INTEGRATED MEDICAL INFORMATICS WITH SMALL-GROUP TEACHING IN MEDICAL-EDUCATION

National Taiwan University College of Medicine (NTUCM) introduced smal l groups of teaching and basic-clinical integrated courses for medical students in 1992. By using computer network and multimedia techniques , this study tried to overcome barriers to learning in small group tea ching. The Department of Medical Informatics of NTUCM established camp us networking and computer classrooms and provided Internet and intran et network services including mail, netnews, bulletin board systems (B BS), world wide web (WWW), gopher, ftp and local file servers. To impl ement an interactive learning environment, the authors first tried mai l lists, newsgroups and BBS. Next an integrated learning system protot ype on the WWW was developed to provide functions including online syl labus, discussion boards simulated to BBS, online talk, interactive ca se studies, virtual classroom with video on demand (VOD) and Internet medical resources. The results showed that after the medical students completed the required course of medical informatics and had good netw ork access using a network to communicate with each other became a dai ly practice. In the future, the system will extend to the tutoring of clinical practice and continuing medical education. The authors expect a national medical education network and more international cooperati on and exchange. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights res erved.