Interdisciplinary Teaching of Digital Competencies for Undergraduate Medical Students – Experiences of a Teaching Project by Medical Informatics and Medicine

Abstract

The increasing digitalization of medicine stressed the importance of teaching digital competencies in undergraduate medical education. However, in many medical curricula in Germany, medical informatics is underrepresented. Due the upcoming reorganization of medical undergraduate education in Germany, topics previously assigned to medical informatics represent curricular challenges for all medical disciplines. Against this background, experiences from the project DigiWissMed show how medical informatics can support the teaching of digital competencies in all disciplines of medical education. Therefore, interdisciplinary teaching teams of medical informatics professionals and physicians were formed. In different academic years, this teaching teams jointly designed and implemented new seminars to convey digital competencies. The seminars covers topics such as technology acceptance, telemedicine and assistive health care related to the medical specialty. So, in the project DigiWissMed, the practicability and usefulness of interdisciplinary teaching teams to convey digital competencies could be demonstrate. In the digitalization process of medicine, medical informatics plays a key role. For future-proof medical education, experts of this field should be involved in teaching digital competencies, too.

Digital competence – A Key Competence for Todays and Future Physicians

“…As illustrated by Jidkov et al [ 21 ], a standardised curriculum including basic digital competencies can provide a systematic structure for postgraduate training in all medical disciplines. To determine the concrete learning objectives of such a uniform core curriculum and to identify domains that are relevant in all medical disciplines joint working groups of physicians and experts in medical informatics can be conducive [ 22 , 23 , 27 ].…”

“…The study of Jidkov et al points out that medical informatics frameworks can serve as a basis for structured integration of digital competencies in postgraduate training [ 21 ]. They are also a comprehensive foundation for the development of undergraduate curricula [ 22 , 23 ]. A lack of physicians’s knowledge with regard to informatics, in particular medical informatics essentials, and regarding the aspect what digitisation exactly means can build a barrier to deal with digital technologies in detail and to take a proactive role in their implementation [ 24 ].…”

“…With the explicit inclusion of these learning outcomes the groundwork for the incorporation of digital competencies in the undergraduate courses at German medical schools has been established. Now medical schools face the task to systematically integrate these learning outcomes in their curricula [ 22 , 23 , 28 ].…”

Piloting an Innovative Concept of e–Mental Health and mHealth Workshops With Medical Students Using a Participatory Co-design Approach and App Prototyping: Case Study

“…Encourage the collaboration of physicians and informatics experts as lecturers, for example, as shown in the DigiWissMed project in Germany [ 63 ].…”

Flaminio Rota: Fame and Glory of a 16th Century Anatomist without Scientific Publications

“…For example, medical informatics education is growing for the acquisition of digital competencies with interdisciplinary and collaborative teaching teams, as well as biomedical modelling and simulation. These projects must be integrated into training curricula to prepare physicians for modern healthcare, and are addressed to both undergraduate [48] and postgraduate medical students [49]. In this frame, the teacher plays an important role in coordinating and managing information with new techniques, leading to a greater accountability in education and an increased professionalism by creating higher standards of practice.…”