The interactive videodisc

Dynamic audiovisual presentations that are interactive due to the use of videodisc systems provide more efficient and effective communication of those elements of medicine best learned by seeing them, than is possible via traditional modes. This is particularly true when externally interfaced electronic data processors are used to automate the process. While magnetic and stylus-type videodisc players can serve in education, it is the optical videodisc that has the greatest educational potential. The AMA has been exploring the capabilities of optical videodisc systems and demonstrating pilot programs that use good principles of audiovisual and computer-assisted instruction in tutorial formats or presented as patient management problems. We are on the threshold of a revolution in communication potentially as significant to education as the one which followed the invention of movable type. Using interactive videodisc programs, designed and produced with skill and care, we can solve some of medical education's most pressing problems.