Last year, nearly 23k students started med school in the US.

This is the traditional path for those who are interested in a career in medicine.

But the healthcare industry is currently experiencing a renaissance as the approach to care shifts from reactive to proactive.

This is opening up the field to those who might have never considered a career in medicine, and creating incredible opportunities for your kids.

Let’s dive into the trends we’ve uncovered.

In today’s issue:

1. Future Friday: Five activities you can practice with your kid to get them excited about the future of medicine.

2. Something to inspire you: Meet the kid who started her medical career — as a high school freshman. 🤯

3. Ivy’s takeaway: If you’re not helping your kid adopt a limitless mindset, you’re holding them back.

Medicine’s Renaissance — and what it means for your kid’s future

Hand up if you watched Netflix’s Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones and felt something you hadn’t felt in a while — pure, unadulterated joy. ✋

For those who missed it, the docuseries highlights communities that produce the largest concentrations of individuals living to age 100+.

This trend is known as “longevity”.

And the future of medicine is hyper-focused on it.

The past, present, and future of medicine.

Longevity pioneer, Dr. Peter Attia says we are on the brink of a new era of medicine. Here’s how he breaks it down:

👉 Medicine 1.0: Monks treat diseases by draining blood, balancing humors, and packing wounds with lard. 😳

👉 Medicine 2.0: Modern science-backed practices like sterilization, antibiotics, and treatments positively respond to disease in order to cure or minimize symptoms.

👉 Medicine 3.0: Proactive lifestyle measures and preventative diagnostics / treatments ward off disease before it occurs.

Medicine 3.0 is going to create careers in the field of medicine beyond traditional doctors and scientists.

Here are five activities to begin fostering curiosity in your kid and prepare them to disrupt healthcare. 👊

Healthy people live with purpose — and medical professionals of tomorrow will need to help them find it.

Studies show that living a purpose-driven life is one secret to longevity, and a major lifestyle factor in Medicine 3.0.

This means that your kid could have a future in medicine without needing an interest in science — they just need an interest in people.

Here are a few ways you can build skills that will help them help others live purposeful lives:

👂 Keep a “listening journal”. Help your kids develop active listening habits by writing (or drawing if they’re younger) something interesting they heard that day each night before bed.

👫 Volunteer in the community. Volunteering instills a sense of giving back, which is a critical life skill, and exposes your kid to the blissful feeling that occurs when you help others.

🍳 Learn culture by cooking. Prepare meals that are significant in other cultures to help them learn what drives purpose for people who are different from them. This has the added benefit of fostering a love of nutrition, which is another big Medicine 3.0 career category!

Big data is a big deal in the future of medicine.

Big data is essential to medical research and preventative care. 

That Apple Watch you’re wearing? It’s collecting data that can help you and the rest of your generation live longer, healthier lives.

Here’s how to get your kids pumped-up about the data science behind Medicine 3.0:

📊 Conduct a survey. Have your kid pick a topic that interests them and build a poll or survey around that topic. Collect responses from family, friends, or online. This will give them ownership and get them excited about finding patterns.

🧠 Build brain teasers with real data. Provide your kid with a range of real numbers (SAT test scores for instance) and challenge them to find patterns. Using real data makes this exercise far more exciting than traditional math problems. 

Medicine 3.0 is blowing the lid off our perceptions of what it means to have a future career in medicine, and there are opportunities abound for your youngsters to explore.

How one teen started her career in medicine — as a freshman in high school

Anagha Hamsala’s interest in medicine started early.

“When I was four years old, I would make my Dad [play] my patient and I’d make up all these names for diseases,” says Anagha. 

“And I made ‘hospitals’ for my stuffed animals and prescribed ‘treatments’.” 🧸

This isn’t an unusual story.

Young kids use playtime to explore the world.

What makes Anagha’s story remarkable is the way her family picked up on early cues and provided her with resources to blend her world of make-believe with the real world.

It started with support.

Anagha’s family took notice of her early interest in medicine and was intentional about ensuring Anagha knew she could accomplish anything she set her mind to.

This meant nurturing her attraction to STEM in ways that extended beyond playtime.

When Anagha proudly announced that she'd learned what vitamin D was that day, her grandparents told her she'd make a great doctor – and they decided it was time to provide her with some resources to better expose her to the field.

Soon, Anagha was poring over the American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine — well done, fam. 😉

But the support surpassed the boundaries of resources — Anagha’s family practices what they preach.

Anagha says her mom (an engineer and business consultant pursuing a double MBA) has been one of her biggest advocates — and an amazing role model.

Having a strong female mentor in her own family gave Anagha the confidence she needed to overcome the challenges she would soon face.

Overcoming obstacles built Anagha’s resilience.

“When I was 10, I wanted to join a college-level neuropsychology club,” says Anagha. They doubted her maturity level and declined her request to join.

To be taken seriously, Anagha knew she’d have to gain experience. 

But seeing as there weren’t many neuropsychology clubs made specifically for ten-year-olds, what was Anagha supposed to do? Wait?

Anagha’s grandfather told her, “Why wait to start your career when you can start it now?”

So Anagha took his advice.

She decided to start her own nonprofit organization, Medicine Marvels, to help expose kids to medical careers and give students a space to share their passion for medicine.

By building her own thing, Anagha didn’t just get something to put on her resume — she made a name for herself in the community.

Then opportunities came rolling in.

Since launching Medicine Marvels, Anagha has logged several impressive accomplishments, including:

🧠 Completing an Advanced Medical Neuroscience Internship with Georgetown University in her freshman year of high school 🤯

🇳🇬 Working with an International Public Health Internship Team to target major health concerns in Bauchi State, Nigeria

📄 Researching the computational power of trained neurons (it’s okay, that went above our heads, too), in a paper that is soon to be published!

Anagha’s advice?

“Start your own thing,” she says. “Your passions have no limits, so your age shouldn’t limit you, either.”

Stop limiting kids

Anagha (and her family’s) approach to not letting her age limit her potential is precisely why I founded Prequel.

Earlier this week, I was visiting the Alpha campuses, and the word “limitless” kept coming up over and over.

What does “limitless” mean?

I mean, we’re not Bradley Cooper… we can’t take a pill and become superhuman.

For me, limitless is a mindset.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when parents tell me that they’re “managing their child’s expectations”.

Parents don’t want their kid to get hurt when they don’t achieve a goal they’ve set for themself, so they step in to make sure the goals are achievable.

That puts a limit on their kid’s mindset.

And it’s the worst thing for them.

The limitless mindset is the foundation of the future of education… medicine… and countless other fields.

As we head into the weekend, I challenge you to:

1. Recognize, write down, and reverse one limiting belief you’ve caught yourself experiencing.

2. Recognize, write down, and reverse one limiting belief you’ve seen in your child.

3. Then respond to this email and tell me about them!

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo

Follow my journey on LinkedIn