Abstract

Objectives: By grasping trends in research, technology, and general characteristics of learning support tools, this study was conducted to present a model for research on Korean Medicine (KM) to make use of information technology to support teaching and learning. The purpose is to improve the future clinical competence of medical personnel, which is directly linked to national health. Methods: With papers and patents published up to 2011 as the objects, 438 papers were extracted from "Web of Science" and 313 patents were extracted from the WIPS database (DB). Descriptive analysis and network analysis were conducted on the annual developments, academic journals, and research fields of the papers, patents searched were subjected to quantitative analysis per application year, nation, and technology, and an activity index (AI) was calculated. Results: First, research on medical learning support tools has continued to increase and is active in the fields of computer engineering, education research, and surgery. Second, the largest number of patent applications on medical learning support tools were made in the United States, South Korea, and Japan in this order, and the securement of remediation technology-centered patents, rather than basic/essential patents, seemed possible. Third, when the results of the analysis of research trends were comprehensively analyzed, international research on e-PBL- and medical simulation-centered medical learning support tools was seen to expand continuously to improve the clinical competence of medical personnel, which is directly linked to national health. Conclusions: The KM learning support tool model proposed in the present study is expected to be applicable to computer-based tests at KM schools and to be able to replace certain functions of national KM doctor license examinations once its problem DB, e-PBL, and TKM simulator have been constructed. This learning support tool will undergo a standardization process in the future.