JMIR Med Educ. 2026 Jan 26;12:e60452. doi: 10.2196/60452.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The Icarus Paradox in health care refers to the tension between the ambition to succeed as a specialist doctor and the limitations of the medical education system. Indonesia aspires to produce quality doctors, yet limited infrastructure and resources hinder the educational journey of prospective specialists.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the Icarus Paradox in Indonesia’s specialist medical education by examining prospective specialist medical students and the quality of health services and by analyzing how this paradox is reflected in society’s perspectives.
METHODS: Using a convergent mixed methods design, this study integrated quantitative content analysis of 5047 online reviews across multiple platforms with qualitative thematic and cognitive analysis using NVivo 14, combining sentiment classification and topic coding.
RESULTS: Twitter contributed 573 (11.3%) of 5047 reviews, with 218 (38%) negative, 251 (43.8%) neutral, and 104 (18.2%) positive entries. TikTok generated 282 (5.6%) reviews, the majority being neutral (n=225, 79.5%). YouTube produced 96 (1.9%) reviews, with 89 (92.7%) neutral entries. News platforms exhibited the largest volume (n=3040, 60.2%) of reviews, with 2885 (94.9%) neutral, 105 (3.5%) positive, and 50 (1.6%) negative entries. Blogs and websites contributed 353 (7%) and 692 (11.3%) reviews, respectively, with neutral sentiment dominating (n=329, 93.2%, for blogs and n=599, 86.6%, for websites). Three cognitive perspectives demonstrated the Icarus Paradox in the Indonesian medical education system: education system, society’s views of students, and health care services. Although there are aspirations to improve education and health care quality, these ambitions often collide with structural challenges, such as resource shortages, heavy workloads, and limited accessibility, which link directly to cognitive themes of stress, resilience, and ethical dilemmas. We proposed a conceptual model to illustrate these dynamics.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings offer insights into the Icarus Paradox in Indonesia’s medical education system, highlighting its complexity and reinforcing the need for systemic reform. Beyond academic relevance, the findings also emphasize the importance of strengthening student mental health support, ensuring equitable access to health care, and enhancing regulatory oversight of training. This was not a clinical trial. Although limited by reliance on online reviews, the results underscore the urgent need for targeted policy interventions in medical education and health care services.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT123456.
PMID:41587450 | DOI:10.2196/60452
