A perspective on instructional uses of computing in medicine.

Over the past two decades the use of computers for instructional purposes in the medical and health fields has grown in terms of both the numbers of users and the variety of material available. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) was proposed as a cost-effective means of providing individualized instruction as well as an ideal medium for the presentation of complex problems. Applications have ranged from the primitive drill and practice mode to the fairly sophisticated processes of decision making and differential diagnosis. Although CAI may never fulfill the high expectations of early proponents, the medium appears to have found acceptance as a useful adjunct to the instructional process.