Computers in dentistry.

Traditionally, each professional school has developed its own course or department of health care informatics. We may find it more efficient and productive to establish a department of Medical Informatics to serve all health science colleges. Therefore the initial costs would be reduced and the common knowledge bank would be greatly increased. In a position paper written for the Association of Academic Health Centers lies the detailed plans for the establishment of an integrated health sciences center computer resource. The inclusion of computer courses in the curriculum can be summarized in the following action step. The chief administrative officer of the academic health center should facilitate the work of the deans of the schools of the health professions in convening faculty task forces that will address the introduction of computer literacy and computer applications in health care to the curricula. Although dental informatics is still in its infancy, we must lay a solid foundation for the controlled growth and development of this field of dental science. The problems encountered in developing a course in dental informatics are not unique to this one area. All specialties of health care are grappling with the questions posed by medical informaticians. Although each specialty has its own needs and requirements, the basic underlying principles of medical informatics remains the same. The knowledge we can gain by the exchange of experiences between all fields can greatly increase the speed and accuracy of development. The primary goal of computer literacy in dental education should be to prepare our students for the changing practice environment of the future.