How should Medical Informatics be at University Hospitals?

Research Project

Project/Area Number	60304084
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Co-operative Research (A)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	病院管理学
Research Institution	University of Tokyo
Principal Investigator	KAIHARA Shigekoto Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo., 医学部, 教授 (30010234)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	NOSE Yoshiaki. Faculty of Medicine, University of Kyushu., 医学部, 助教授 (20038920) MORI Chuzo. Faculty of Medicine, Shimane Medical College., 医学部, 教授 (10025562) KATO junzo. Faculty of Medicine, Yamanashi Medical College., 医学部, 教授 (80082121) HIRAKAWA Akina. Faculty of Medicine, University of Kyoto., 医学部, 教授 (10025645) YASUI Shoji. Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo., 医学部, 教授 (20023781)
Project Period (FY)	1985 – 1986
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1986)
Budget Amount *help	¥5,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,700,000) Fiscal Year 1986: ¥2,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000) Fiscal Year 1985: ¥2,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000)
Keywords	Medical Education / Medical Informatics / Medical Informatic Division / Informatics Processing / コンピュータ
Research Abstract	The importance of information processing in medical field increased for the past 10 years. This field is called as Medical Informatics and this is defined as a developing body of knowledge and set of techniques concerning the organization and management of information in support of medical research, education, and patient care. Although the importance of this field is well acknowledged in western countries, there have been no so many basic researches of medical informatics in Japan. Considering this background, a study group was formed in 1984 and discussed how medical informatics should be in Japanese university hospitals and published general recommendations. This research is a continuation of this study and concentrated on 'Medical informatics in medical education' and 'Organization of medical informatics department at medical school'. In conclusion, we made following recommendations. 1. As a result of increasing medical knowledge, it now becomes almost impossible to teach all the medical knowledge at medical school. Medical doctors must continue to acquire new medical knowledge for all his life and medical informatics is a very effective tool for this continued medical education. This is the reason why medical informatics must be taught at medical school. We proposed a curriculum based on this concept. 2. At present, most of medical informatics departments belong to hospitals and has responsibility to run hospital computer systems. Because of this organizational arrangement, medical informatics departments are usually very busy to run daily business and have little time for education and research. The medical informatics department should be expanded and belong to medical school.