Instructional technology in medical education: lessons learnt

New instructional technologies, especially Web-based applications, may play an increasing role in medical education, particularly for distance and dis tributed learning. As medical educators turn to this medium, numerous benef its and opportunities, but also challenges and pitfalls, will arise. The su ccessful development and implementation of instructional technologies in me dicine require an appreciation of the medium's heterogeneous nature, its st rengths, weaknesses and limitations. These in turn rely on partnerships wit h various experts and the early adoption of evaluation. We have summarized the lessons learnt from developing Web-based courses on palliative care in a framework for adopting instructional technologies. This framework incorpo rates development, implementation and evaluation.