Discusses the effectiveness of medical education and argues for the appropriate use of emerging technology in training. Suggests using a "marvelous machine" concept for trainees and continuing education working on computer-based simulations for a comprehensive practice experience. (Contains 26 references.) (YDS)

This study examined the quality of medical students' confidence estimates in answering questions in bacteriology based on personal knowledge alone and what they retrieved from a factual database in microbiology, in order to determine whether medical students can recognize when an information need has been fulfilled and when it has not. (Author/LRW)

The University of North Carolina School of Medicine developed a computer database, INQUIRER, containing scientific information in bacteriology, and then integrated the database into routine educational activities for first-year medical students in their microbiology course. (Author/MLW)

Computer-based clinical simulations used in medical education are designed according to decisions about which elements of reality to explicitly include, which to leave to imagination, and when to intervene for educational purposes. Programs offer many options for structuring the simulations, such as varying levels of volunteered information about…

To provide medical students in community-based clinical settings with access to the same range of educational resources (medical literature, student colleagues, feedback, faculty) available at the academic medical center, this paper proposes that advancing information technology be applied to create a "virtual clinical campus" in the community…

A study of 125 medical students at the University of North Carolina and 113 at the University of Iowa compared the effectiveness of traditional instruction in bacteriology with a method providing access to a computer database and computer exercises to support learning. Results suggest the computer intervention positively affected student learning.…

A survey of 101 medical schools in the United States and Canada found most had a centralized evaluation system for course and curriculum evaluation, and over half used oversight committees. Beyond the almost universal use of questionnaires, course evaluation practices varied widely, comprising different combinations of evaluation technique and…

A methodology is presented for examining activities of medical students on multisite clinical clerkships in obstetrics and gynecology. Five variables are explored: distribution of student activities, type or class of clinical conditions encountered, degree of "esoterism" of those conditions, type of student role, and flexibility of student role.…

The ability of the new Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) to predict performance of first-year medical students at the University of North Carolina was studied. Its incremental validity, determined by computing the additional variance in performance explainable by the MCAT after the effects of other admissions variables were taken into account,…

A method to assist in curriculum planning and its application at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine is presented. Content elements appropriate for inclusion in a family medicine curriculum for medical students are identified. Priorities were assigned to content elements. (Author/MLW)

The design of medical school curriculum information systems for use by faculty, students, and staff is explored. A system is explained to contain the objectives, content, and/or educational activities that compose the curriculum. Three distinct system designs are discussed: a curriculum database (most helpful for administrators), a curriculum…

An analysis of the new Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and its relationship to the criterion of class standing achieved in the school year ending in the spring of 1979 has been undertaken by the University of California, Irvine, to determine the MCAT's predictive power so that test results can be used in admissions procedure. (Author/JMD)

Data from a study of the preceptorship in family medicine, a required four-week experience for fourth-year medical students at the University of North Carolina, indicate that it was a synthesis experience. Seven functions of the preceptorship, many of which were not official program goals, are identified. (Author/JMD)

The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation sponsored a conference to consider designs for evaluation studies and the potential distinctive outcomes of the innovative medical curricula that might be foci of these studies. Differences between graduates of innovative and traditional curricula which might be expected were identified. (Author/MLW)

Examines how beliefs and concerns of academic medicine's diverse professional cultures affect management of information technology. Two scenarios, one dealing with standardization of desktop personal computers and the other with publication of syllabi on an institutional intranet, form the basis for an exercise in which four prototypical members…