Computing education of medical students through a study of hospital and clinical activities: seven years' experience

With the widespread use of information technology (IT) in health care, the need to teach computing to doctors and medical students has become increasingly apparent. This paper describes a course for medical students immediately before their clinical training; it lasts one semester and was first introduced in 1987 at St. George's Hospital Medical School, London. It is generally accepted that the present curriculum leaves little opportunity for the introduction of new subjects. This paper therefore describes the content of an elective in computing and the reactions of medical students to it. It is intended that this paper will help other educationalists who may obtain insights and consequently be able to negotiate medical informatics changes into their medical school environments.