Need of Designing Medical Information Technology Course in Undergraduate Medical Education; Resident's View

Nowadays، knowledge about and ability to use computer and information technologies are essential for medical students. Existence of physicians who are familiar with the informatics، will lead to a better quality in servicing to other groups in the health system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the necessity for curriculum compilation of informatics in the general medicine course، based on medical residents'' viewpoint. This cross-sectional study was done among all the 81 students of medical resident courses at Kerman University of Medical Sciences، in 2011-2012 academic year. A researcher-made structured questionnaire was used to collect data regarding the level of the participants’ ability on using computer programs and software and development strategies and obstacles to the use of medical information technology، containing 14 questions. The data were analyzed using correlation coefficient، Kruskal-Wallis and multiple linear regression tests by SPSS 11. 5 software. The total mean score of studied students’ on using computer software was 2. 62±1. 10. The students’ total mean score on using online medical journals and medical databases was 2. 10±0. 90. There was a significant relevance between the students’ skills in computer usages and the use of medical journals and medical databases (p<0. 005) Among the residents of Kerman University of Medical Sciences، the skills of using computer software and also، using online medical databases is lower than the average level.