Exploring the Essential Competencies for Medical Education in the Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era: A Mixed-Methods Investigation at a Japanese Medical School.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to considerable advances in medical education through technological integration. The crisis generated by the pandemic in medical practice, education, and evolving technology has led to changes in the skills of medical professionals. This study aimed to examine the competencies required of medical students in the post-pandemic era.

Methods: We conducted 2 mixed-methods studies. Study 1 explored medical students' necessary competencies after the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted group work with faculty members and students from the Chiba University School of Medicine, captured proposed competencies, discussed them, and qualitatively analyzed the group work data using content analysis to extract the competencies. Study 2 was a secondary data analysis that compared the categories identified in Study 1 with the competencies required prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which were extracted from the websites of all 82 medical schools and colleges in Japan, to identify the differences in competencies before and after the pandemic.

Results: Study 1 resulted in the identification of 12 categories and 62 subcategories. The results of Study 2 showed that the increased occurrence of competencies was related to the utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI), self-management, information gathering and explanation, liberal arts and generic skills, and exploring medicine and medical care/research presentations. The prevalence rates of these factors prior to the COVID-19 outbreak were 17.1%, 28.0%, 39.0%, 41.5%, and 48.8%, respectively.

Conclusions: Competency-based medical education in ICT, self-management, and medical exploration has become increasingly important after the pandemic. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an educational curriculum to enable medical students to acquire these competencies. The study findings contribute to the literature on medical education and offer valuable insight into setting effective academic goals and designing suitable curricula for undergraduate medical students in the post-pandemic era.