Computers may have greatest educational impact on adult professional learners rather than as delivery devices for Computer Assisted Instruction in undergraduate settings. The applications of computers to medical education is reviewed with emphasis on recent application of computer capabilities to provide practicing physicians with memory support, profiles of practice for needs assessment, and diagnostic/management algorithms. The strategy of providing physicians with ongoing practice-related feedback in the form of confidential review of their prescribing practices is described as a model of an educational intervention which can be readily adapted to computer technology and would facilitate professional growth in adult learners which would be both timely and directly related to individual practice behaviors.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Royal College of General Practitioners, Computers in Primary Care: Report of the Computer Working Party, Journal of Royal College of General Practitioners, Occasional Paper 13, 1980.
2.
American Medical Association, Continuing Education Courses for Physicians, Journal of the American Medical Association, 246, pp. 417–420, 1981.
3.
StrossJ. K. and HarlanW. R., The Impact of Mandatory Continuing Medical Education, Journal of the American Medical Association, 239, pp. 2653–2666, 1978.
4.
BertramD. A. and BertramP. A., The Evaluation of Continuing Medical Education: A Literature Review, Health Education Monographs, 5: 4, pp. 330–362, 1977.
5.
LloydJ. S. and AbrahamsonS., Effectiveness of Continuing Medical Education: A Review of the Evidence, Evaluation and the Health Professions, 2, pp. 251–280, 1979.
6.
SchrammW., Big Media Little Media, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, 1977.
7.
RubinM. L.KnetschM., and RosenblattR., Evaluation of Biomedical Computer-Assisted Instruction from a User/Institutional Viewpoint, U. S. Department of Commerce, BP-258-261, 1976.
8.
AbrahamsonS. and WallaceP., Using Computer-Controlled Interactive Mannikins in Medical Education, Medical Teacher, 2, pp. 25–31, 1980.
9.
AbrahamsonS., Evaluation of the Use of Computers in Medical Education, Proceedings of Conference on the Use of Computers in Medical Education, University of Oklahoma Medical Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1968.
10.
FriedmanR. B.KorstD. R.SchultzJ. V.BeattyE., and EntineS., Experience with the Simulated Patient-Physician Encounter, Journal of Medical Education, 12, pp. 825–830, 1978.
11.
GabrieliE. R., Medical Information System, Health Records and Knowledge Banks, Medical Instrumentation, 12, pp. 245–247, 1978.
12.
GrémyR., The Future of Information Processing in Medicine and Public Health, Computer Programs in Biomedicine, 11, pp. 71–80, 1980.
13.
AndersonJ. and GrahamA., A Problem in Medical Education: Is There An Information Overload?, Medical Education, 14, pp. 4–7, 1980.
14.
StrossJ. K. and HarlanW. R., The Dissemination of New Medical Information, Journal of the American Medical Association, 241, pp. 2622–2624, 1979.
15.
DunnD. R. F., Dissemination of the Published Results of an Important Clinical Trial: An Analysis of the Citing Literature, Bulletin of Medical Library Association, 69, pp. 301–306, 1981.
16.
RosatiR. A.McNeerJ. F.StarmerF.MittlerB. S.MorrisJ. J., and WallaceA. G., A New Information System for Medical Practice, Archives of Internal Medicine, 135, pp. 1017–1024, 1975.
17.
CaliffR. M. and RosatiR. A., The Doctor and the Computer, Western Journal of Medicine, 135, pp. 321–323, 1981.
18.
McDonaldC. J.WilsonG. A., and McCabeG. P., Physician Response to Computer Reminders, Journal of the American Medical Association, 244, 1980.
19.
GreenL. A.SimmonsR. L.ReedF. M.WarrenP. S., and MorrisonJ. D., A Family Medicine Information System: The Beginning of a Network for Practicing and Resident Family Physicians, The Journal of Family Practice, 7, pp. 567–576, 1978.
20.
BraunsteinM. D.SchumanS. H., and CunyH. B., An On-line Clinical Information System in Family Practice, The Journal of Family Practice, 5, pp. 617–625, 1977.
21.
MorrellJ.PodloneM., and CohenS. N., Receptivity of Physicians in a Teaching Hospital to a Computerized Drug Interaction Monitoring and Reporting System, Medical Care, 25, pp. 68–78, 1977.
22.
PopleH. E., Proceedings of the 5th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 1030–1037, 1977.
23.
DavisL. W., The Need For and Design Of a Computerized Guidance System for Problem Solving, Unpublished Technical Report available from PROMIS Laboratory, Medical Center of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, pp. 1–27, 1980.
24.
ManningP. R.LeeP. V.DensonT. A., and GilmanN. J., Determining Educational Needs in the Physician's Office, Journal of the American Medical Association, 244, pp. 1112–1115, 1980.
25.
BrecherG., Laboratory Medicine 1953–1976 and the Next Ten Years, Human Pathology, 9, pp. 615–618, 1978.
26.
SanazaroP. J., Measurement of Physicians' Performance Using Existing Techniques, Western Journal of Medicine, 133, pp. 81–88, 1980.
27.
BloomR. B. and BourdonL., Types and Frequencies of Teachers' Written Instructional Feedback, Journal of Educational Research, 74, pp. 13–15, 1980.
