The Center for Biomedical Informatics
State University of Campinas, Brazil


Research Abstracts


AN IMPROVED UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM FOR TEACHING MEDICAL INFORMATICS TO MEDICAL AND NURSING STUDENTS

Renato M.E. Sabbatini

Chair of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, and Center for Biomedical Informatics, State University of Campinas, Brazil.


The rapid spread of computer usage in the Health Sciences has greatly increased the demand for specific training and education of professionals and students in this area. We relate here our experience in the curricular insertion of a new discipline of Medical Informatics in our institution, at the undergraduate level for the medical and nursing careers, which was started in the second semester of 1988. The aim of this new, 40-hour, elective course is to introduce students to the basic knowledge on Informatics and its applications in the Health Sciences, through the practical use of microcomputers in several areas. It is structured around three themes: 1) basic introduction to Informatics (7 h); 2) practical use of microcomputers (12 h) and 3) medical applications of computers (21 h). In the first module the students learn computer fundamentals and have their first contact with a programming language (BASIC). In the second module, they learn how to use commercially available text processing, spreadsheet, graphics, database management, on-line bibliographical search and biostatistics programs. In the third module, they are lectured on the fields of application of computers in Medicine (medical records, data coding, patient history-taking, laboratory automation, medical image and signal processing, epidemiology, diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic decision making, applications in research and education, etc.). Each 40-min. lecture is followed by a laboratory class, where students manipulate one or two simple microcomputer programs, which illustrate all the potential applications. For this purpose we have developed a suite of 17 programs for IBM/PC compatibles, along with several auxiliary teaching materials, such as a 300-color computer-projected and film slide collection, a 200-page textbook on health care applications of computers and a 120-page laboratory manual. The course has enjoyed great acceptation and success and is now ministered two times a year. The low cost and simplicity of auxiliary materials, as well as its thorough and compact curriculum has made the course attractive to medical schools of developing countries, where resources are scarce.


Published in:

Second IMIA International Conference on Medical Informatics and Medical Education, Prague, Czechoslovakia, September 1990.
Return to Home Page Return to Abstracts Index

Last Updated: March 2, 1996

renato@sabbatini.com