Lifelong learning is essential for physicians seeking to improve their clinical practice and research. Over decades of teaching and learning, I have come to hold a simple belief. Even amidst the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI), I continue to see lasting value in the traditional classroom lecture—not merely in the short term, but, importantly, across a lifetime. In recent years, numerous educational technologies—including AI and digital platforms—have been introduced to enhance the efficiency and accessibility of medical learning 1. However, how these innovations influence the lifelong intellectual development of individual physicians remains difficult to evaluate 1. The effects of education often unfold across decades and within the personal trajectories of individual doctors, making conventional short-term evaluation inadequate. I reflect on two formative classroom lectures that profoundly shaped my own professional life. Although such experiences cannot be evaluated in a conventional evidence-based manner, they illustrate how traditional educational encounters may exert enduring influence on physicians' lifelong development. Certain lectures, delivered by extraordinary teachers, still hold an irreplaceable place in my lifelong self-education and my later career as a clinical practitioner and a researcher. Two moments in my life shaped this conviction. As a medical student, I attended a psychiatry professor's lecture on schizophrenia. He stepped forward and acted as if he were a patient, sharing what appeared in his own mind. He was teaching with a kind of raw humanity. His extensive clinical experience and deep knowledge of schizophrenia made this possible. Students in the front row leaned forward, completely absorbed. The atmosphere felt electrifying. About a decade later, in my early thirties, I struggled to write medical papers. I attended another professor's lecture on writing. He spoke not only of methods and structure, but of the philosophy behind writing: why one writes and what sincerity means in scientific prose. I remember wishing the lecture could have continued longer. In both cases, more than the content, it was his presence, his voice, and his willingness to expose a fragment of lived experience that moved us. These professors did not create such moments intentionally to impress the audience. Rather, their clinical mastery and enthusiasm for writing, respectively, naturally produced these unforgettable experiences. Wishing to emulate the former professor, I slowly refined my own teaching and clinical skills as an educator and a clinical practitioner. Years later, I developed several obstetric surgical procedures, including the Matsubara–Yano suture 2. I was honored to receive my university's Best Teacher of the Year award five times. Inspired by the latter, I pursued writing, published two books, and have written more than 600 PubMed-indexed papers; I continue writing today. These two lectures shaped the entire course of my career as a practitioner, educator, researcher, and writer. Indeed, neither lecture looks ‘time-efficient’. 1 h on schizophrenia. 2 h on ‘making a good title’. An AI-based system could deliver the same knowledge in a shorter time. But what truly moved me was their living voice, tone, and presence—elements that no technology, however advanced, has yet been able to replicate. Some may argue that AI-aided educational and learning platforms can also evoke emotional engagement. Yet my own emotional impact arose, I think, from ‘sharing the same air’ with a passionate teacher and fellow students. A classroom lecture is an old technology, yet it can surpass modern tools when two conditions align: the lecturer is talented and genuinely enthusiastic, and the audience is eager and open. When these two meet, something unforgettable can occur—a moment that quietly lodges itself inside learners and stays with them for decades. In this sense, a large class may even have advantages over a small group, because such ‘air’ can spread. This mirrors the surge in an Olympic stadium or public viewing, where people gather to share the moment. The influence of formative educational experiences on physicians' later clinical judgment or professional motivation is difficult to quantify. Such influences often become visible only decades later within individual careers. Indeed, I now realize, decades later, that these experiences taught me that education is not only about efficiency or measurable outcomes. They are also about impressions that form deep within us—the ones that return unexpectedly years later and quietly shape a career. I do not claim that traditional classroom lectures should return as the main method of education, nor that they are inherently superior. I myself encountered many boring lectures. Educational technologies should be used according to the circumstances. I only wish to claim that, while AI should be embraced, the classroom lecture should not be prematurely abandoned. The professors who taught me have long since passed away. Yet I still remember the ‘air’ of those lecture halls. Their voices remain alive within me. I hope younger generations, even in this AI era, will have the chance to encounter such moments—rare, irreplaceable, and transformative. The author identified the significance and wrote the manuscript. ChatGPT-5 was used for language editing and clarity checking; all ideas, interpretations, and final wording were determined by the author. The author has nothing to report. The author has nothing to report. The author has nothing to report. The author declares no conflicts of interest. Data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.
Shigeki Matsubara (Mon,) studied this question.