eHealth & Biomedical Informatics Systems

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

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For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements for this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

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. 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.

Upon completion of the subject, students should be able to:

• critically analyse approaches to eHealth in contemporary healthcare in Australia and internationally;
• use established evaluation frameworks to review the use of new and emerging applications of ICT in healthcare;
• demonstrate understanding of complex legal, ethical and standardisation problems and solutions in managing health data;
• apply recognised health informatics competency frameworks and career matrices to assess individual and organisational development needs.

A 15-item test of informatics foundation knowledge in biomedicine (a passing grade must be achieved before the final class) - 15%
A 15-item test of informatics foundation knowledge in computing and information science (a passing grade must be achieved before the final class) - 15%
Critical appraisal of assigned reading (2000 words) and 15 minute presentation due in class during week 2/3 of 4 - 30%
Project report of 2000 words and 15 minute presentation (per person if group project) due in class during week 4 of 4 - 40%

None. Readings will provided on-line.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Students should have honed general skills such as clear thinking, improved reading, enhanced ability to work in a team of people, and presentation skills.