Electronic learning in medical education

Medical education in Iran consists of undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education (CME), like most other countries. Experts in medical education, in various meetings, recommended strategies to implement fundamental changes and improve medical education to alleviate current defects in medical education. One of the most important suggestions was to develop information technology in the field of medical education. Nowadays, most colleges in developed countries use online systems for communication with students, and also most courses are presented as online. These changes have been occurred in Iran, and medical schools of Iran have implemented electronic learning (E-learning) in their strategic planning. Efforts have been made in some universities to implement E-learning in CME courses. This may advance E-learning in medical education, especially in basic sciences. In this study, more than 50 international articles, 10 domestic articles and 80 websites related with E-learning in medical education were evaluated. Our findings showed that E-learning has been a routine program in world medical universities. Some Universities, such as North American Universities, have implemented E-learning in the education of all courses of basic sciences. Some Iranian Universities have set up CME programs in this topic, and have presented some courses as E-learning.