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Commentary on Instructional Technology and Radiologic Education¹

¹ From the Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California, Irvine Medical Center, Orange. Received March 26, 2001; accepted March 28. Address correspondence to the author, 18961 Castlegate Ln, Santa Ana, CA 92705 (e-mail: rmfriede@uci.edu).

Index terms: Education • Perspectives • Radiology and radiologists

Academic medicine, which is now forced to compete for patients in a very competitive market, has required the former physicians-teachers to devote more time to clinical care. This has encouraged the proliferation of instructional technology, defined by Gunderman et al (1) as the use of information processing and communication technology to support education. They properly state that computer-based instruction cannot and should not replace face-to-face education and that instructional technology is not an end in itself but rather one means to the end. My fear is that because of the pressure on time, educators will become the "tools of their tools."

We are in danger of seeing the demise of the scholar-physician-educator. In many institutions, teaching is becoming cursory, and department chairs salve their consciences by providing more self-teaching models (instructional technologies). The concept in managed care of the efficient use of time is destroying not only the doctor-patient relationship but also the student-teacher relationship. Mentoring of students and/or residents provides them with intellectual contact with senior physicians, affects how they think and differentiate diagnostic problems and how they deal with the uncertainties of diagnosis, and provides them with a moral compass that governs their actions for the rest of their lives. There is no substitute for the personal relationship between teacher and student.

Let us remember that instructional technology is an aid to education, a tool to be utilized: It should not be the main thrust in education of our students and/or residents. Education of future physicians must be part of our social contract with society, a contract society must support. If we are to maintain the moral compass of future generations of physicians, the scholar-physician-educator must be at the core of medical education.

FOOTNOTES

See also the article by Gunderman et al (pp 1–4 ) in this issue.

REFERENCES

1. Gunderman RB, Kang YP, Fraley RE, Williamson KB. Instructional technology and radiologic education. Radiology; 221:1-4.

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