Postgraduate Course: Health Informatics: Foundation, Emerging Trends and Influencing Factors (GLHE11053)

Course Outline
School	Deanery of Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences	College	College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)
Course type	Online Distance Learning	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	The course will be divided into 5 sessions, each lasting a week. Most sessions will contain written materials and presentations, accompanied by guided reading in the form of links to journal articles with problem-based learning questions. Discussion of the content and reading materials will be posted to an online forum, along with studentsż answers to the PBL questions.Students will be expected to produce 2500 word essay by the end of the course.
Course description	This course explores the origins, key components and current state of Health Informatics. It also introduces the building blocks of Health Informatics at theoretical and applied levels. The course takes a systems approach to and critical analysis of the complex adaptive systems needed for effective healthcare delivery.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Block 2 (Sem 1)
Course Start Date	30/10/2017
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 5, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 1, Online Activities 35, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 5, Formative Assessment Hours 5, Revision Session Hours 1, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 46 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Written Exam 0% Coursework 100% Practical Exam 0% Collated forum postings in response to PBL questions: 30%. Essay: 70%
Feedback	Formative feedback provided throughout the course on the discussion boards. Summative assessment tutor feedback provided online via the LEARN platform.
No Exam Information

Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS2)		Quota: None
Course Start	Block 2 (Sem 1)
Course Start Date	30/10/2017
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 5, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 1, Online Activities 35, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 5, Formative Assessment Hours 5, Revision Session Hours 1, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 46 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Written Exam 0% Coursework 100% Practical Exam 0% Collated forum postings in response to PBL questions: 30%. Essay: 70%
Feedback	Formative feedback provided throughout the course on the discussion boards. Summative assessment tutor feedback provided online via the LEARN platform.
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: Discuss a range of health information architectures and infrastructures and identify the main software issues affecting system interoperability. Identify the fundamental principles and methods of electronic Health Information Exchange for patient care. Describe the key clinical informatics applications in hospital settings (lab reporting, CDSS, CPOE, clinical document exchange, imaging etc.) and how these are connected. Critically discuss the political, economic and technical challenges to health systems integration. Examine the different contextual factors affecting the types of information systems that are feasible and the different infrastructure requirements pertinent to different types of setting.

Reading List
Book: As for Introduction to Health Informatics 1 Also: Winter et al. (2011) Health Information systems. Architectures and Strategies. Springer World Health Organization/Health Metrics Network (2008) Framework and standards for country health information systems. 2nd Edition. WHO: Geneva. Available: http://www.who.int/healthmetrics/documents/hmn_framework200803.pdf. Accessed 11 January 2010

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills	Has the fundamental knowledge to be able to engage in meaningful discussions with information systems specialists in health care organisations about issues in information management and systems. Is aware of the importance of systematic information management, clinical coding, and interoperability standards for effective care integration as well as system-wide knowledge management. Is aware of the changing requirements of health information systems as technologies change (e.g. cloud computing) and expectations change (e.g. care integration, patient entitlement to access) Understands the key issues mitigating the implementation of health information infrastructures in low resource settings and the role of open source.
Keywords	Health Informatics,eHealth,health care systems