Enhancing Entrepreneurship and Professionalism in Medical Informatics Instruction: A Collaborative Training Model

j J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2004;11:317–319. DOI 10.1197/jamia.M1463. There is little doubt that medical informatics occupies a central place in modern medicine. Innovative methods for managing health care information are critical to solving the problems posed by our nation’s health care system. However, medical informatics solutions cannot be applied without a well-trained labor force. Criticisms of the current educational system primarily center on the graduate-level focus of most programs and the lack of an interdisciplinary team approach to educational initiatives. This last point is particularly important given Carter’s astute observation that successful medical informatics applications are the shared responsibility of the medical informatics community, professional societies, academic organizations, and practitioners. These educational issues led the authors to develop an innovative,multidisciplinary undergraduate andprofessional educational program in medical informatics. The course description and key outcome observations are outlined below.