A Medical Informatics Distance-learning Course for Latin America

OTERO, PAULA; HERSH, WILLIAM; LUNA, DANIEL R.; GONZÁLEZ, B. DE QUIRÓS F.

Methods Inf Med

HISA Ltd Australia

Año: 2007

0026-1270

There is a growing need and interest worldwide for healthcareprofessionals trained in medical informatics.Distance learning technologies are increasingly used todeliver such education, but mainly limited to the Englishlanguage. We describe the implementation of a medicalinformatics course delivered in Spanish for a Latin Americanaudience. The course was based on the 10x10program of the American Medical Informatics Associationand Oregon Health & Science University and translatedand adapted to the Latin American setting. The courseconsisted of ten one-week units. A total of 152 individualsenrolled in the course, 93% of whom completed it. Most ofthe students were healthcare professionals and the largestproportion was from Argentina. Student satisfaction withall aspects of the course was high. The initial experienceobtained in training healthcare professionals in medicalinformatics in Latin America in their own language demonstratedthat it can be used across the region, and thiscould represent a model for disseminating knowledge ofmedical informatics across other languages and cultures.