Medical Informatics
The
roles of computers in revolutionizing
the speed, accuracy, validity
and reliability in any type
of task performed by human
efforts needs no elaboration.
Computerization of the working
system has indeed become one
parameter by which one measures
the progress of development
made in any field of human
endeavor, today. Realising
this, secondary schools in
Nepal have computer education
as one of the optional. It
would not be an exaggeration
to say that, the nature of
work at educational institutions,
private firms, many governmental
offices, banks, travel agencies,
hotels, not to speak of international
organisations in Nepal, have
switched over from papers
files to electronic files.
Some of the private nursing
homes, hospitals and clinics
have also started their services
with computer assistance.
The innovative medical colleges
/ schools expose their medical
students to large number of
learning resources and one
such that is very extensively
used is the utility of computers
in learning and in the practice
of medical profession. Computer
simulated programs, computer
assisted consultations, bio-statistical
programs, medical informatics
and management education,
tele-conferencing, to list
a few, are some of the examples
incorporated in medical education
related to computer technology
today.
There lies intimacy between
medical science, medical education
and medical practice and in
this regard the computer technologies
can influence one another.
Keeping this in mind, Nepal
Medical College is the pioneer
in Nepal in computer networking
of its different departments
of its teaching hospital and
medical college prior to starting
the MBBS program.
The NMC also initiated the
provision for including medical
informatics into the MBBS
curriculum and has been implemented
from the very first batch
of MBBS students. The students
are provided with opportunities
to become computer literate
from the first year which
enables them to use computer
terminals at different wards
and get access to patient’s
information through computers
on their own while doing the
clinical rotation during the
ward placement from third
academic year onwards. By
the time they reach junior
clerkship period in the fifth
academic year, they would
get ample time and opportunities
to work with the computers
individually on their own
and become well versed with
the state of the art, while
writing patients summary during
the internship. After completing
the internship, the NMC medical
graduates while doing house
jobs as House Officers at
NMCTH and other hospitals,
would undoubtedly be able
to store patients’ data
at Out Patients Departments
and Inpatients Wards independently
and benefit from data storage
which would favour research
undertakings by them during
the early years of their entry
into the medical profession.
Hence, apart from following
the MBBS core curriculum,
a shift towards acquiring
competencies in medical knowledge
through own data processing,
decision making, health planning,
and implementation has been
aimed at. Towards the attainment
of the efficacy in discharging
the responsibilities by a
medical graduate during the
twenty-first century, it is
anticipated that the medical
informatics would make the
MBBS curriculum of Kathmandu
University much more effective
in terms of translating learning
objectives into job competencies.
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