Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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Physicians have considerable difficulty collecting and interpreting information from patients, dealing with the uncertainties associated with diagnosing and treating their patients, communicating precisely with one another, keeping up to date, and applying recommended procedures when indicated. Some of the advances in information technology may help physicians to manage information more effectively through more accessible, validated clinical indexes, data bases of diagnostic test characteristics, computerized audits of clinical activities with feedback, expert systems, on-line access to the medical literature, and other tools of medical informatics. Medical educators can catalyze this process by facilitating the introduction of information technology into academic clinical settings so that students can learn its use first-hand and by promoting the evolution of this and other aspects of medical informatics, a new discipline dedicated to the solution of information problems in health care. The potential roles for computer-aided instruction and centralized computer laboratories in medical schools are much less clear.
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A monthly journal club for residents that focuses on research methods and statistics is described. Detailed discussions and analyses of clinical research articles by the residents are used to teach the important concepts and principles of medical research in a manner useful to the practicing physician. Discussion of research articles is structured by a guide for presenting the research articles to the group and by stimulus questions that address specific methodological issues related to the study being examined. Residents have been enthusiastic in their evaluation of the journal club; the experience has stimulated some of them to conduct their own research studies.