Information and communication technology is an important factor in quality, safety, access and efficiency in healthcare. This subject provides an overview of digital health and the influence of ICTs in clinical care, as well as in clinical research, population health and healthcare system planning.

Digital health current approaches and future directions are explored from the perspectives of health and biomedical sciences, information science and technology, management sciences, and behavioural and social sciences- that is, within major health informatics competency frameworks such as the Certified Health Informatician Australasia (www.healthinformaticscertification.com) and the American Medical Informatics Association (http://www.cahiim.org/hi/curriculumrequirements.html ).

In addition to providing a clinically-oriented introductory subject in the University’s Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics and Digital Health, it is also suitable for single subject enrolment by practising clinicians or postgraduate students in any clinical health profession.

AIMS

ICT is an important component to ensuring quality, safety, access and efficiency in healthcare. This subject introduces current approaches and future directions in eHealth and the use of ICT in healthcare generally as well as key concepts and tools from the underlying discipline of health informatics.

INDICATIVE CONTENT

Topics include electronic health records (EHRs); hospital and primary care and public health information systems; supporting clinical decision-making for health professionals through ICT; eHealth in the community for preventive healthcare and for patient and carer support; regulatory influences on eHealth including management and governance, privacy, security, and confidentiality; the role of data standards, vocabularies, and nomenclatures in eHealth; research and development in eHealth.

AIMS

This subject develops technical capabilities required for sound decision-making about ehealth solutions and applications. It reviews the building blocks of hardware, software and networks. It identifies requirements for interoperability of systems and integration of information; explores emerging platforms for eHealth solutions and applications; and outlines technical management and governance issues.

INDICATIVE CONTENT

Five major topics will be covered in lectures, tutorials and hands-on computer laboratories:

1. Hardware, Software and Networks for eHealth
2. Interoperability
3. Information Integration
4. New Platforms for eHealth
5. Governance and Management of eHealth Infrastructure

AIMS

This subject develops familiarity with fundamental aspects of health information science and health information management – how health data is generated, collected, stored, communicated, integrated, analysed and converted into knowledge for clinical, research and administrative purposes.

INDICATIVE CONTENT

Lectures and tutorials will cover five topics:

1. Data Sources in Health

• Special features of biomedical and clinical data
• Types of data (clinical, molecular, images, environmental)
• Generation of biomedical and clinical data (clinical devices, laboratory equipment, populational surveys, sensors)
• Data repositories (Bioinformatics databases, literature, evidence-based practice, clinical databases)

2. Information Modelling in Health

• Modelling health information and clinical information systems
• Accessing and retrieving information
• Standards in healthcare (nomenclatures, terminologies, taxonomies, vocabularies and ontologies) MeSH terms, SNOMED-CT, LOINC, ICD9, ICD10, UMLS
• Standards organizations in Australia and worldwide

3. Information Processing in Health

• Information processing in biomedicine, healthcare and population health.
• Main software tools and methods, with a focus on clinical research, computerised physician order entry (CPOE) in hospitals, disease surveillance

4. Information Analysis and Visualization in Health

• Visualising information
• Knowledge management and discovery

5. Change Management in Health IT

• Management change and adoption
• Regulatory framework, ethical, security and privacy issues

This subject looks at the ways in which recent technological advancements can revolutionise the experience, management and future of ageing. Innovations in how we age are explored from multiple perspectives, including how technology can support autonomy and independent living as well as social connectedness to minimise the isolation common in later life.

The subject offers an introduction to the aged care information technology industry and major products and services. Controversial improvements in assistive technologies are covered, such as robotics and sensors that monitor behaviour and health conditions. Lastly, this subject considers technologies for end-of-life support, for longevity and for regenerative medicine. This subject opens up challenges and possibilities for ageing that have implications for older adults, health practitioners, caregivers, service providers, policymakers and researchers.

AIMS

This subject provides an overview of design, implementation and evaluation considerations for developers of major digital health solutions and applications, including electronic health records (EHR), telehealth, clinical decision support systems (CDSS), consumer health self-management, and innovative tools for biomedical research.

Students are presented with a selection of digital health design challenges faced by real-world health IT developers. Students work in small teams to plan and propose their response to their selected challenge.

INDICATIVE CONTENT

Key stages and major considerations in developing digital health solutions are covered as follows:

• Requirements gathering
• Interaction design
• Prototyping
• User experience evaluation
• Regulatory environment
• Ethical issues

Growing numbers of consumers are actively using various social Internet technologies for health-related purposes – to facilitate taking care of their own health, accessing health services and getting involved in health research, for example. These consumers are influencing new approaches to health professional practice and health service design. Taken together these are signs of a paradigm shift to a more participatory model of digital health, a model whose benefits and risks are not yet entirely clear.

Topics include health online social networks and social media, shareable person-generated health data from mobile apps and wearable sensors, virtual clinical services and patient avatars, crowd sourcing public health and health innovation, and other aspects of participatory health informatics. The focus is on understanding the tools, the rules and the evidence available to inform good practice. Learning and teaching methods include online interactions, on-campus lectures and guest speakers, case studies and tutorial discussions, and a project with a partner health organisation.

This subject provides knowledge and skills to support the work of information service managers, educators and researchers in many health settings. It introduces influences on good practice in health library and information services in the era of digital health. These influences include health informatics, digital health literacy, health research data management, trends in biomedical publishing, and the proliferation of information available in electronic formats, in bibliographic databases and on the Internet.

This subject offers an overview of the demand for information services in the health sciences and healthcare environment, and the diverse health information resources used by researchers, care providers, administrators, patients and members of the public. It gives guidelines for working with medical search terminology, explores the landscape of biomedical literature and provides insights into the significance of evidence-based practice.

This subject runs in partnership with Health Libraries Australia, for new and aspiring health librarians, and is recommended for Australian Library and Information Association members to specialise in this field.

This subject has four major topics and assessable activities:

1. Understanding the Australian healthcare environment, and the related information needs of health information service users. Students conduct a structured interview with a practicing health librarian, health information service manager, or consultant.

2. Navigating major health information producers and products, including availability of and access to resources, planning health information searches and summarising search results. Students prepare a report on analysing a realistic client information need and resolving it using these resources.

3. Becoming an evidence-based practice specialist in the healthcare environment, including applying EBP to continuous quality improvement in a range of healthcare contexts. Students undertake critical appraisal of two research articles relevant to a specific scenario concerning safety and quality of care.

4. Using health knowledge management technologies - e.g. for learning management, research data management, business intelligence and decision-making - including principles and practical considerations for their selection, implementation and evaluation. Students produce a desk assessment of a currently available digital health knowledge management product or service.