Mapping Contemporary Medical Education: Emerging Thematic Trends in High-Impact Journals

Abstract

Introduction: The training of health professionals requires dynamic and evidence-based processes. In this context, medical education research plays a key role in guiding pedagogical innovation. However, systematic characterizations of recent thematic lines remain scarce.

Objective: To identify and analyze emerging thematic trends in medical education published between 2019 and 2025 in Q1 and Q2 journals, grouping them into macro-themes and assessing their temporal evolution.

Method: A bibliometric and computational thematic analysis of 15,421 abstracts indexed in Scopus and JCR was conducted. Natural language processing techniques and LDA topic modeling were applied, extracting five topics per year. Topics were organized into seven macro-themes through inductive coding and expert consensus validation.

Results: Curriculum and Teaching, Technology and Innovation, and Assessment were the most frequent and central macro-themes in co-occurrence networks. A sustained increase in Wellness and Mental Health and Inclusion and Social Justice was observed from 2021 onward, reflecting a shift toward more humanistic and equity-oriented approaches. The synergy between technological innovation and formative assessment systems emerged as a cross-cutting trend.

Conclusions: Medical education is undergoing transformation, with the persistence of traditional axes and the progressive incorporation of technologies and approaches centered on wellness and social justice. These findings provide an empirical basis for curricular redesign, institutional decision-making, and future research.