The 4 biggest transformations coming for your clinical career
Industry Buzz
"By 2035, I envision clinicians liberated from low-value administrative tasks. AI will automate documentation and protocol alerts, while human judgment is reserved for complex care, shared decision-making, and mentorship." — Steven Goldberg, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at HealthTrackRx
Find more of your peers' perspectives and insights below.
No one coming out of med school 10 or even 5 years ago was trained for what clinical life looks like today… AI writes notes. Patients expect care on their phones. Genetic reports land on your desk before lunch. Medicare is paying for virtual visits and home infusions.
For practicing physicians, these shifts are already influencing hiring, scope of practice, and even day-to-day clinical workflows.
Here are four areas where medicine is evolving especially fast—so fast that, 10 years from now, clinicians may need to rethink not just how they practice, but what it even means to “practice medicine” at all.
1. AI-augmented practice
A 2024 survey reported that nearly two-thirds of physicians already utilize AI in their practice, underscoring its swift adoption and significance.[] Algorithms draft notes, flag sepsis, and read scans; clinicians become the human-in-the-loop, verifying outputs, and de-biasing data.
As Steven Goldberg, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at HealthTrackRx, tells MDLinx, "The most transformative shift has been integrating AI into decision-support tools. Used wisely, these tools do not replace clinical leadership; they enrich it. While ideation must remain grounded in clinical integrity, AI enables the aggregation of broader insights and deeper longitudinal analysis."
Elissa Gartenberg, DO, a board-certified family physician, adds, “I use AI in ways I never would have imagined even 5 years ago. It helps draft patient education materials, research the latest advances, and streamline documentation."
Clearly, clinicians will increasingly need clinical data fluency to leverage these digital tools effectively.
2. Telehealth and virtual care
Telehealth surged during the COVID-19 pandemic and has now become a permanent fixture. Remote care usage jumped from 15.4% of clinicians in 2019 to 86.5% in 2021, and the trend is still holding strong.[]
Many practitioners are redesigning their schedule to cluster virtual appointments, reducing disruptive back-and-forth between exam room and webcam.
Internal medicine physician Howard Friedman, MD, notes its profound impact: "The shift from in-person to telehealth consulting has allowed me to move away from a physically and emotionally drained clinical system and still serve patients with clarity and purpose."
Clinical psychologist Kelly McClure, PhD, ABPP, agrees: "Telepsychology offers me the ability to work from where I am, as long as I have a private space. I can continue seeing clients even when they travel."
New support roles, such as telehealth coordinators, have also emerged to manage the logistics of virtual visits.
Telehealth would also benefit gereatric care. The senior population in the US is rapidly expanding, significantly affecting healthcare delivery. By 2034, seniors will outnumber children for the first time in US history, intensifying demand for geriatric and home-based care.[]
"By 2035, I envision clinicians liberated from low-value administrative tasks. AI will automate documentation and protocol alerts, while human judgment is reserved for complex care, shared decision-making, and mentorship," Dr. Goldberg says.
Billing and coding have adapted, too. What were once temporary pandemic measures are now longer-term policies, with Medicare extending telehealth payment parity through at least 2025.[]
Forward-looking clinicians might even consider becoming full-time virtualists, enjoying geographic flexibility (work from home in scrubs!) while being licensed across multiple states.
3. Precision medicine and genomics
Precision medicine, including genomic-guided treatments, is transforming how diseases are diagnosed and treated. In 2023 alone, personalized drugs represented more than one-third of all FDA drug approvals.[]
"Precision medicine means waiting hours, not days, for diagnostic results that inform the right treatment for the right patient at the right time. This reduces unnecessary prescriptions, improves outcomes, and supports antimicrobial stewardship," Dr. Goldberg says.
He envisions that precision diagnostics will become routine, significantly minimizing clinical uncertainty.
4. Population health and value-based care
Population health management and value-based care are rapidly growing due to healthcare policy shifts. As of 2024, over 480 Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and 122 Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health (REACH) ACOs manage nearly 11 million beneficiaries.[]
Rheumatologist Colin Edgerton, MD, identifies necessary clinician skills: "Clinicians will need the ability to monitor process outcomes in near real-time and adjust operations to maintain or enhance services. This requires improved data gathering and far more sophisticated analysis."
He also highlights the increasing demand for operational efficiency and financial literacy as healthcare moves toward outcomes-driven reimbursement.
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