University Archives

Health professions education faces urgent questions about how emerging technologies, economic pressures, and equity concerns will reshape teaching and learning by 2035. Employing Ethnographic Futures Research (EFR), a participatory scenario-planning method engaging diverse stakeholders in envisioning alternative futures, twelve participants including faculty, students, clinicians, simulation educators, and administrators collaborated in a structured workshop to develop three scenarios: optimistic, pessimistic, and most probable. These scenarios revealed core tensions between technological capability and human judgment, efficiency and empathy, and innovation and equity. Five design principles emerged: technology should augment rather than replace human judgment; modular learning must be embedded in authentic clinical contexts; faculty serve as essential guides for reflection and professional formation; equity must be designed into systems from inception; and ethics and data literacy enable responsible technology engagement. Together, these principles offer actionable direction for institutions navigating educational transformation, supporting flexible, globally connected systems that preserve the relational and ethical dimensions of healthcare practice. The framework advances inclusive, equitable quality health professions education.