Martin Komenda1, Daniel Schwarz2, Jan Švancara1, Christos Vaitsis3, Nabil Zary3, Ladislav Dušek1. 1. Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. 2. Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Electronic address: schwarz@iba.muni.cz. 3. Department of Learning, Informatics Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Various information systems for medical curriculum mapping and harmonization have been developed and successfully applied to date. However, the methods for exploiting the datasets captured inside the systems are rather lacking. METHOD: We reviewed the existing medical terminologies, nomenclatures, coding and classification systems in order to select the most suitable one and apply it in delivering visual analytic tools and reports for the benefit of medical curriculum designers and innovators. RESULTS: A formal description of a particular curriculum of general medicine is based on 1347 learning units covering 7075 learning outcomes. Two data-analytical reports have been developed and discussed, showing how the curriculum is consistent with the MeSH thesaurus and how the MeSH thesaurus can be used to demonstrate interconnectivity of the curriculum through association analysis. CONCLUSION: Although the MeSH thesaurus is designed mainly to index medical literature and support searching through bibliographic databases, we have proved its use in medical curriculum mapping as being beneficial for curriculum designers and innovators. The presented approach can be followed wherever needed to identify all the mandatory components used for transparent and comprehensive overview of medical curriculum data.
BACKGROUND: Various information systems for medical curriculum mapping and harmonization have been developed and successfully applied to date. However, the methods for exploiting the datasets captured inside the systems are rather lacking. METHOD: We reviewed the existing medical terminologies, nomenclatures, coding and classification systems in order to select the most suitable one and apply it in delivering visual analytic tools and reports for the benefit of medical curriculum designers and innovators. RESULTS: A formal description of a particular curriculum of general medicine is based on 1347 learning units covering 7075 learning outcomes. Two data-analytical reports have been developed and discussed, showing how the curriculum is consistent with the MeSH thesaurus and how the MeSH thesaurus can be used to demonstrate interconnectivity of the curriculum through association analysis. CONCLUSION: Although the MeSH thesaurus is designed mainly to index medical literature and support searching through bibliographic databases, we have proved its use in medical curriculum mapping as being beneficial for curriculum designers and innovators. The presented approach can be followed wherever needed to identify all the mandatory components used for transparent and comprehensive overview of medical curriculum data.
Authors: Martin Komenda; Martin Víta; Christos Vaitsis; Daniel Schwarz; Andrea Pokorná; Nabil Zary; Ladislav Dušek Journal: PLoS One Date: 2015-12-01 Impact factor: 3.240