Medical informatics within the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum in Pakistan: challenges and need of 21st century

Abstract

At present a large number of private and public medical schools in Pakistan are still teaching by traditional methods whereas most of the medical schools in the modern world are training their future physicians by latest teaching tools like evidenced-based and problem-based learning. It is a fact that our graduates no doubt have very strong knowledge of basic sciences and clinical skills. They can compete anywhere in the world but we should accept that we are week in medical informatics due to many reasons. We must recommit ourselves to our teaching missions by vigorously pursuing strategies that support and recognize the invaluable contributions of teaching faculty to the preservation of these missions. In my opinion we must continuously innovate and utilize innovative methods like medical informatics as a tool to help us to attain our mission to produce physicians of 21st century. We should produce the doctors who have the knowledge, attitude, aptitude and clinical skills consistent with the teaching learning philosophy of medical institutions.