Horizon of Medical Education Development

Horizon of Medical Education Development

Integration in The Health Information Technology Curriculum From The Perspective of Stakeholders: a Qualitative Study Towards Accountability

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
maryam avizhgan 1
Azita Balaghafari 2
NIKOO Yamani 3
1 assistant professor/medical education research center/ Isfahan university medical sciences
2 , Instructor, Department of Health Information Technology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Mazandaran, Iran
3 Professor, medical education Research Center, Department of medical education, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran Email: nikooyamani@gmail.com
10.22038/hmed.2025.88553.1532
Abstract
Introduction:The integration method is an important and practical educational strategy for establishing effective communication between faculty members and students in the teaching-learning process. This study aimed to investigate the place of integration in the undergraduate curriculum of Health Information Technology from the perspectives of administrators, faculty members, graduates, and students.
Materials & Methods: an exploratory qualitative study using a content analysis approach was conducted at the Sari Paramedical School of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Participants included administrators, faculty members, graduates, and students who were purposively selected and continued until saturation was reached. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, analyzed using the Zhang and Wildmouth method, and Lincoln and Guba criteria were used to ensure data accuracy.
Results:Codes extracted from 17 interviews were placed in 9 subcategories and 4 main categories. The current image category was categorized into two subcategories: “Curriculum gap and curriculum clarity”, the perspective on integration into two subcategories: “Advantages and disadvantages”, the challenges into three subcategories: “Faculty, students and educational challenges”, and the proposed measures into two subcategories: “Lesson design and delivery”. The analysis of interviews with stakeholders emphasized the need to plan the integration of anatomy and physiology courses and medical terminology courses 1 and 2.
Conclusion: In order to successfully implement integration, it is necessary to use appropriate teaching and evaluation methods, formative and summative, use the opinions of professors to facilitate and successfully implement and empower them, train staff in parallel with the training of professors and students, formulate relevant rules and regulations and implement them, create a culture and appropriate organizational culture, and allocate appropriate time and space.
Acknowledgments: The researchers wish to express their sincere appreciation to all faculty members and experts who contributed to this work.

Availability of data and materials: All tools and data are available.

Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Consent for publication:All authors agree to publish this article in the Journal of the Horizon of Medical Education Development.

Ethical approval and consent to participate:This article is derived from a Master’s thesis in Medical Education approved and successfully defended at the Smart University of Medical Sciences in 2020titled "Designing an Integrated Curriculum for the Health Information Technology Program at the Sari School of Paramedical Sciences" (Ethics Code: IR.VUMS.REC.1399.014). The participants’ data were analyzed and reported anonymously and confidentially. The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Funding: This study was conducted with the support of the Smart University of Medical Sciences.

Authors’ Contributions: A. Balaghfari: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, and Accountability. N. Yemani: Conceptualization, Methodology, and Accountability. M. Avizegan: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing Original Draft, Writing Review & Editing, Final Approval, and Accountability.

Open Access Policy: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited. To view a copy of this licence, visit.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Keywords
Health Information Technology
Integration
Curriculum
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Horizon of Medical Education Development
Volume 17, Issue 4
Autumn 2026
Pages 69-79