Information technology and the future of medical education

• Published in: Clinical and investigative medicine Vol. 20; no. 6; pp. 419 - 421
• Main Author: SEBALDT, R. J
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Toronto, ON Canadian Medical Association 01.12.1997; Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Computer applications; Computerized, statistical medical data processing and models in biomedicine; Computers; Education, Medical - trends; Faculty, Medical; Health care; Information technology; Medical computing and teaching; Medical Informatics; Medical Records; Medical sciences; Medicine; Public health; Schools, Medical; Software; Study & teaching; Canada; North America; America; Congress; Biomedical data processing; Programmed education; Report; Health staff; Evolution; Information technology
• ISSN: 0147-958X

Exponential growth in information technology ensures that today's potential wonders will be eclipsed by still greater opportunities. This applies not only to technical or operational efficiencies but also to optimal patient care in our real-world medical practices. As information technology blasts ahead, a few precious "gems" and many dull "rocks" are regularly spewed forth. Among physicians and educators alike, there will always be those who embrace the newest and the latest drugs, gadgets or procedures, and also those who prefer to ignore all innovation until the last possible moment. The unavoidable challenge for medical educators is to regularly and continually re-evaluate options for improving their teaching methods and tools. In the face of constant rapid change, they must avoid the paralysis of perpetual uncertainty while making decisions that open rather than close future options. Exponentially increasing "memory," in the form of larger hard disks, CD-ROMs and DVDs (digital video discs) on one's desk or accessible via the Internet or the Intranet of a local institution, makes current medical knowledge increasingly available to students, teachers and patients alike. Electronic information resources such as reviews, formularies, critical appraisals, guidelines, textbooks and original research publications allow their authors to publish updates more quickly and inexpensively than is possible in print. For information users, the latest information can be found "just in time"4 when needed at the point of learning or of clinical care in the office or hospital setting. Massive textbooks and journals that are disproportionately out of date despite their weight can be left unprinted in most cases. Successful information products and teaching resources can be a huge challenge to create and remain quite rare, but reflect mastery of a subject and the ability of the authors to communicate. Exponentially increasing "processing power" provides increasingly sophisticated and rapid searching, displaying, retrieving, sorting, comparing and analyzing. Computational power whittles down and otherwise manages increasingly unwieldy data sets. Complex images can be processed rapidly (in "real time") and help impart 3-dimensional knowledge of anatomic structures. Virtual reality systems allow brain, eye, cardiac or orthopedic surgery to be learned. Complex system simulations with dynamically changing visual or graphic displays can increase understanding of typical and aberrant behaviour of intricate biological systems, such as physiologic or pathologic (cardiac, renal, metabolic, neuronal, immunologic, neoplastic), pharmacokinetic, epidemiologic and other systems.