Future Docs is a radio and online documentary project that follows the experiences of medical students and residents as they become doctors. It included a series of 10 radio stories that aired throughout the school year, plus a one hour documentary that included some of those stories and wrapped up the series, and an online blog. Future Docs asked the questions: what’s it like to become a doctor today in Rhode Island, and how is that changing? Our Future Docs’ experiences are a window into a changing world—a world in which we all have a stake. First, our health care system is undergoing massive change – from fostering new, patient-centered approaches to care, to covering a broader swath of Americans, to chipping away at health care’s high costs. Next, we’re changing: our demographics are getting older, and more diverse. And then there’s the galloping speed of science, offering medical students and patients new knowledge, new options, and often new ethical dilemmas to master and manage. How we educate our future docs can tell us a lot about how we’re going to address these challenges and changes, and, ultimately, what kind of health care we’ll receive.
