Health Informatics SSY115: Course-PM

Course offered by Department of Electrical Engineering (E2)

SSY115 Health Informatics, Study Period 4 spring 2022 (7.5 hp)

Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

Contact details

Course specific prerequisites

The courses SSY180 Medicine for the engineer and SSY090/SSY091 Biomedical instrumentation are recommended as background to this course. Health Informatics applications and solutions rely to a very large extent on ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and therefore personal interest and courses related to this area are valuable as background. Group project work and home assignments are important parts of the course. Therefore it is strongly recommended that the students have previous experience from project work and report writing.

Aim

The overall aim of the course is to provide healthcare providers and healthcare related industry with people having skills and prerequisites to design and implement Health Informatics solutions, inside as well as outside the hospital environment.

Learning outcomes

After completion of the course the student should be able to:

• Explain the concept of the term Health Informatics, emphasizing its wide and cross disciplinary nature, and discuss concepts like eHealth, mHealth, digital health, digitalization and assistive technology.
• Explain the role and implications of Health Informatics in today’s and tomorrow’s health care environment.
• Describe possibilities and challenges of Health Informatics systems, and its impact on the society as a whole.
• Describe the importance of ethical considerations, legislation and patient integrity when designing and implementing Health Informatics solutions.
• Describe some major existing international standards applicable to Health Informatics, and explain the needs for standardization and interfacing between various systems.
• Describe, plan and design a generic Health Informatics solution on a basic level, and identify the procedures and challenges of implementing such a system in a healthcare environment.

Schedule

TimeEdit

Content

1. Health Informatics - Fundamentals, Applications, Devices and International Outlook
   • An overview of Health Informatics fundamentals and review of existing applications and some lessons learned. Examples of commercially available devices, systems and solutions. Introduction to central Health Informatics applications, e.g. EPR (Electronic Patient Records), CDSS (Clinical Decision Support Systems) and mHealth. An overview of international initiatives, research programs and state of the art. Planning and designing Health Informatics applications.
2. Health Informatics Technology and Standards
   • Covers some of the technology and standards involved in implementing Health Informatics applications. Overview of protocols and standards, e.g. HL7, SNOMED CT and DICOM.
3. Healthcare Organization, Legislation, Clinical, Patient and Ethical Perspectives
   • Considers the perspective of the clinician and the patient, as well as the impact on the healthcare process, from various Health Informatics solutions. Overview of the local and the national Healthcare organization. Overview of relevant national law and regulations. Consideration of advantages and disadvantages of Health Informatics systems and their impact on organizational issues, change management and ethics.

Organisation

The course is based on compulsory lectures with invited expert speakers from industry, academia and other healthcare related stakeholders. A quiz is provided for each lecture. A supervised group project work and a task to design an Health Informatics app are also essential parts of the course.

Literature

Lecture notes, hand-outs/distributed material and recommended reference textbook.

Examination including compulsory elements

To pass the course, attendance at lectures, approved app task and an approved group project are required. There will also be a voluntary home exam. The examination grade will be calculated according to an equation weighting the different parts of the course: attendance, quizzes, app task, project, and home exam.

Other

Link to the syllabus on the Student Portal: Syllabus