LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR INTEGRATING MEDICAL INFORMATICS COURSE IN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY

 

Ahmed I. Albarrak

Prof. Dr., Medical Informatics and E-Learning Unit, Medical Education Department, Health Informatics and Promotion Research Chair, College of Medicine, King, Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, albarrak@ksu.edu.sa

 

Abstract

Medical education aims to equip students and graduate clinicians with the required knowledge, skills and strategies to apply them in the clinical practice. Medical informatics is defined as the scientific field that deals with acquisition, storage, retrieval, sharing and innovative management and utilization of data, information, and knowledge in medical practice for problem solving, scientific inquiries and decision making.

In year 2010, I have participated as the course coordinator in developing the medical informatics course for undergraduate medical students in The College of Medicine, King Saud University. Medical Informatics course was integrated in the third-year undergraduate medical curriculum and was assigned two credit hours and stated in 2011. A survey study was conducted previously in the medical school to assess medical students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes towards medical informatics. The study results showed the urgent need for medical informatics to be integrated in the undergraduate medical curriculum so that students at the time of graduation are able to utilize the ever-developing advancements in medical informatics, medical knowledge, and medical technologies and to benefit from the online resources, and to utilize advanced tools in medical education such as online learning and simulation. A detailed literature review and benchmarking from literature and international standards and best practices were conducted.

Based on literature review and benchmarking, standards and best practices and the results of the survey study on medical students, the course was designed to provide third year medical students with basic knowledge and skills that is required in future clinical practice. Students should learn by end of the course, how data, information and knowledge are created, acquired, managed and processed using information and communication technologies. This course also introduced students to electronic health record, computerized physician order entry, imaging informatics, and Internet health applications. It is very important to provide students with stimulating, engaging communication environments which would allow them to interact intensely with other students, and instructors. Students should learn how to deal with the new cases, how to search, access and utilize clinical information supporting investigation, diagnosis and treatment.

Course delivery included approaches such as; Face to face lectures, flip classroom, team-based learning and workshops. The course consisted of more than thirty hours conducted on a yearly basis. The content was identified based on literature review and benchmarking from literature and international standards. A Modified team-based learning and blended learning approach were later applied using face-to-face lectures, various e-learning technologies, workshop and seminars. A survey study was conducted in three consecutive years: 2017-2019 on medical students. The survey contained items regarding student perception of various types of blended learning techniques applied in the course. It was observed that the blended-learning technique is highly essential to overcome challenges facing teaching medical informatics course, due to a large number of students and the need for various exposures to reach the course’s learning goals. Furthermore, modified team-based learning reported facilitating learning and asking questions without embarrassment.

Keywords: medical informatics, medical education, team based learning, flipped classroom.