EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS IN THE MEDICAL CURRICULUM

The teaching of medical informatics is of importance for students in m edicine and health care, realizing that they will be the health profes sionals of the future. Training in medical informatics is also of valu e for practicing clinicians who are overwhelmed by the avalanche of sy stems that are available on the market. Some examples of operational s ystems are presented here to indicate that health care has changed dra matically over the last decades. This paper intends to contribute to t he drafting of IMIA guidelines for teaching medical informatics by (1) reporting on the experience at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sci ences of the Erasmus University Rotterdam as part of the curriculum, ( 2) reporting on the implementation of guidelines for teaching medical informatics in The Netherlands since these guidelines were drafted in 1986, and (3) by introducing the teaching material contained in the ne w Handbook of Medical Informatics and on its Web site. (C) 1998 Elsevi er Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.