Duncan Buell did an excellent job of pointing out the need for more computer science majors in his Dec. 12 column, “Hacking, election debacle point to need for computer scientists.”

I would like to address his third point: We also need more computer science minors among our pre-professional candidates.

In veterinary medicine we have a significant shortage of veterinarians who are conversant enough in information technology to make effective use of the tools that are rapidly emerging.

Human medicine — with its fast-paced adoption of electronic medical records — has even greater needs. For example, when computer scientists need to talk to physicians about new machine learning-based clinical decision support systems, they need physicians who can actively participate in the conversation. Without our professionals having a solid grounding in computer science along with biology and chemistry, a key element is missing. I can’t speak for law, political science or other professions, but I suspect the needs exist there as well.

Michael K. Martin, DVM, MPH, DACVPM

Columbia