As technology spreads ever further across the healthcare sector, nearly half of physicians (73%) and most medical students (73%) are working to keep up with the changes by seeking additional training in areas such as advanced statistics, genetic counseling, population health and coding. 

That’s according to a survey from Stanford Medicine, which also found that doctors and medical students expect almost a third of their current duties could be automated in 20 years.

Moreover, one-third are studying AI, according to the national survey of more than 700 physicians, residents and medical students commissioned by Stanford Medicine to understand how changing trends will reach the doctor’s office and shape patient care.

"We found that current and future physicians are not only open to new technologies but are actively seeking training in subjects such as data science to enhance care for their patients," said Lloyd Minor, M.D., dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, in a statement.

Among the report’s other findings, a significant number of healthcare providers are digital health users themselves, and they see clinical value in patient-generated sources of health data.

For example, nearly half of all physicians, students, and residents use a wearable health monitoring device, and among those who wear them, a majority say they use the data to inform their personal health care decisions.

Moreover, a majority of students and residents (78%) and physicians (80%) say that self-reported data from a patient’s health app would be clinically valuable in supporting their care, and they also see clinical value in data received from sources such as a patient wearable device and data from consumer genetic testing reports.

Despite the enthusiasm about AI and other technologies, the survey found what it called a “transformation gap,” which it defined as “a sharp divergence between the innovations that health providers recognize as important, but for which they feel insufficiently prepared. Most starkly, we see this gap with innovations that physicians, residents, and medical students believe will benefit their patients the most.

“For example, more than half of those surveyed see significant potential for the application of personalized medicine, but few physicians and students (11% and 5%, respectively) feel ‘very prepared’ to implement it in practice.”

The report also pointed to the need to modernize curriculum and training programs so current and future physicians can make the best use of new technologies.