The Internet and its role in teaching medical informatics to undergraduates.

Training medical informatics students in the use of tools that may assist their future careers is only one component of what we feel is required of a successful course. Leaving students with a sense of what these tools can actually do for them, and how they can be applied in daily work and research, is the most important goal. We discuss how the Internet, with its wealth of information and interconnections between individuals, can be used to involve students, thus leaving them with the motivation and skills to achieve this longer term goal once they have left our course.