Medical Schools in the Healthcare IT Age


The American Board of Medical Specialties recently announced a new board certification in bioinformatics. Medical students are exposed to medical statistics as it pertains to critiquing a study in a medical journal. SOme are using medical apps to get their textbook information. However, they are now being plunged into a whole new world of healthcare IT which infiltrates everyday aspects of clinical medicine. They are starting clinical classes earlier in medical school than in years past. Students must quickly become familiar with nuances of HIPAA laws, electronic medical records (present and future medical students will be graduating before the completion of Meaningful Use guidelines and implementation), and mHealth tools.

Some medical students, if exposed early enough, might even choose to pursue careers in healthcare IT before they graduate. Demands for the first wave of clinician experts in healthcare IT (as is the case for healthcare IT employees in general) is and will remain high. These physicians will themselves become educators for generations of students and IT employees.

I look forward to medical schools themselves offering non-physician track certificate programs in healthcare IT, highlighting clinical aspects. This may be offered to persons with non-healthcare IT backgrounds, physicians, or non-physician scientists. Programs like this will provide the insider clinical view, connecting the dots, which a college or community college cannot. Imagine having multidisciplinary team patient rounds which include healthcare IT program students (whether they are from the physician or non-physician track). Observing and participating in discharge planning and having exposure to real-time electronic prescribing, communications, and billing will stimulate students as well. Connectivity will become a living process. Experiencing the prescribing of and following data from wireless technologies first hand cannot be duplicated in another way. A dedicated faculty and tracks in healthcare IT might itself become a reason for some to go to medical school.

Let’s bring the enthusiasm that many of us have for healthcare IT to the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and our teaching hospitals. I was happy to hear that there were attendees from the AAMC at MHealth Summit 2011. I hope their wheels were spinning as much as mine were.

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About davidleescher

David Lee Scher, MD is Director at DLS HEALTHCARE CONSULTING, LLC, which specializes in helping digital health technology companies, their partners and clients. As a former cardiac electrophysiologist and pioneer adopter of remote patient monitoring, he is uniquely qualified to address both clinical and operational concerns of clients. Scher was Chair of Happtique's Blue Ribbon Panel which established standards for certification of medical apps in the categories of safety, operability, privacy, and content. He is a well-respected expert in mobile and other digital health technologies and lectures worldwide on technology and its impact on patients and healthcare systems.
This entry was posted in education, Healthcare IT, informatics, medical education, mHealth, mobile health, wireless health and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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