A Continuous 4-year Evaluation of Medical Informatics Education in a Graduate School of Health Sciences Using a Questionnaire Survey

The purpose of this study was to identify the level of awareness among undergraduate students regarding medical informatics and to ascertain whether educational training has progressed with time in the Department of Health Sciences at Hirosaki University, Japan, which is a co-medical staff training institution that conducts a 4-year university course in medical informatics. The university accepts students who have completed the 3rd grade of medical licensing tests and who have attended the medical informatics lectures for 4 years (2007-2010). The ratio of first sight terminology percentage in any given fiscal year in all the 30 terminology categories varied widely from 0% to 80%, but the trend in various categories did not vary between fiscal years. The terminology of informatics under medical technology students obtained high scores of 52.5-77.3% after attending courses, which was higher compared with students from other classes. On the other hand, student nurses and occupational therapy students obtained 0-44.2%. Each class scored a high percentage of correct answers in the medical information-related terminology. Among the radiology students who attended the classes, the percentage of correct answers in categories of "digital imaging and communication in medicine" and "picture archiving and communication system" were lower than other medical terminology categories. These results reflect the gaps in educational curriculum of 1st and 2nd grades of medical licensing tests.