Medical informatics education: the University of Utah experience. (1/130)

The University of Utah has been educating health professionals in medical informatics since 1964. Over the 35 years since the program's inception, 272 graduate students have studied in the department. Most students have been male (80 percent) and have come from the United States (75 percent). Students entering the program have had diverse educational backgrounds, most commonly in medicine, engineering, computer science, or biology (59 percent of all informatics students). A total of 209 graduate degrees have been awarded, with an overall graduation rate of 87 percent since the program's start. Alumni are located in the United States (91 percent) and abroad (9 percent); half (51 percent) have remained in Utah. Former students are employed in a wide variety of jobs, primarily concerned with the application of medical informatics in sizable health care delivery organizations. Trends toward increasing managerial responsibility for medical informatics graduates and the emergence of the chief information officer role are noted.  (+info)

Prehospital care--a UK perspective. (2/130)

In the UK, emergency ambulances are responding to astonishing increases in levels of emergency calls, in the order of a 40% increase nationally in the last 5 years. Pressures in primary care service out-of-hours provision, and increasing community-based care of elderly patients, as well as increased expectation by the public are contributory causes. Services are also being pressed to improve response times, particularly to life-threatening cases. These various aspects are discussed below.  (+info)

Health professionals' views of informatics education: findings from the AMIA 1999 spring conference. (3/130)

Health care leaders emphasize the need to include information technology and informatics concepts in formal education programs, yet integration of informatics into health educational programs has progressed slowly. The AMIA 1999 Spring Congress was held to address informatics educational issues across health professions, including the educational needs in the various health professions, goals for health informatics education, and implementation strategies to achieve these goals. This paper presents the results from AMIA work groups focused on informatics education for non-informatics health professionals. In the categories of informatics needs, goals, and strategies, conference attendees suggested elements in these areas: educational responsibilities for faculty and students, organizational responsibilities, core computer skills and informatics knowledge, how to learn informatics skills, and resources required to implement educational strategies.  (+info)

Good editorial practice: editors as educators. (4/130)

There may be valuable research going on in the developing and financially less-privileged countries, but it usually does not reach international visibility, in spite of a large number of scientific journals in these countries. Such journals are not only invisible but, by perpetuating a vicious circle of inadequacy, may be directly damaging to the local science and research culture. We call for an international action to help journal editors in less privileged countries. International associations of editors may be leaders of these activities by defining, promoting, and perhaps controlling good editorial practice, as a main criterion for international recognition of a journal. However, the editors of small journals have the power and moral obligation to become a stronghold of quality and advancement in their scientific community. Their educational "tools" are editorial integrity and author-friendly policy. Editors can teach the authors study design, statistical analysis, precision, punctuality, research integrity, style and format of writing, and other aspects of scientific communication. The editors of "big", mainstream scientific journals can act as global educators, teaching and providing guidance to editors of small journals. The editors from developed countries as leaders, and editors from less advantageous environments as teachers are the key figures in shaping research communication in less privileged scientific communities.  (+info)

The EXCEL Program: strengthening diversity. (5/130)

The Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (BUSDM) initiated a program in the summer of 1993 to strengthen diversity in the entering class of first-year students. The Experiential Center for Excellence in Learning (EXCEL) Program is a voluntary, one-month-long prematriculation experience that combines didactic, laboratory, study skills, and social activities to prepare participants to transition into the rigorous first-year curriculum. From 1996 to 2000, ninety students participated in EXCEL. The two primary reasons cited for participating were to become familiar with the school, faculty, and classmates and to strengthen basic science background. Participants' ages ranged from twenty to over forty. Fifty-nine percent of participants had been out of college for more than one year; 10 percent had been out of school for three years or more. Thirty percent listed nontraditional predental school majors. Fifty-six percent listed a country other than the United States as country of birth. Of those completing an exit survey, 96 percent reported that EXCEL strengthened their decision to study dentistry, and 97 percent would recommend that future entering BUSDM students participate in EXCEL. The EXCEL Program may serve as a model for increasing diversity in U.S. dental school enrollment.  (+info)

Trends in allied dental education: an analysis of the past and a look to the future. (6/130)

Allied dental healthcare providers have been an integral part of the dental team since the turn of the 19th century. Like dental education, allied dental education's history includes a transition from apprenticeships and proprietary school settings to dental schools and community and technical colleges. There are currently 258 dental assisting programs, 255 dental hygiene programs, and 28 dental laboratory technology programs according to the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation. First-year enrollment increased 9.5 percent in dental hygiene education from 1994/95 to 1998/99, while enrollment in dental assisting programs declined 7 percent and declined 31 percent in dental laboratory technology programs during the same period. Program capacity exceeds enrollment in all three areas of allied dental education. Challenges facing allied dental education include addressing the dental practicing community's perception of a shortage of dental assistants and dental hygienists and increasing pressure for career tracks that do not require education in ADA Commission on Dental Accreditation accredited programs. The allied dental workforce may also be called upon for innovative approaches to improve access to oral health care and reduce oral health care disparities. In addition, allied dental education programs may face challenges in recruiting faculty with the desired academic credentials. ADEA is currently pursuing initiatives in these and other areas to address the current and emerging needs of allied dental education.  (+info)

Educational outcomes and leadership to meet the needs of modern health care. (7/130)

If professionals are to be equipped better to meet the needs of modern health care systems and the standards of practice required, significant educational change is still required. Educational change requires leadership, and lack of educational leadership may have impeded change in the past. In practical terms standards refer to outcomes, and thus an outcome based approach to clinical education is advocated as the one most likely to provide an appropriate framework for organisational and system change. The provision of explicit statements of learning intent, an educational process enabling acquisition and demonstration of these, and criteria for ensuring their achievement are the key features of such a framework. The derivation of an appropriate outcome set should emphasise what the learners will be able to do following the learning experience, how they will subsequently approach these tasks, and what, as a professional, they will bring to their practice. Once defined, the learning outcomes should determine, in turn, the nature of the learning experience enabling their achievement and the assessment processes to certify that they have been met. Provision of the necessary educational environment requires an understanding of the close interrelationship between learning style, learning theory, and methods whereby active and deep learning may be fostered. If desired change is to prevail, a conducive educational culture which values learning as well as evaluation, review, and enhancement must be engendered. It is the responsibility of all who teach to foster such an environment and culture, for all practitioners involved in health care have a leadership role in education.  (+info)

Working and learning together: good quality care depends on it, but how can we achieve it? (8/130)

Educating healthcare professionals is a key issue in the provision of quality healthcare services, and interprofessional education (IPE) has been proposed as a means of meeting this challenge. Evidence that collaborative working can be essential for good clinical outcomes underpins the real need to find out how best to develop a work force that can work together effectively. We identify barriers to mounting successful IPE programmes, report on recent educational initiatives that have aimed to develop collaborative working, and discuss the lessons learned. To develop education strategies that really prepare learners to collaborate we must: agree on the goals of IPE, identify effective methods of delivery, establish what should be learned when, attend to the needs of educators and clinicians regarding their own competence in interprofessional work, and advance our knowledge by robust evaluation using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. We must ensure that our education strategies allow students to recognise, value, and engage with the difference arising from the practice of a range of health professionals. This means tackling some long held assumptions about education and identifying where it fosters norms and attitudes that interfere with collaboration or fails to engender interprofessional knowledge and skill. We need to work together to establish education strategies that enhance collaborative working along with profession specific skills to produce a highly skilled, proactive, and respectful work force focused on providing safe and effective health for patients and communities.  (+info)