Current status of interactive multimedia education in medicine.

This article describes a subset of interactive medical education software that is representative of currently available products. Packages are now being produced with a variety of languages and "authoring" programs and have been distributed over CD-ROMs, floppy disks, and laser videodiscs. The developers and distributors include individuals, universities, pharmaceutical companies, publishers, and software companies. The target audiences are physicians, allied health workers, patients, and students. Software development is currently being encouraged by the recognition, on the part of several professional organizations, of the need to use computers in medical education.