information and data rather than misconceptions or baseless ideas.
There is no doubt that the increasing role of technology in the field of medical care has become a growing concern for many students aspiring to become a part of this domain. However, will real-time understanding and well-researched data, students can understand their scope more clearly. They might eventually find technology as an aid and not as an antagonist.
At sepStream®, we believe that the best technology can help gain accuracy and transparency in medical sector works. From diagnosis to treatment, physicians, radiologists, to caregivers everyone can use our AI-integrated, intuitive software solutions to make the medical services impeccable.