Education in technology and procedures of relevance for health care

Education in basic skills and knowledge as well as continuing education is of paramount importance in view of a professional health care. The increasing complexity, availability and specificity of diagnostic and therapeutic methods require nurses and doctors to master the rapid development of health care technologies and procedures, including in particular medical IT. Hands-on experience and advanced simulation methods are thereby particularly useful to obtain the necessary abilities. The efficacy of educational programs has furthermore to be ascertained.

ESEM (Educating Students in Engineering and Medicine) is devoted to support education in health care technology on all levels. In what follows, a number of papers are presented where exemplary educational programs were implemented and tested. We expect that such approaches, already widely in use, will increasingly be applied. Satisfaction and performance of personnel involved in health care are the leading criteria when evaluating such programs.