Imperial College London
Alternate

DrMatthewWilliams

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery & Cancer

Honorary Senior Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 3311 0733matthew.williams Website CV

 
 
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Location

 

Charing Cross HospitalCharing Cross Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Morton:2019:10.2196/11940,
author = {Morton, CE and Smith, SF and Lwin, T and George, M and Williams, M},
doi = {10.2196/11940},
journal = {JMIR Medical Education},
title = {Computer programming: should medical students be learning it?},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/11940},
volume = {5},
year = {2019}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: The ability to construct simple computer programs (coding) is being progressively recognized as a life skill. Coding is now being taught to primary-school children worldwide, but current medical students usually lack coding skills, and current measures of computer literacy for medical students focus on the use of software and internet safety. There is a need to train a cohort of doctors who can both practice medicine and engage in the development of useful, innovative technologies to increase efficiency and adapt to the modern medical world.Objective: The aim of the study was to address the following questions: (1) is it possible to teach undergraduate medical students the basics of computer coding in a 2-day course? (2) how do students perceive the value of learning computer coding at medical school? and (3) do students see computer coding as an important skill for future doctors?Methods: We developed a short coding course to teach self-selected cohorts of medical students basic coding. The course included a 2-day introduction on writing software, discussion of computational thinking, and how to discuss projects with mainstream computer scientists, and it was followed on by a 3-week period of self-study during which students completed a project. We explored in focus groups (FGs) whether students thought that coding has a place in the undergraduate medical curriculum.Results: Our results demonstrate that medical students who were complete novices at coding could be taught enough to be able to create simple, usable clinical programs with 2 days of intensive teaching. In addition, 6 major themes emerged from the FGs: (1) making sense of coding, (2) developing the students’ skill set, (3) the value of coding in medicine, research, and business, (4) role of teaching coding in medical schools, (5) the concept of an enjoyable challenge, and (6) comments on the course design.Conclusions: Medical students can acquire usable coding skills in a weekend cours
AU  - Morton,CE
AU  - Smith,SF
AU  - Lwin,T
AU  - George,M
AU  - Williams,M
DO  - 10.2196/11940
PY  - 2019///
SN  - 2369-3762
TI  - Computer programming: should medical students be learning it?
T2  - JMIR Medical Education
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/11940
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/96318
VL  - 5
ER  -
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