Mukan N.
Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Lviv Polytechnic National University,
Lviv, Ukraine
Kobryn N.
Post-graduate student, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv, Ukraine
MEDICAL INFORMATICS EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT:
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF RESEARCH
Introduction. Over the past decades, the penetration of information and
communication technologies into medicine has been fast-paced. Computerization of
the healthcare system is among primary directions of a state policy in many countries
of the world. Its main focus is on improving the quality of medical services,
rationalizing expanses on medicine and optimizing work of healthcare practitioners.
However, the successful and efficient implementation of innovative information and
communication technologies into medicine and healthcare system is impossible
without qualified medical informatics (hereinafter – MI) professionals and medical
practitioners as competent users of these technologies.
Thus, nowadays the research into the development of medical informatics
education is a topical issue requiring scientific enquiries. In recent years, there has been
an increasing amount of literature on theoretical and practical aspects of the studied
problem. E. Currie, T. Johnson, W. Hersh, C. Kulikowski, P. Reichertz and J. van
Bemmel analyze the notion of MI as a science, academic discipline and specialty.
G. Mihalas, I. Masic and R. Nelson trace the development of MI as a scientific field.
A. Hasman, J. Mantas and T. Zarubina investigate periods of MI education
development in Europe, while E. Hovenga gives its retrospective review in global
perspective. R. Greenes and E. Shortliffe descibe the development of MI as an
academic discipline. However, a comprehensive study of MI education development
as a pedagogical problem is scarce.
The complexity of studying this problem is related to MI terminological
ambiguity and inconsistency in usage in scientific and pedagogical literature. Firstly,
various resources provide a series of synonymous terms to denote a phenomenon of
information and communication technologies penetration into the medical theory and
practice. Secondly, MI-related terms contain a wide range of adjectives (‘medical’,
‘health’, ‘biomedical’, ‘clinical’, ‘healthcare’, etc.) in front of ‘informatics’, which
greatly complicate the study. Thirdly, the terms ‘informatics’, ‘computer science’ and
‘information science’ may be simultaneously used in the same contexts to describe
penetrating information and communication technologies into medicine. And finally,
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