Medical informatics in the medical curriculum--when?

Undergraduate teaching of medical informatics (MI) at the Medical School University of Zagreb has been changing its position in the medical curriculum. Nowadays, this subject is positioned in the second year of the medical curriculum. The aim of this paper is to find out what the students of the second year (S2Y) and of the sixth year (S6Y) think about the position of MI in the medical curriculum. The results of students' opinions have shown that MI should be positioned: in the last two years (63% of S2Y, 36% of S6Y), in the middle (11% of S2Y, 21% of S6Y), and at the beginning of the medical curriculum (26% of S2Y, 43% of S6Y). However, analysing this question according to previous experience of the students of both groups, it can be concluded that: the S6Y with more previous experience shift the subject towards the end of the medical curriculum, and the S2Y with more previous experience shift the subject towards the beginning of the medical curriculum. According to our long-term experience and students' opinion, the most relevant MI subjects, any kind of medical application, should necessarily come at the end of the medical curriculum.