1. INTRODUCTION
This year is anniversary of 25 years from establishing the first Cathedra of Medical
informatics at Bosnia and Herzegovinian universities (Figures 1, 2, 3). From long
time this exam was one of basic in biomedical curricula, but during last 5 years it
was changed and modified at different school years regarding modifying all curricula
at Faculty of medicine within Bologna model of education, followed proposals some
groups of university and faculty managers. This year’s (2016/2017) Medical Informatics
was listened to at IV semester and XI semester of school years for students who studied
in Bosnian language and at IV semester for students who studied in English language.
Figrue 1
Some documents about estblishing Medical informatics cathedra and staff, and cover
pages of of the Medical informatics book and Almanah
Figure 2
Decission for including ICT in Medical informatics projects
In October of the year 1992 the first Cathedra for Medical Informatics was established
at Faculty of medicine, University of Sarajevo. Cathedra staff at the time comprised
of the following: Asst. Professor Izet Masic, Chief of Cathedra and teaching assistants
- Zoran Ridjanovic, MD and engineer Safet Jakupovic, and associates Amra Redzepovic
and Ljubomir Kravec (1-5). Cathedras for Medical informatics at medical faculties
in Tuzla, Banja Luka, Foca and Mostar were established later – from 1994-1996.
There are five medical faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo, established
in 1946; Tuzla, established in 1976; Banja Luka, established in 1986; Foca, established
in 1994; and Mostar, established in 1997). At all the faculties, since 1992 and later,
cathedras for medical informatics were established and/or introduced as independent
subjects: medical informatics or health informatics, bioinformatics, etc. In principle,
60-70% of the curriculum are the same, or very similar; the only difference is that
the chiefs of some cathedras are medical doctors and of others are professors, engineers,
mathematicians or economists with the title of MSc or PhD in this area. Most of those
cathedras have web sites where students can check the number of hours and content
to be taught (2-6).
In past years the curricula of Medical informatics at universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(B&H) were modified and harmonized (Table 1), but the basic one was the Program of
Sarajevo cathedra for Medical informatics. In last 10 school academic years Medical
informatics curricula consists of theoretical and practical parts: 30 + 45 (Sarajevo);
60 + 90 (Tuzla); 30 + 30 (Banja Luka); 30 + 30 (Foca) and 30 + 30 (Mostar).
Table 1
Status of Medical Informatics exams at Faculties of medicine, at Universities in Bosnia
and Herzegovina in 2017
Year by year subjects and contents of medical informatics education were improved,
followed by assessment of student’s opinion about quality of teaching model, contents
of theoretical and practical lectures and finaly proposals of the way of providing
medical informatics exams (oraly, by test, electronical exams, etc.) by Bologna model
of education (11-20).
2. HEALTH INFORMATICS IN MEDICAL EDUCATION - HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The need for additional education of health professionals was realised after the first
application of electronic data manipulation. For physicians in primary health care
and in clinics, in order to perform their duties in a high quality manner, must have
been up to date with the latest accomplishments in medicine and health. Since the
60’s the development of information technologies has had a quantitative and qualitative
growth especially in diagnostics and therapy, and health workers had to follow that.
Great role in this field had IMIA – International Medical Informatics Association
and EFMI - European Federation for Medical Informatics. Working groups of IMIA and
EFMI recommended and defined concepts and methodologies of education for medical informatics
on three levels (6-10).
First, informatics education which should provide general knowledge to users and data
analysis on the place of their generation, and on all places of collecting data in
health system (physicians of all specializations, nurses and paramedical staff).
Second level, informatics education of this level is in regard to medical staff which
was directly involved in collection, manipulation, analysis and interpretation of
health data. This kind of education was expanded with skills, knowledge and practical
applications which are necessary for personnel on this level.
The third level is basically a very wide and highly specialized education for experts
in the health sector who would like to be professionally involved in this kind of
work.
In B&H there has never been an accepted proposal for introducing subspecialization
from medical informatics, in spite of the fact that authors of this paper put a lot
of effort and energy into making it official. It is a fact that at some universities
in European countries there are separate faculties or universities for graduates with
the title of engineers of health informatics (3-6).
Openly speaking in undergraduate education until 1992 when medical informatics was
introduced as an independent subject at the Faculty of medicine, University of Sarajevo
just some lectures were taught; those were methodological units in that time very
important for health practice (medical documentary with two teaching hours and health
information systems also two teaching hours) under the subject of Social medicine
and organization of health care and Professor Izet Mašić. From 1979. on Postgraduate
education at the Medical Faculty, University of Sarajevo there were subject Health
informatics led by the pioneer of health informatics in ex-Yugoslavia Prof Gjuro Dezelic,
PhD using concept, content and methodology at the Medical Faculty, University of Zagreb
(3, 4, 6, 7).
After spending 6 months on education at Department of Medical Statistics and Informatics
at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in London in 1982, Izet
Masic took over the leader position and with the help of Professor Gjuro Dezelic and
Professor Arif Smajkic he launched a separate course for students of postgraduate
study at Faculty of medicine in Sarajevo named as “Informatics and Economics in Health
Care System” for a total duration of 30 hours. Numbers of postgraduate students became
MSc and PhD in this subject, and some of them became professors and assistants in
B&H universities and abroad.
Since 1992 at the Medical Faculty, University of Sarajevo there have been Cathedra
for Medical Informatics. The content of education is 30 hours of theoretical and 45
hours of practical education for students of the Medical Faculty, 15+15 hours for
students of Faculty of Dental medicine and 30+30 hours for students of College of
Noursing. From 2002 the subject is split into two parts: Basics of medical informatics
with funding of 15+15 hours in the second semester of studies and Applicative medical
informatics with funding of 15+45 hours in the eleventh semester. The final exam is
due after the 11th semester. Curriculum, teaching materials, application for the exam,
the exam itself and checking of results are possible at the web sites www.unsamedinfo.org,
and www.imasic.org.
Also, since 2002 at Cathedra for Medical informatics the project “Distance learning
in biomedicine” was included as obligatory model of medical informatics education,
and few articles were published in domestic and international indexed journals, visible
on PubMed, PubMed Central and Scopus databases (15-26). This model of education allows
students to use an electronic way of learning and to pass their exams in this subject.
This method of education is now official method at almost all universities in Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
In total, education from Medical informatics gained till now approximatelly 5000 students.
At postgraduate students of the Faculty of medicine, University of Sarajevo there
are subject Medical Informatics with funding of 15+15 hours and this type of education
enabled over 1000 medical doctors all medical specializations (6-10).
3. THE PROGRESS OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS DURING THE BOSNIAN WAR (1992-1995)
In December 1992 in Sarajevo, scientific conference was held, organized by the Society
for Medical Informatics of RB&H. Topic was the “Nomenclature and classification systems
in health services”. During the Conference 11 papers had been presented from eight
different entities (12). In August 1993 in Sarajevo, another symposium on medical
informatics was held, and this time organized by the Society for Medical Informatics
of B&H in order to, according to professor Izet Masic. At the event titled Appendix
to the history of cultural and educational development of B&H have been presented
a total of 39 papers from 22 institutions (12).
In December 1994, a symposium named “Health Information Systems” was held, with the
theme of possibilities of development of health information system in B&H (3, 4, 7,
12), without which, as in the prologue states professor Masic, “could not imagine
a functioning health care system today. In fact, modern information systems in healthcare
are the main mechanism shaping the health care system, his rationalization, increase
efficiency, economy and self-regeneration.” Counselling is tasked to provide an overview
of modern concepts of individual sub-systems of health care information systems and
to present the current level of potential and prospects of development of these systems
in our communities (12).
4. MEDICAL EDUCATION AND THE ROLE OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS
The argument that medical informatics should be central feature of the medical curriculum
rests on the following premise: “To support health care, life-long learning, education,
research and management, medical students should be able, at the time of graduation,
to utilize biomedical information for: formulating problems; arriving at strategies
for solutions; collecting, critiquing and analyzing information; taking action based
on findings; and communicating and documenting these processes and the results.” (1).
Medical education is a life-long or career-long process beginning with medical school.
Support of life-long learning with information technology requires more than computer
literacy. In short successful medical school graduate should be able to demonstrate
knowledge of information resources and tools available to support life-long learning;
retrieve information; filter, evaluate and reconcile information; and to exhibit good
information habits – attitudes that support the effective use of information technologies
(1).
In year 2002 at Cathedra of Medical informatics of Medical faculty in Sarajevo conducted
first tele-exam in the history of education in Bosnia and Herzegovina between Podgorica
(Montenegro) and Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
In October 2003, University of Sarajevo began with Distance learning education, opening
University Distance Learning Centre at University of Sarajevo (UTIC – University Tele-informatics
Centre). Opening the University Distance Learning Centre, as coordination body and
leader in all activities in connection to Distance learning, has provided opportunity
for development and growth of this kind of lifelong education (10, 11, 14, 15).
In the period March - April 2006, 491 students from Medical faculty, Dentist faculty,
Pharmacology faculty and Nursing College, University of Sarajevo, were interviewed.
In this study authors were keen to know computer literacy of the students and its
influence on quality of medical education and further work of young physicians. At
the time, out of 491 interviewed students, 235 did not have the opportunity to use
the computer, 186 did not know, 49 students had opportunity but never used it, 19
used it rare and 2 students used faculty computers almost every day. It was very sad
that students did not have opportunity to use computers commonly however, it was promising
that almost 60% of student used IT to develop knowledge and improve education. Another
discouraging result was that 70% of student about to graduate did not feel comfortable
to work without help in family medicine units.
Based on the results of the survey main conclusions were:
Reform of education system must be performed as soon as possible in accordance with
needs and possibilities;
Assure continuous quality of education (internal and external evaluation);
Determine golden standards in education, what is a minimum of what graduate should
have in terms of knowledge and skills;
Adjust medical curriculums with countries in the region and in EU;
Teachers and educators must be evaluated regularly;
Student must be involved in all reform processes;
Enlarge volume and content of the practical education;
In accordance with available funds improve work of libraries and better equip classrooms.
These facts for us were basis as recommendations and proposals how to improve theoretical
and practical concept and model, also topics, for medical informatics education in
the future.
5. INFLUENCE OF BOLOGNA MODEL EDUCATION IN DEVELOPMENT OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS AT SARAJEVO
MEDICAL FACULTY
Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the Bologna Declaration on 18 September 2003, and in
the light of this new approach to university education, and the process of joining
The European Union experts for Bologna model of education gave us to realize following
aims: to determine the current level of knowledge among medical students at the Medical
Faculty of the University of Sarajevo, to determine the level of knowledge among medical
students before their enrolment at the faculty, and to find out students opinion on
their needs for further education. They have remained dedicated to these aims (6).
Curriculum of the subject covers the following areas:
Introduction to the Medical informatics, architecture of personal computers: their
components and operating principles, biomedical signals, systems software and application
software.
Application software and usage-ready software packages used in medical data processing:
MS WORD, ACCES, EXCEL, SPSS, as well the usage of other databases in statistical processing
and the display of research results in healthcare.
Qualitative and quantitative variables in medical research, means of creating data-carriers
and data entry in the databases. Statistical processing of the entered data, by the
usage of computer packages.
Usage of the Internet in biomedicine, usage of biomedical databases in exploration
of biomedical literature; clinical decision support systems and mobile clinical decision
support systems.
Means of preparation and display of textual form of the processed data, and preparation
of the presentation with the same content. Demonstrating and practicing the creation
of certain physical findings with the most important informational communication technologies
(ICT) in healthcare. Creation of data-carriers for their storage in the modules of
local information systems in healthcare.
Even today, the justification of implementing Medical informatics as an elective subject
in medical schools remains uncertain. The polemics still persists on the importance
of the subject, which remains by side in comparison to preclinical, extensive subjects.
This cut is meant to draw attention to the need of attending and listening to Medical
informatics in modern educational process, regardless of the fact that we are living
in the modern world, which is constantly keeping us in a close vicinity to the information
technologies, without which a modern-day life would have been unimaginable. (2, 3).
In order to become familiar with the subjective attitude of the students in the University
of Sarajevo’s Medical Faculty, on the importance of this subject in their total medical
knowledge and future work, we had conducted a survey, containing the relevant questions.
6. USE AND KNOWLEDGE ON THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN MEDICAL EDUCATION - BOSNIAN
AND HERZEGOVINIAN EXPERIENCE
Let us present some of our results of provided research about knowledge and attitudes
of the medical students about ICT in medical studies. The aim was to analyze the use
of IT in the prism of two systems, the old system and the Bologna system (15-26).
Answers from questionnaires from total of 459 students (2012/13–2015/16 generation)
were analyzed. During the academic year 2013/2014, Faculty of Medicine, University
of Sarajevo it was conducted an observational, analytical study (15-16) The study
included 154 students of the final year of study, 85 of those studying at the Bologna
process, and 69 of them attending the old system of education. The survey was conducted
voluntary by anonymous questionnaire consisting of 27 questions, divided into five
categories, which are collecting facts about student’s: sex, age, year of entry, computer
skills, possessing the same, the use of the Internet, the method of obtaining currently
knowledge and recommendations of students in order to improve their IT training. Students
have self-evaluated their knowledge from 1-4 grades, where 1 is the lowest and 4 the
highest review. Included in the group of the 154 students covered by this investigation
44.8% of them studied under the old system and 55.2% studied at Bologna process. Apparent
differences in computer usage between the students of the two educational systems
had been noted. All respondents confirmed that they own a computer and there is a
possibility of using it at the college. The study showed a better understanding and
application of user applications and tools by students of the Bologna process. The
average score of students of the old system of knowledge of computer components is
2.73, 3.55 using of Word, Excel 2.3, 3.56 Power Point, Internet 3.5, knowledge of
basic computer concepts 2.4, and overall knowledge 3.00. The average score of students
in Bologna system of education of knowledge of computer components is 3.07, the use
of Word 3.69, 2.53 Excel, Power Point, 3.68, 3.78, and Internet knowledge of basic
IT concepts 2.68, and 3.24 overall knowledge. About 92% of students of the old system
and 98% of students of the Bologna system use computer in everyday work (only 36%
of old system and 47% of the Bologna system are using “faculties” computers). The
computer is used for entertainment, education, information (via Internet) and for
communication (e-mail, chat, and social networks) (68.5% of the old system and 84%
of students of the Bologna system have chosen all 4 offered answers). MS Word and
MS Power Point are significantly more used compared to the use of MS Excel in both
systems (p <0.05). The knowledge necessary to use their computers student of both
systems have acquired through individual work. Students feel that they need to improve
knowledge of the treatment of sub-base (76% of students of the old system and 62%
of students of the Bologna system). Having analyzed the generation of 2015/16, 84.5%
of students of the Bologna system and 75% of students of the old system used smartphones
or tablets. The purpose of using a smartphone is, in most cases for accessing the
social networks. 77.4% of smartphone users of the Bologna system, or 73.3% of the
users of the old system have installed an application from the medical field (15,
16, 22).
In February of 2017 the surveyed second-year medical students had been processed.
The point was being held on the questions regarding their amount of computer usage
in their work, the most common purpose of computer usage, their subjective evaluation
of knowledge they possessed in information technologies usage, the fields in education
they wished to expand their knowledge in, as well as their total satisfaction with
the teaching quality of the staff (senior assistant, assistant professor, professor)
in the subject Medical informatics. During the academic year of 2016/17, on the University
of Sarajevo’s Medical Faculty, a survey had been conducted, and it included 146 second-year
students, who anonymously answered 27 questions divided into 5 categories. These five
categories contained questions on the general info (age, sex), frequency and purpose
of computer usage, means of acquiring the knowledge in computer usage, evaluation
of the current capabilities in the computer usage, and questions on the possible improvements
of education on the subject of Medical informatics. 66% of respondents are female.
Regarding the computer usage in their work, 70% of the students use the computer in
their work, 28% uses computers occasionally, and only 2% of the students do not use
computers in their work. 43% of the students use computers for acquiring information,
31% for education, 13% use them for fun and 13% for communication. The least knowledge
students possess in using the MS Excel, where 19% stated they knew next to nothing,
and only 11% of the respondents believe to know almost everything. The majority of
the students believed to know almost everything when it comes to using the Internet
(74%). 58% of the respondents believe their knowledge of Microsoft Office Word to
be excellent and are able to use all of its functions. Regarding the familiarity with
the terms file, database, operation system, programming and software, the majority
of the respondents is partly familiar, 38%. 24% of the respondents believe their familiarity
with the terms to be excellent. Regarding the knowledge and usage of Microsoft Office
PowerPoint program, 59% of the respondents believe to know and use it excellently.
70% of the respondents believe their knowledge of working with databases should be
improved, in order to be ready for work in the primary healthcare. Regarding the teaching
process evaluation on Cathedra for medical informatics, majority of the students finds
it satisfying, 47%, while 19% of the respondents find it to be excellent.
Even though the processed students belong to the modern generation, which is in touch
with the various hardware and software solutions on a daily basis, this survey shows
that the subject of Medical informatics should be inevitable in early years of medical
education since, even today, the great number of students lacks adequate knowledge
of basic software packages manipulation.
The fact is that the teaching process in this subject can be improved, and infrastructure
(hardware and software) must be strengthened in order to improve the teaching process
quality. Students must be provided with the adequate knowledge in database manipulation
and processing, since 80% them will surely work in primary healthcare, where this
knowledge is essential. It is necessary to set up firm foundations, and in later years,
to additionally educate students in data processing, statistical software solutions,
and to prepare them for the professional, as well as the academical work.
The conclusion was that the education in software solutions that are connected to
databases processing, must be imperative in reform of the teaching process. IT can
only improve the teaching process; the organization of the education system in most
eminent universities is undeniably linked to information technologies.
7. MEDICAL INFORMATICS APPLICATION IN MEDICAL EDUCATION - E-LEARNING AS NEW METHOD
OF MEDICAL EDUCATION
For the need of e-health, telemedicine, tele-education and distance learning there
are various technologies and communication systems from standard telephone lines to
the system of transmission digitalized signals with modem, optical fiber, satellite
links, wireless technologies, etc. Tele-education represents health education on distance,
using Information Communication Technologies (ICT), as well as continuous education
of a health system beneficiaries and use of electronic libraries, data bases or electronic
data with data bases of knowledge (2, 10).
The traditional static concept of medical education should be changed into the dynamic.
A passive doctor who is to be compelled to education becomes a creative doctor focused
on a problem he/she wants to solve in practice (self-directed). At the same time,
medicine incorporates its part of electronic revolution. Expansive development of
biomedical sciences put each doctor in a situation to get information on latest medical
achievements with delay and apply a relatively out-of-date technique in treatment
- meaning, he/she makes mistakes (2, 11).
We have recently been witnesses of an impressive progress of information and telecommunication
technologies. The use of computers in medicine allows permanent data storage, data
transfer from one work station to another, data searching and processing, data availability
at any moment, monitoring the patient’s condition during time etc. can significantly
improve medical profession. Nowadays, medicine is one of the most intensive users
of all types of information and telecommunication technologies. Fast and reliable
data storage and transfer (text, images, sound etc.) ensures significant relief and
improvement in almost all medical procedures. Moreover, data transfer to places remote
from medical centres can be of invaluable use, especially in emergencies (2, 14).
Information technologies are becoming a tool today without which further education
of both medical students and doctors is not possible, since the quantity of information
and the need for their fast search have become possible only by using these technologies.
Today it can be freely claimed that a bad doctor is the one who does not use information
technologies, because he/she does not new facts which might mean a lot to his/her
patients in time.
Thanks to the growth of educational technologies and the Internet, the number of online
resources available to educators has dramatically increased. Within medical education,
repositories or digital libraries have been established to manage access to e-learning
materials. Although few at this time, such repositories offer a vision of expanded
access to a large number of high-quality, peer-reviewed, sharable e-learning materials.
Examples include the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC’s) MedEdPortal,
a repository for curriculum and assessment materials organized around core competencies
in medical education and populated with up-to-date, peer- reviewed teaching and assessment
material. The End of Life/Palliative Education Resource Centre is a free- access repository
of digital content for health profession educators involved in palliative care education
(2, 14).
The health Education Assets Library (HEAL) provides high-quality digital materials
for health sciences educators and promotes the preservation and exchange of useful
educational assets such as individual graphic, video, or audio elements, while respecting
ownership and privacy. HEAL has begun a peer-review process for all e-learning materials
submitted to the library.
The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) is designed
primarily for faculty and students of higher education (2). The service collects links
to online learning materials, along with annotations such as users’ reviews and assignments.
MERLOT contains a growing science and technology section that includes health care
education e- learning materials.
The International Virtual Medical School (IVIMEDs) is an international organization
whose mission is to set new standards for e-learning in medical education through
a partnership of medical schools and institutions, using a blended-learning approach.
IVIMEDS hosts a repository for use by its member medical schools. Most of the materials
in this repository are free to use, although some materials have clearly defined conditions
for use.
Tele-education and distance learning in Bosnia and Herzegovina has made a great progress
(11, 14). Possibilities of introduction of distance learning in medical curriculum
are the title of project which has been realizing at Department of Medical Informatics,
Medical Faculty since year 2002. The Project was approved by Federal and Cantonal
ministries of science and education. The purpose of this project was to support improvement
educational process at biomedical faculties using contemporary methods, methodologies
and information technologies in accordance with strategy and objectives given by Bologna
declaration. The pilot project realized during five years, the theoretical and practical
parts of the subject Medical Informatics are adapted to modern concepts of education
using world trends of distance learning. One group of students from the Medical Faculty
was involved in this project, which was finalized by electronic registration of an
exam and electronic testing on 20 June 2005, in public in the Physiological amphitheatre
of the Medical faculty in Sarajevo. (11, 14, 24, 25, 26). The Cathedra of medical
informatics and the Cathedra of Family medicine at the Medical Faculty of the University
of Sarajevo started to use web based education as a common way of medical students
teaching. Lecture contents are presented in a virtual classroom. In this “classroom”,
learning materials, power point lecture presentations as well as practice exercises
with step-by-step instructions, are easily accessible to students. Moreover, on this
web site, students will be able to find subject relating literature as well as the
English version of the presentations. Satisfaction with this method of education within
the students is good, but not yet suitable for most of medical disciplines at biomedical
faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Platform of the course for distance learning was established in collaboration with
University tele-information Centre (UTIC). UTIC, established as part of University
of Sarajevo and first ISP in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996. It is a scientific-organizational
unit of the University of Sarajevo for improvement of scientific-research work (11,
14). UTICs objectives are among many to develop an integration of of informatics computer
technologies in education, to create flexible infrastructure which will enable e-Learning
to be accessible to all student at the University of Sarajevo, improvement of digital
literacy of academic population, development of top educational content which could
be integrated in the actual European process of e-learning revolution. With their
help centre for distance learning “LUCIS CENTRUM” was created (11).
On UTIC web site, students enrolled at Medical Faculty, are able to learn from distance
about Medical Informatics subject. Besides the learning material it is possible to
upload and download the following: practical and seminar works, links, plan and program,
quiz, schedule examination results.
The website was tested for the first time during the symposium “Tele-education in
biomedicine”, at the Cathedra for Medical Informatics, Medical Faculty, University
of Sarajevo in the year of 2002 (11, 14). Leader of this activity was electro-engineer
Safet Jakupovic, UTIC manager. By this occasion it was held tele-lectoring in duration
of 90 minutes. It was start of the project “Learning from distance in biomedicine”.
Izet Masic was leader of that project at Medical faculty in Sarajevo, and the project
was financed by funds of the cantonal Ministry of Science and Education and the Federal
Ministry of Science and Education. Experiences from this project were presented at
number of world and European scientific events and published in a vew articles (16-21,
24, 26).
8. HEALTH INFORMATICS IN MEDICAL EDUCATION – BENEFITS IN THE FUTURE
Information technologies (i.e. ITs) have the capacity, more than any other medium,
to facilitate student learning and problem solving, in addition to many other benefits,
which include (2):
E – LEARNING, which encompasses all forms of electronically supported learning, such
as web-based learning, learning with computers, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration?
INTERACTIVE CLASSROOMS that allow students to actively work with the dynamic content,
rather than passively listening to the teachers. They provide students not only with
the dynamic study and work environment, but with a word rich in resources, while simultaneously
being adjustable to the various learning and teaching styles. They include equipment
such as: interactive panels and pens, cameras, multimedia projectors, wireless electronic
board, devices for student answers (“clickers”), electronic notebooks for joint learning,
as well as numerous other pieces of interactive hardware.
COMPUTER SUPPORTED INDEPENDENT STUDY PROGRAM OF BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCES, which should
allow students to independently progress through the curriculum, based on their level
of knowledge and competence.
DISTANCE LEARNING, which is commonly being used as the synonym for “Web-based learning”,
but has its own context and definition: “Distance learning is planned learning that
takes place at the remote site of teachers, and as a result requires special techniques,
curriculum design, special instructional techniques, special methods of communication,
as well as special organizational and administrative arrangement(s)” (Moore and Kearsley,
1966). Forms of distance education include: individual participation, teleconference,
tele-seminar(s), web conferencing, electronic classrooms, etc.
WEB-BASED LEARNING is characterized by the separation of teachers and students (no
longer in the process of teaching face to face), the existence of educational organizations
(as opposed to self-education or private tutoring), use of Web technology for presentation
and distribution of educational content, providing two-way communication over the
Internet, so that students can communicate with each other, with teachers and faculties’
administration. Since the 1990s, it has become an important branch of educational
technologies.
VIRTUAL CLASSROOM, a form of computer based education, where the teacher communicates
with students through video-conferencing, internet or e-mail.
INTERACTIVE DISTANCE LEARNING, where students solve tasks by choosing one or more
correct answers. Answers are then displayed after pressing the “submit” button. Students
are provided with the correct answers, as well as the explanations to why certain
answers are wrong.
9. INSTEAD CONCLUSION - PAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE FIELD OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS IN
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
In 2017, the health informatics profession in Bosnia and Herzegovina celebrated five
jubilees:
Forty years on from the introduction of the first automatic manipulation of data.
In Sarajevo 1977, under the supervision of Fuad Secerbegovic, MD, Chief of the Department
for Health Statistics, Republic Institute for Public Health BiH in, the company -
“Energoinvest” Ltd. carried out the first analysis of summary and periodic health
data reports about the network, capacities and performance of the healthcare service
in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Thirty years on from the establishment of the Society for Medical Informatics BiH.
In October 1987, the above named Society was established by a group of enthusiasts
and pioneers of health informatics in BiH (Izet Masic, Irfan Zulic, Arif Agovic, Marijan
Dover, Mladen Novak, Zoran Kontic and others).
Thirty years on from the establishment of the Scientific and Professional Journal
of the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia and Herzegovina “Acta Informatica
Medica” (www.actainformmed.org). From the year 2008 articles published in Acta Infom
Med are indexed in PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus and 20 other on-line databases.
Twenty five years on from the establishment of the first Cathedra for Medical Informatics
on Biomedical Faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Fifteen years on from the introduction of the method of “Distance learning” in medical
curriculum.
All five of the mentioned activities in the area of health informatics had special
importance and gave appropriate contributions to the development of health informatics
in Bosnia And Herzegovina. The Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
gathered the most eminent experts, mostly medical doctors with various specialties.
BiH Society became a member of European Federation of Medical Informatics – EFMI during
the war in 1994, and in the same year, a member of the International Medical Informatics
Association – IMIA. In 2009 the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
were given the opportunity to organize the 22nd European Congress of Medical Informatics
in Sarajevo announced as “the best ever MIE”. At Sarajevo Conference participated
more than 420 experts of Medical informatics from more of 40 countries from over all
the word. Also, pioneer of Medical informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one
of pioneers of Medical informatics in countries of SouthEastern Europe, professor
Izet Masic, in 2016 was elected as Honorary Fellow of European Federation for Medical
Informatics and Fellow of American College of Medical Informatics, and in 2017 he
was elected as inaugural member of International Academy for Health Sciences Informatics.
It was award for everything what he has done in the past for development of Medical
informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Europe as academic and scientific biomedical
discipline.