There has been exponential growth in technology use within the NHS, further accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and video consultations, e-Consults and remote monitoring are now commonplace. However, undergraduate medical education is not keeping up with this pace and medical schools risk producing graduates who are unqualified to work in a digital NHS.

Assessment The Medical Education Innovation and Research Centre (MEdIC) led two projects exploring views of primary care educators and medical students. MEdIC is a translational centre bringing cutting-edge evidence from health, education, community and policy into medical education innovations and research.

Primary care educators attended a digital health workshop where activities included discussing challenges and risks around digital technology. Key challenges identified included digital consultation skills, access, workload, patient safety and ethics.

Third year medical students were invited to enrol on ‘Digital Health Futures’, a specialty choice module. After the module, students were invited to participate in focus groups to reflect on digital health education. Key themes included lack of preparedness for practice, a call for digital to be fully integrated within the curriculum, and concerns around attitude of the medical school to technology and digital innovation.

Leadership Implementing curricular improvement requires strong leadership; and close collaborations and consultation with students and educators is vital. This must be an ongoing and iterative process due to the nature of technological development. Aligning the curriculum to the Topol Report and NHS Long Term plan is key for student learning and ultimately patient care.

MEdIC’s dedicated leadership in this area has demonstrated the need for curricular reform at undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development level. This emerging and urgent priority must be tackled across the whole medical education spectrum.