Issue: IeJSME 2010 4(1)
Medical Informatics For Medical Students And Medical Practitioners
Author: Jai MOHAN
ABSTRACT
The importance of incorporating medical (or health) informatics into the education of medical students and medical practitioners is being increasingly recognised. The advances in information and communication technology and the pervasion of the Internet into everyday life have important implications for healthcare services and medical education. Students and practitioners should learn to utilise biomedical information for problem solving and decision making based on evidence. The extensive introduction of electronic health information systems into hospitals and clinics and at the enterprise level in Malaysia and elsewhere is driving a demand for health professionals who have at least basic skills in and appreciation of the use of these technologies. The essential clinical informatics skills have been identified and should be incorporated into the undergraduate medical curriculum. It is recommended that these be introduced in stages and integrated into existing programmes rather than taught as a separate module. At the same time, medical schools should support the integration of e-learning in the educational process in view of the numerous potential benefits.
Keywords: Medical informatics, medical students, information & communication technology.
Citation: IeJSME 2010: 4 (1): 2-6
An Investigation Into The Learning Styles, English Proficiency And Assessment Performance Of Medical Students
Authors: Toh Peng YEOW, Mark Kiak Min TAN, Li-Cher LOH, Julia BLITZ.
ABSTRACT
Appreciation of learning styles can be of use to help both educators and students to enhance the effectiveness of an educational experience. It has been noticed that some students at this College are not very good at expressing themselves in either written or spoken English. Our study aimed to identify the student’s learning styles; assess whether there is any correlation between learning style, baseline demographic data and self rated proficiency in English language; and assess their associations with the assessment performance.
A group of third year medical students voluntarily participated in a questionnaire study to provide us with their learning styles, demographic information and self-rated proficiency in English language. This data was compared to the students’ performance in the assessment at the end of their junior clinical rotations.
This cohort of students (60% Malay, 35% Chinese and 5% Indian) who were mostly visual learners, considered themselves proficient in English. Students with predominantly Visual learning styles and those with poorer English, score significantly lower during their clinical long case examinations. These two predictors appear to be independent of each other.
These results may suggest that our current teaching modalities may disadvantage students with predominant visual learning styles. It also suggests that the long case clinical examination may favour those with more verbal learning styles.
Keywords: Clinical performance, English proficiency, Learning styles, Visual learners.
Citation: IeJSME 2010: 4 (1): 7-13
