are convinced that human factor, i.e. MI workforce, is a key to success, efficacy and
efficiency of using information and communication technologies in medicine and
healthcare system [25].
In order to get insight into the place of MI education as a pedagogical phenomenon
in the system of higher education, it is worth investigating the categories of MI as an
academic discipline and a specialty in details.
The necessity of teaching MI as an academic discipline to medical students arose
in the middle of the 20
th
century when electronic computing machinery began
penetrating into medicine. According to studies conducted by R. Greenes and
E. Shortliffe, computer technology initially served to organize administrative jobs in
healthcare institutions. Computers were predominantly used by individual healthcare
workers in financial departments, archives of health records, clinical laboratories,
pharmacies, radiological departments, research centers, medical literature libraries or
doctors’ surgeries [11].
A number of studies confirm that different systems of higher medical education
provided various opportunities for developing MI competency by medical students. In
France, for example, MI was not a compulsory component of the educational process
but medical students were able to acquire MI knowledge by choosing MI elective
courses. Instead in the Netherlands, medical students studied both MI obligatory course
and had an opportunity to enroll for MI elective courses [12]. In the UK, future doctors
studied informatics as an academic discipline and could also attend MI-related elective
courses [9]. And in Germany, MI has become a compulsory academic discipline in
higher medical education institutions since 1978 [13].
The main characteristic feature of first MI educational initiatives for developing
MI competency by medical students was the focus of these courses on studying basic
informatics, gaining computer literacy and developing printing skills. The latter one
was necessary for inputting data into electronic health records that were becoming an
integral part of hospital information systems of that time. However, the content of MI
as an academic discipline revolutionized with time going and now it focuses on
studying medical data and information, their types and processing techniques. Modern
MI as an academic discipline also deals with information technology that is vastly used
in medicine and healthcare systems in order to improve medical services. Nevertheless,
in different medical education systems, MI content may vary according to students’
needs and their previous training background, technical facilities of a higher education
institution, current needs of the health industry or the labor market in MI competent
workforce.
Therefore at present, MI as an academic discipline for medical students should
maximally take into account potential professional needs of future medical
practitioners. In 1998, an advisory group established by American Association of
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