How would you like to see the delivery of healthcare evolve?

"One of the biggest evolutions I would like to see happen is at-home care whenever possible. Some institutions have already started to expand into home hospital patients and other services in the home, and I think there is so much more room for growth in this area. Patients in just about any situation would rather be in their own homes. As long as the monitoring tools and staff are available to help make this a reality, the sky is the limit for where this realm can go in the future."

Be sure to put some thought into a question like this before your residency interviews so you are prepared to talk in an educated manner about how you feel the delivery of healthcare could improve over time. Perhaps you feel that healthcare can best evolve through more patient-centric attitudes. Maybe you think that care coordination and synergy within the administration is the fastest way to improve healthcare. Be sure to maintain a positive attitude and complete your answer by describing how you feel healthcare is currently evolving.

I would like to see the cost and accessibility of health care be available to all people. Medical care costs have skyrocketed, and even people with health insurance have medications and testing that they need but cannot afford.

"As a young physician, I am eager to be involved in the evolution of the delivery of healthcare. I am interested in improving medicine to become more patient centered."

"I would love to see healthcare become more accessible to patients and more streamlined. There are so many nuances and intricacies of medicine, especially regarding insurance coverage. Sometimes even physicians do not fully grasp the challenges involved in navigating our healthcare system. In alignment with the previous question, it would be great to see theranostics take off as a one-modality treatment for diseases like cancer."

"Healthcare is always evolving to provide the best possible care for our patients. I hope that in the coming future, there are advances in healthcare to allow increased accessibility of care to patients in remote or rural areas. These patients often have to travel long distances or wait long periods in order to access the care that they need. I hope that there is an increase in telehealth and outreach programs so that these patients can better access the care that they need."

"I think we all agree that the current model of healthcare delivery in the United States is broken and in need of drastic change. Doctors today are being asked to not only do more with less but to do better with fewer resources in terms of patient volume, satisfaction, and outcomes. Under the current system, this seems unsustainable. I hope that in the future, more physicians are actively involved in policy and administration decisions as we are the ones on the ground, face-to-face providing care to patients. Traditionally, physicians have been excluded from these types of decisions and I think that this is a large part of why physicians and patients alike are so dissatisfied with the current state of healthcare."

Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.