The Center for Biomedical Informatics
State University of Campinas, Brazil

Research Abstracts

Medical schools have already recognized the importance of teaching research methodology for undergraduate and graduate studemts. Although the courses which are offered usually spend most of the time teaching biostatistics, other topics have been gradually introduced, such as data collection and recording, organization and care in documentation activities, the use of computers, etc. In our medical school, we have introduced since 1988 elective courses on Medical Informatics into the undergraduate and graduate curricula. These courses aim at teaching the fundamentals of using microcomputer-based productivity tools such as word processing, electronic spreadsheets, database management, literature retrieval, statistical analysis, etc. Furthermore we have deemed it essential to familiariaze students with the basic techniques of data collection, design and analysis using microcomputers. In order to support this approach, we have employed, with great success, the well-known public-domain EPI-INFO software, developed by the Centers for Disease Control (Atlanta, USA) and the World Health Organization (Geneva, Switzerland). This software has excellent and easy to use capabilities for designing small health information systems in all of its stages, including drafting and implementing the collection tool (form), definition of fields, entering data into the computer, checking it for errors, and analyzing them using elementary statistical methods. Using all tools available in EPI-INFO, the students initially learn how to design, implement and analyze a simple, but complete medical research protocol. Later on, the students are urged to bring their own research data, or obtain them from willing researchers in the medical faculty. Using this, an individual, complete analysis using EPI-INFO must be presented by the student, for evaluation and grading at the course's end. The courses so structured have met very encouraging results. The majority of students become highly motivated with this approach, and after the course continue to use EPI-INFO to tackle real-world problems in data analysis in their activities. The final analyses presented by the students reflect a good degree of mastering of basic EPI-INFO techniques, although only 12 hours of the entire 35 h teaching load are spent with EPI-INFO.

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Last Updated: March 2, 1996

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