title: Postdoctoral training in medical informatics: a survey of National Library of Medicine-supported fellows.
abstract: The National Library of Medicine (NLM) funds training programs in medical informatics and plans to significantly increase the number of program sites in the future. The authors surveyed all NLM-funded trainees at the nine sites supported in the spring of 1988 to determine their backgrounds, current research interests, and career plans. Forty-three fellows were identified, of whom 39 returned a mailed questionnaire. All but four were physicians (89.7%), 82.1% had at least one year of postdoctoral clinical training, and 61.5% had completed a residency. Seventy-one percent of those completing residency had done so in internal medicine. The most common areas of current research were decision support/decision analysis, knowledge representation, and artificial intelligence. The overwhelming majority of the fellows planned to seek positions in a medical school on completion of their fellowships, and most preferred affiliation with a department of medical informatics or medicine.
authors.affiliation: Medical Systems Management, Harvard Community Health Plan, Boston, MA 02215.
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Aronow
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Pincetl
mesh_terms: D004496:Education, Continuing / Q000191:economics; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships; D005380:Financing, Government; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000193:education*; D009317:National Library of Medicine (U.S.); D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States