JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The ability to construct simple computer programs ("coding") is being progressively recognised as a life skill. Coding is now being taught to primary-school children world-wide, 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 also 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 weekend? 2) How do students perceive the value of learning computer coding at medical school? 3) Do students see computer coding as an important skill for future doctors?

Methods:

We developed a 2-day coding course to teach self-selected cohorts of medical students basic coding. The course included a practical introduction to writing software, discussion of computational thinking, and how to discuss projects with mainstream computer scientists. We explored in focus groups 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 focus group 1) Making sense of coding 2) Developing the students’ skillset 3) The value of coding in medicine, research and business 4) Role of teaching coding in medical school 5) The concept of an enjoyable challenge 6) Comments on the course design

Conclusions:

Medical students can acquire usable coding skills in a weekend course. They valued the teaching and identified that, as well as gaining coding skills, they had acquired an understanding of its potential both for their own projects and in healthcare delivery and research. They identified that learning to code was different from digital literacy and considered that coding skills teaching should be offered as an optional part of the medical curriculum.