Teaching a Diploma in Medical Informatics using the World Wide Web

Dr. Richard Pascoe and Dr. David Abernathy

University of Otago and Wellington Clinical School, New Zealand
E-mail: rpascoe@commerce.otago.ac.nz
URL:

Medical Informatics is formally defined as "the field concerned with the cognitive, information processing, and communication tasks of medical practice, research and education including the information science and technology to support these tasks." Shortliffe and Perrault, 1988. Medical informatics is an emerging discipline important to clinical medicine and in medical education. Many medical schools are recognising its importance and establishing programmes which attact graduates from a variety of backgrounds: doctors in specialist or general practice, nurses, other health care workers, computer scientists, present and potential health service managers some of whom become future managers of health information systems.

The Diploma in Medical Informatics starting in 1998 is being developedjointly by the Departments of Computer and Information Science,University of Otago and the Department of Medicine, WellingtonClinical School. The diploma will be taught in a distance learning environment with participants located through out New Zealand and hopefully internationally. The participants will be expected to haveaccess to the Internet for 2 reasons: first, to gain practical experience of what information technology contributes to Medical Informatics; and second, to participate in the Diploma since an objective is to deliver this course entirely through the Internet using the World Wide Web (WWW), Email, and other such communication media.

Practical experience of what information technology contributes to Medical Informatics will form an integral part of the program. Medical informatics is concerned with the provision of computer systems and electronic information in health care and particularly with the evaluation and effective use of information technologies. Medical informatics in patient care, research, and education requires a combination of and interface between several disciplines. The difficulties and inadequacies of existing systems can be appreciated by direct involvement, and innovative uses of medical informatics methods and technology explored, leading to better clinical information systems in the future.

Education through the Internet using inter alia the WWW is an emerging trend, and this diploma will be capitalising on the increasing body of technical knowledge andeducational theory associated with this trend. In this paper is discussed our approach to delivering a diploma using this new technology to stimulate and educate people in the field of Medical Informatics.

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