Training in medical informatics.

A course is described for the training of medical students in medical informatics (other terms: computational medicine, medical computing). The philosophy behind the course is that there are several modes or levels of human interaction in working with computers, running from registrative functions to assistance at diagnosis and therapy. The course, which consists of five full days, contains lessons in the areas of medical data bases, hospital information systems, medical records, biological signal analysis, computer-assisted diagnosis making, and patient simulation by CAI. Each group of two students has a terminal available, connected to a mini- and/or a microcomputer. The microprocessor takes care of signal analysis and the minicomputer is available for data base construction and interactive operations. The article describes the purposes and contents of all different lessons of this course.