title: Towards the integration of medical informatics education for clinicians into the medical curriculum.
abstract: In the context of an existing first year, one-semester mandatory course of medical informatics (MI) for medical students, we tested an interactive teaching approach in parallel with the traditional academic program. After six semesters (at the beginning of the clinical stage) we collected feedback from the former students in the two parallel programs (with anonymous questionnaires comprising both subjectively-rated items and open-ended questions). We conclude that an introductory course on information and communication technology and information skills can be useful at the beginning of the medical curriculum, while an interactive, problem-based-learning-type MI course should be included during the clinical stage. Early development of these skills, and their use/utility across the curriculum, are important aspects of integrating MI education into clinical training.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Informatics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timisoara, 300041 Timisoara, Romania. dlungeanu@umft.ro
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lungeanu
authors.forename: Rochelle E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Tractenberg
authors.forename: Otilia S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Bersan
authors.forename: George I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Mihalas
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000592:standards; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000193:education*; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D018511:Systems Integration