Abstract
BackgroundThere is strong support for educating physicians in medical informatics, and the benefits of such education have been clearly identified. Despite this, North American medical schools do not routinely provide education in medical informatics.MethodsWe conducted a qualitative study to identify issues facing the introduction of medical informatics into an undergraduate medical curriculum. Nine key informants at the University of Toronto medical school were interviewed, and their responses were transcribed and analyzed to identify consistent themes.ResultsThe field of medical informatics was not clearly understood by participants. There was, however, strong support for medical informatics education, and the benefits of such education were consistently identified. In the curriculum we examined, medical informatics education was delivered informally and inconsistently through mainly optional activities. Issues facing the introduction of medical informatics education included: an unclear understanding of the discipline; faculty and administrative detractors and, the dense nature of the existing undergraduate medical curriculum.ConclusionsThe identified issues may present serious obstacles to the introduction of medical informatics education into an undergraduate medicine curriculum, and we present some possible strategies for addressing these issues.
Highlights
There is strong support for educating physicians in medical informatics, and the benefits of such education have been clearly identified
This study aims to explore issues that might influence the introduction of medical informatics into an undergraduate medical curriculum
Three faculty members were primarily involved in teaching and the other two had primarily administrative roles in the undergraduate medical curriculum
Summary
There is strong support for educating physicians in medical informatics, and the benefits of such education have been clearly identified. It is important that physicians be educated in medical informatics. Educating physicians in medical informatics should enable many things, including appropriate interaction with clinical information systems, and the ability to utilize the Internet to inform themselves and their patients. An education in medical informatics is essential for the many roles of a physician including clinician, educator, researcher, manager, and life-long learner [1]. Without a basic education in medical informatics physicians are limited in their ability to make effective use of informatics methods and information technology. Without appropriate input from physicians skilled in medical informatics, it may be impossible to implement clinical computing infrastructure that meets the needs of clinicians [4]. Physicians and medical students appear to be increasingly aware of this as evidenced by the growing desire for education in medical informatics [5,6,7]
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