Reimagining the Role of a Medical Teacher in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

For the past three decades, the "Twelve Roles of the Medical Teacher" has been the key framework to determine the competencies required to be effective in the practice of medical teaching. It identifies twelve specific roles in six categories i.e. Information Provider, Role Model, Facilitator, Assessor, Planner, Resource Developer. 1 In Pakistan, it remains the key driver of almost all faculty development programs, including the short six-month Certificate in Health Professions Education (CHPE) and more comprehensive two-year Master in Health Professions Education (MHPE) programs. However, currently, there is a shift in Health Professions Education due to the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the explosion of big data which raises the question: are these traditional roles still sufficient? Contemporary literature clearly suggests that they are not. 2,3 The pace at which medical knowledge expands today far exceeds the capacity of traditional teaching tools, such as textbooks. Thus, the role of the health professions educator is moving away from being a deliverer of information and toward becoming a developer of digital platforms curated according to learners’ needs.