Abstract:

The specialization of medical engineer has been established by the Ministry of Health of Poland in order to train medical/clinical engineers for clinical positions at polish health care and other institutions related to the health care systems. The novel model of education was designed in order to provide a more convenient option for the professionally active trainees.

The postgraduate program of the Medical Engineer is designed for Masters in mechanical engineering, electrotechnical engineering (ET), and biomedical engineering (BME), physics and informatics with at least one year of clinical practice and also for other medical professionals with a longer clinical practice.

The program which tailored according to the International Federation for Medical Biomedical Engineering standards consists of 11 thematic modules and it is designed to last two years ending with the State Exam. The course, prepared for already working trainees, consists of 700 hours of theory classes, labs, seminars and 23 weeks of clinical training.

In order to provide the less time absorbing program (less travel and fewer stationary classes) for candidates for the medical engineer specialization, the Mechatronics Faculty of Warsaw University of Technology has prepared the novel curriculum incorporating distance learning elements. The program is executed by the Academic Distance Learning Centre "OKNO" of Warsaw University of Technology. The current format of education SPRINT (in Polish: Studia PRzez INTernet) was modified to fulfill the requirements of Ministry of Health and the regulations for the postgraduate study of Warsaw University of Technology. The two academic years are divided into four semesters. Each semester lasts 16 weeks, consists of 8 working meetings and is completed by two weeks examination session consisting of two meetings. The working meetings are organized on Saturday and Sunday. The laboratories and practices are offered during the working sessions. The lectures, seminars and some practices are performed on the dLearning platform.

The stationary classes time of the proposed two year long program is limited to 384 hours vs. 700 hours of former program. Additionally in the novel program the 96 hours of consultations are added. However, the direct contacts between students and teachers are diminished in the proposed curriculum. Therefore, due to the importance of the personal education in the teaching process, the following types of face to face contacts are introduced: consultations, stationary classes, and supervision by a tutor as required by polish regulations.

The on-line multimedia lectures, consultations etc are so far not taken under consideration because of limited resources, however they could be introduced in the future.

Conclusions:
1. The proposed approach to dLearning should provide more convenient logistics of learning
and encourage clinical engineers for further professional education,
2. The wider application of multimedia tools should broaden the opportunities of the face to face contacts between trainees and teachers in the future.

Keywords:

Postgraduate education, dLerning, clinical engineering.