Jha P, Paul L, Ojha P, Sen S, Sinha N
(Final year students Bachelors of Hospital Administration, Institute of Management Studies, Devi Ahilya University, Indore)
(Survey done for Medical Computer Society of India in 2003)
RESULTS
COMPUTER ATTITUDE: Majority of UG and PG medical students were found to have a positive attitude towards use of computers.42% and 47% of UG and PG medical students felt that working with computer gave them a lot of self-confidence. (Table I).
Small sliceS of the UG and PG students, 7 % and 5% respectively, felt that the world would have been better off if computers were never invented. 44% UG medical students felt that they would like to go out with friends rather than spending an evening with the computer.36% of PG medical students shared their view.
BASIC COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE: 94% of both the UG and PG medical students were found to utilize the computer for desktop usage. The PG medical students were found to use the computer more frequently as compared to UG medical students.
For keyboard skills and word processing, the majority of the UG and PG medical students fell under fair category with 29%. A variation of 12%(13% and 25%) was found between UG and PG students for keyboard skill, while for word processing 9% difference was found (12% and 21%) between UG and PG medical students. (Table II-B)
40% of UG and PG medical students did not have any knowledge of database and spreadsheet. Disparity in result was found in ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ category of both database and spreadsheet skills. Here the PG medical students were found to be better with 11% and 13% respectively for both the categories in comparison to the UG medical students with 7 % and 4% respectively. (Table II-B)
Use of PowerPoint skills was ‘average’ among medical students. The percentage varied from 5% among UG medical students to 21% among PG medical students. More than half of UG and PG medical students did not have any knowledge of the operating system. A miniscule number, however, had ‘good and excellent’ knowledge of the operating system (3% and 10% in UG and PG medical student respectively). (Table II-B)
INTERNET USAGE: 86 % of both the UG and PG medical students were found to use the Internet. Results for all the categories regarding ‘online purposes’ were found almost to be same with no such statistical difference. (Table III-A)
Majority of the UG and PG medical students were not found using the computer for research, chat, or other purposes like teleshopping, telebidding, e-cards etc. Variation among the groups was also not noticeable except for the fact that 72% of the UG and 53% of the PG students did not use the computer for conference purpose. Only 31%of UG and PG medical students used the Internet to look for medical news. (Table III-A)
Most of UG and PG medical students were found to have proficiency with e-mail and Internet. Among those who were ‘good’ at e-mailing, a 10% variation was found between the UG and PG medical students (26% and 36% respectively). 19 % of UG medical students and 11% of PG medical students were ‘fair’ enough in Internet skills. (Table III-B)
TECHNICAL AND ADVANCED COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE: 15% of PG medical students and 21 % of UG medical students felt that they were good at on- line searching and downloading of information from CD’s (Graph I). Troubleshooting for hardware or software problem was rated ‘Poor’ by 21% and 13 % of UG and PG medical student respectively (Graph II). Majority of UG and PG medical students were not familiar with setting database and managing data, indexing or classifying data, and installing software but UG medical students were found to be more ignorant than PG medical students. (Table IV)
The effect of computer on career efficiency and work was rated ‘Good’ by 19 % of UG medical students and 24 % of PG medical students. (Graph III)
SEARCH ENGINE: The usage of Goggle and Yahoo search engine was 58 % by UG medical student and 62% by PG medical students.
SEX: The percentage of UG and PG medical students using the computers was more among the females, compared to their male counterparts. (Graph V)
YEARS OF COMPUTER USAGE: 71% of UG medical students and 70% of PG medical students have been identified to be using the computer for almost 5 years. (Graph IV)
DISCUSSION
This was a pilot study to identify the degree to which computer- related knowledge has spread among the health- care professionals in a technology-savvy city, like Chennai, in India.
Youngsters ought to have a better grasp of computers as they have been brought up playing ‘computer games’. It was found that although the majority of the UG and PG medical professionals were using computers, only a few had graduated beyond basic computer skills. It was detected that the medical students were found to have fair competence in keyboard skill, e-mail, Internet and PowerPoint, while they were found to be less competent in areas like word processing, spreadsheet, database and operating system. However, proficiency of medical students with keyboard, email, internet and power point is not sufficient to benefit at the national level.
The survey also noted that the of students had a positive attitude towards the use of the computer. This attitude acts as a facilitator for the learning process. Using ‘correlation analysis’ it was found that there existed a positive correlation between computer experience and attitude. This positive attitude can help in the easy inculcation of technical knowledge, which includes word processing, database, and spreadsheet and operating system which the medical students are found wanting.
Work efficiency and years of computer experience among UG and PG medical students was found to be negatively correlated. Hence even a fresher in the computer field, it was deduced, would be able to perform the work as efficiently, if they were given the opportunity, in comparison to those who had computer experience.
From the survey it was found that 78% of medical students enjoyed working with computers. Hence if computer- assisted technology was introduced into traditional teaching methodologies it would greatly enhance the understanding of several concepts in physiology, anatomy, muscle locomotion etc. It would also help the doctors to develop indigenous interactive computer programme for the caring, the diagnosis and the management of the patients.
As expected, a very small percentage of UG and PG medical students are likely to get an “excellent” overall rating in the use of computer. When analyzed through ‘Probability Test’, it has been projected that finding a highly computer skilled medical student (UG & PG) is 6 per 1,00,000 for female and 7 per 1,00,000 for male.
Over the next ten years healthcare industry is likely to grow to Rs.750-1000 billions. (Reference 6)
Computers are an important technology tool that set the standards in the healthcare industry. In India, almost all the modern medical instruments and gadgetry are computer- driven. Health level 7 (HL 7), the buzzword abroad, is a completely computer- dependent standardization in health- care industry. Hospital management system, telemedicine, e–education, PACS are important areas of healthcare and information technology. It is, therefore, paramount for health -care professionals to learn to use this technology effectively in order to deliver the best possible patient care. Chennai was used for this pilot survey, as it is one of the three cities in the ‘golden information technology triangle’ in India. This survey indicates that there is definitely a positive attitude towards computer among the young in the medical field. More surveys need to be carried out in other cities to look at the overall computer scenario in India. Doctors, who are excellent in this field, would be a great asset in the future to help frame health care policies for the country.
The following are the recommendations towards the utilization of this technology effectively in the healthcare field in India:
- Computers should be a part of the curriculum in the early years of education in medical colleges.
- There should be easier access to computers, especially in libraries, in order to encourage students to use the computer for research purposes. Hospital libraries should be able to subscribe to other global information.
- Resources are required to be pumped by the government to develop indigenous teaching programs that need to be incorporated into the traditional medical curriculum.
A recent effort by the Ministry of Information Technology and Communication to formulate a ‘National guideline on IT in healthcare’ along with the concerted efforts of many organizations like Medical Computer Society Of India, Apollo Health Street and WHO is a significant step in this direction.
Today, India has the best of computer technocrat and highly- skilled medical manpower .A synergy between the two groups can greatly help the health care system in the country .It is therefore vital for doctors to be fairly well versed in IT and for at least a few of them to have advanced skills to be able to properly operate computerized machinery and also to execute modern health-care programmes.
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