Assessment of Medical Informatics Skills of Undergraduate Medical Students at College of Medicine, King Saud University

Background: The main goals of medical education are to equip students and graduate clinicians with the required knowledge and skills to apply in real life practice. Medical informatics skills are an essential component in the current and future medical practice and education. Results concerning the assessment of medical students’ capabilities to acquire and use medical informatics tools were reported. Purposes: This study aims to assess basic medical informatics skills and computer readiness of undergraduate medical students at College of Medicine, King Saud University, and how improving their skills in this field would be beneficial in improving their learning and practice capabilities. Methods: This study was conducted at College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A total of 101 undergraduate third year medical students, 70 male, 31 female, age; 21.7 ± 0.9 year, mean ± SD, answered a questionnaire assessing their knowledge and interest in medical informatics and computer skills, including typing, word editing, file management, literature and medical searching, effective use of email and internet, FTP, web designing, Power Point, data entry and spread sheets. The results were classified for male and female students to assess their readiness to accept further medical informatics courses. Results: Results indicated that male and female students had very good basic computer skills; however they lacked professional medical informatics knowledge and skills. Discussion: The results show that students are ready to utilize information technology tools to improve their learning skills and practice. However, they lack practical knowledge in applying their IT skills in medical education. Conclusions: Despite the good computer knowledge of the students, they needed more training courses in the medical informatics to improve their skills in this field. It is strongly recommended for medical informatics courses to be integrated in the undergraduate medical curriculum.