EPC/IMPC Information Technology Subcommittee

Recommendations Regarding Use of PDAs in the Curriculum

 

 

National/Accreditation Standards Related to Use of PDAs/Clinical Encounter Data:

  • AAMC Medical School Objectives Project: Medical Informatics Objectives

    • MSOP Report I (February 1998)

      • Before graduation, students should demonstrate the ability to:

        • retrieve (from electronic databases and other resources),

        • manage, and utilize biomedical information for solving problems and

        • making decisions that are relevant to the care of individuals and populations

    • Report II (June 1998):  Medical Informatics and Population Health

      • Systematic approaches for promoting and maintaining the health of defined populations requires medical informatics

      • MSOP Medical Informatics Definition:  Deals with resources, devices, and formalized methods for optimizing the storage, retrieval and management of biomedical information for problem solving and decision making.

      • Overall Goal of Project:

        • A foundation in medical informatics that will support students as physicians in the 21st century so that they can efficiently utilize increasingly complex information for problem solving and decision making

        • Objectives are framed within in the context of five physician roles:

          • Clinician

          • Retrieve information from a clinical information system

          • Determine when incomplete information is present

          • Locate and incorporate missing information if able

          • Able to use the security-directed features of a clinical information system

        • Learner

          • Demonstrate knowledge of the information resources and tools available to support life-long learning

          • Retrieve information

          • Filter, evaluate, and reconcile information

          • Exhibit good “information habits.” (effective use of information technology)

        • Researcher

          • Determine what data exist relative to a clinical question or formal hypothesis

          • Execute a plan of data collection

        • Educator

          • Practical knowledge of and use of informational resources for professional and patient education

          • Ability to incorporate this information in to other modes of communication

        • Manager

          • Role of information technology in maintaining costs and its impact on individuals and society

          • Ability to use electronic personal and clinical scheduling systems

          • Knowledge of legislation affecting electronic health care information

      • Life Long Learning requires more than computer literacy – includes a cognizance of the broad range of medical information resources available and their relative value for particular needs, the knowledge and skill to use them, and the motivation to use them routinely

  • LCME Standards

    • ED-2

      • Objectives for clinical education must include quantified criteria for the types of patients (real or simulated), the level of student responsibility, and the appropriate clinical settings needed for the objectives to be met.

    • ED-37

      • The faculty committee responsible for the curriculum must monitor the content provided in each discipline so that the school’s educational objectives will be achieved.

    • ER-6

      • The medical school must have, or be assured of, appropriate resources for the clinical instruction of its medical students.  (Includes adequate numbers and types of patients [acuity ,case mix, age, gender, etc]).

    • ER-11

      • The medical school must have access to well-maintained library and information facilities, sufficient in size, breadth of holdings, and information technology to support its education and other missions.

  • AAMC Graduation Questionnaire

    • Class of 2002 SIUSOM students rated the use of PDAs for clinical purposes higher than students at other medical schools

 

Issues:

  • How do we make it easiest for students to enter data? 

  • How could curriculum units use logbook data to tailor delivery of information?

  • Do we need to have data on each student patient encounter?

  • Do we need to add fields for collecting standardized patient data or can we enter this data using the existing fields?

  • Is the primary diagnosis with encounter sufficient?

 

Recommendations:

  • To ensure that collected data is quantifiable, all clinical encounters should be entered using either PDAs or online forms.

  • Logbook data might be used during mid-clerkship meetings by clerkship directors to review clinical experiences to date with student and make suggestions/recommendations as appropriate.