help button home button JAMIA Bigger figures
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
First published December 20, 2007 as JAMIA PrePrint; doi:10.1197/jamia.M2488
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 2008;15(2):246-254
© 2008 American Medical Informatics Association

A more recent version of this article appeared on March 1, 2008
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
M2488v1
15/2/246    most recent
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by van Mulligen, E. M.
Right arrow Articles by Maojo, V.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by van Mulligen, E. M.
Right arrow Articles by Maojo, V.

Submitted on April 24, 2007
Accepted on December 10, 2007

Training Multidisciplinary Biomedical Informatics Students: Three Years of Experience

Erik M. van Mulligen PhD1*, Montserrat Cases PhD2, Kristina Hettne MSc3, Eva Molero PhD4, Marc Weeber PhD1, Kevin A. Robertson PhD5, Baldomero Olivia PhD6, Guillermo de la Calle MSc7, and Victor Maojo PhD7

Affiliation of the authors: 1 Department of Medical Informatics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands ; 2 Chemogenomics Laboratory, Research Unit on Biomedical Informatics, Institut Municipal d'Investigaciò Médica and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Parc de Recerca Biomédica de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain ; 3 Safety Assessment, AstraZeneca R&D Mölndal, Sweden; 4 Fundaciò Institut Municipal d'Investigaciò Médica, Parc de Recerca Biomédica de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain ; 5 PhD, Division of Pathway Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK ; 6 Structural BioInformatics Laboratory, Research Unit on Biomedical Informatics, Institut Municipal d'Investigaciò Médica and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Parc de Recerca Biomédica de Barcelona Catalonia, Spain ; 7 Medical Informatics Group, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Politècnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Objective The European INFOBIOMED Network of Excellence [1] recognized that a successful education program in biomedical informatics should include not only traditional teaching activities in the basic sciences but also the development of skills for working in multidisciplinary teams.

Design A carefully developed 3-year training program for biomedical informatics students addressed these educational aspects through the following four activities: (1) an internet course database containing an overview of all Medical Informatics and BioInformatics courses, (2) a BioMedical Informatics Summer School, (3) a mobility program based on a 'brokerage service' which published demands and offers, including funding for research exchange projects, and (4) training challenges aimed at the development of multi-disciplinary skills.

Measurements This paper focuses on experiences gained in the development of novel educational activities addressing work in multidisciplinary teams. The training challenges described here were evaluated by asking participants to fill out forms with Likert scale based questions. For the mobility program a needs assessment was carried out.

Results The mobility program supported 20 exchanges which fostered new BMI research, resulted in a number of peer-reviewed publications and demonstrated the feasibility of this multidisciplinary BMI approach within the European Union. Students unanimously indicated that the training challenge experience had contributed to their understanding and appreciation of multidisciplinary teamwork.

Conclusion The training activities undertaken in INFOBIOMED have contributed to a multi-disciplinary BMI approach. It is our hope that this work might provide an impetus for training efforts in Europe, and yield a new generation of biomedical informaticians.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
Copyright © 1994 by the American Medical Informatics Association.