This was revealed by Dr. Francisco Gutierrez, Laureate Education
Inc.’s Senior Vice President for Medicine and Health Sciences and the
Chief Consultant for Health Navigation in Washington, D.C. during his
extramural lecture at AIT on the topic “Global Health Trends and Their
Impact on Medical and Health Sciences Education.”
Dr. Gutierrez stated that this data from the Institute of Medicine
also indicates that the cost involved in such cases could be greater
than USD 10 billion. He added that subsequent studies have placed the
number of deaths due to medical errors in the range of 98,000.
He listed consumerism, search for value in health care, safety in
medical care, use of internet and sustaining life as the new Global
Health Trends as opposed to cost, aging and system failure which he
termed as “traditional health trends”. He also identified bioterrorism,
influenza epidemic and the obesity epidemic as unprecedented threats
being faced by the health sector.
Talking about curriculum changes in health education, Dr. Gutierrez
said that in about five years, the curriculum often becomes irrelevant.
He mentioned how simulation, virtual dissections and virtual lectures
are replacing the traditional methods of teaching. “A student has
already spent 5000 hours on video gaming, sent 250,000 emails, instant
messages and texts, spent 10,000 hours on the mobile phone and has been
online for 3500 hours prior to entering college”, Dr. Gutierrez said
adding that this student who has to be taught very differently from
what was taught traditionally.
AIT President, Said Irandoust inquired on the issue of cultural
differences while dealing with patients and wanted to know if the new
curriculum incorporated such elements. The President mentioned cases of
negligence because the medical professionals were not able to calculate
adequate dosage for patients due to their limited mathematical
abilities. Dr. Gutierrez assured the President that they would
incorporate these suggestions while designing their curriculums.
