Designing a Clerkship Curriculum for Medical Students in Clinical and Medical Informatics in the Electronic Medical Record Era

Introduction The nature of practice in clinical and medical informatics has changed since the last recommended incorporation of the field into undergraduate medical education in 1998. The Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University have been offering a clerkship in clinical and medical informatics since 2008, and post-graduate medical education since the early 1970s. Methods Drawing on this existing educational program and the expertise at the institute, we developed a clerkship elective to support medical students in learning about the subspecialty in practice, as well as the state of the art in research. Student evaluation of the clerkship and satisfaction with curricular design elements was measured. Results A modular inverted classroom curriculum was designed and implemented using learning management systems and instructional technology available at Indiana University. Students were satisfied with the clerkship, and explicitly understood how curricular design contributed to their understanding of material. The curriculum was found flexible for multiple levels of learners, particularly those with advanced mastery of technical skills. Discussion This curriculum, and its packaged content to be imported into common learning management systems, offers a state of the art introduction to clinical and medical informatics for medical students, which supports student success and preferences during their clerkship elective period. Educational Objectives By the end of this activity, learners will be able to:’ Articulate the scope of clinical and medical informatics within medicine Describe a problem pertinent to their clinical interests, and how a solution can be supported by health information technology, as well as more generally be assessed using clinical outcome measures Demonstrate a knowledge of terminologies and standards found in clinical medicine, as well how they integrate to define and describe disease Demonstrate an understanding of clinical decision making and the evaluation of discrete choice problems