**3. Navigating complexity: interdisciplinary and team-based character of modern graduate medical education systems**

As one explores this second volume of *Contemporary Topics in Graduate Medical Education*, it becomes apparent how complex and interdependent various components are within the matrix of modern healthcare and graduate medical training [25]. The same can be said about the different domains of one's life, as a physician-intraining is an individual with a personal life, family, goals and ambitions, and hobbies as well as unique gifts and abilities. Residents and fellows experience a tremendous

*Introductory Chapter: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities in Modern Graduate Medical… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101016*

amount of personal and professional stress, and because it is virtually impossible to separate the "clinical life" from the "home life," concepts such as burnout, resilience, and work–life integration (as opposed to the increasingly outdated paradigm of work– life balance) begin to emerge [28, 29]. The latter paradigm is especially important in the context of training "practice-ready" physicians in the era where our daily routines are increasingly defined by technological implementations, such as electronic medical records [30]. Novel developments in work–life integration include a rapidly growing area of "coping intelligence" – one of many innovative topics in this book [31, 32].

## **4. Embracing technology: telepresence and virtual platforms in graduate medical education**

Graduate medical education is not a random process; individuals who graduate from medical schools and begin the residency training process dedicated themselves to attaining the goal of becoming a physician from much earlier in their lives [33]. As their journey through the decade-long quest to join the medical community continues, new challenges emerge and many important life lessons are learned. For the most recent generation of medical trainees, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a defining, once-in-a-generation (if not once-in-a-century) event. In this book, we discuss some of the adaptations by the GME community in response to the global pandemic. One of such adaptations – "virtual interviews" – helped leverage the existing technologies to transform our well-established candidate selection/match process [34].

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telemedicine has increased markedly in the medical world, including resident education. Residents are now expected to navigate through the new world of telemedicine with little guidance or instruction, and minimal to no experience. Almost overnight, telemedicine became the main means of communicating with patients, especially for outpatient visits, and was used extensively during the pandemic. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) responded to this immediate need by setting up a framework for permitting residents/fellows to use telemedicine for patient care [35]. However, some residents reported a degree of unease in managing chronic diseases via telemedicine visits [35]. Careful consideration of how telepresence affects resident education and patient care, including further development of guidelines for its use, will be necessary as telemedicine services continue to grow.

## **5. Addressing critical shortages: investing in the next generation of primary care physicians**

Primary care remains the cornerstone of modern, highly progressive, patientcentered, integrated healthcare systems, and the need for primary care providers (PCP) remains a global priority [36–38]. Regions with the best-performing healthcare systems tend to have the highest percentage of PCPs [39]. Consequently, numerous initiatives are underway to address the looming shortages, including the development of more targeted high-school/college career "pipeline" programs, medical training innovations, office practice transformation, and compensation/payment reforms [40].
