Certificate In Health Informatics

HI101-01: Health Information Management

• Reforming Healthcare – the context
• Data and Information – an historical perspective
• Data, Information and Knowledge
• Medical Records
• Electronic Records
• Uses and Abuses of Personal Information
• Information Privacy – ethics and law
• Secondary Uses of Records
• Knowledge and Artificial Intelligence
• Patients and Information
• Visions of the Future

A basic introduction to the topic of health information management. Information is the cornerstone of almost all successful human endeavours and as a consequence they all rely heavily on information management in order to function effectively and efficiently.

HI101-02: Information Management Systems

• Representing Information for Computers
• File Compatibility
• Computer Systems
• The Hardware
  • Input / Output
  • Storage and Memory
  • Processing
• The Software
  • Operating System
  • Applications
  • Files and File Storage
  • Compression of Data / Files
  • Bugs
• Plugs, Ports and Peripherals
• System Performance
• Networks

This brief introduction to the basics of computerised information management systems will walk the reader through issues of hardware, software operating systems and applications, networks and communications. A basic understanding of these issues is of considerable advantage in understanding much of the content of the other modules of the Health Informatics study program.

HI201-01: Gathering and Recording Healthcare Information

• Collecting Data for a Purpose
• The Medical Record
• Information to Support Reporting Needs
• Making Medical Records Useful
• The Problem with “Free” Text
• Structured Text – the options
• Data Collection Issues

This unit provides an overview of the reasons why health information is collected, and the principal purposes for which it is used. It considers the content and general structure of medical records, and at how data can be collected, organised and stored in such a way as to be able to support the primary and secondary usage requirements. Specific issues such as recording as free text, structured data and classified and coded data formats are considered in the context of automated data processing and analysis.

HI201-02: Networking, Communications and Systems Integration

• Where is the Information?
• Communicating Information
  • Encryption
  • Technology
• Information Integration
  • Interface Engines
  • Web-compliant Interfacing
• Essential Infrastructure

This unit explores the issues involved in moving and sharing information, including the issues of ‘control’ of that process. It explores where information is stored, why and how it is moved to create a joined-up system, and how encryption can keep it safe from eavesdroppers – considering both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ communications methods. Technical issues of networking are covered, as are different approaches to achieving enterprise wide integration. For these to work there is an essential, but currently largely missing, infrastructure requirement that needs to be addressed.

HI201-03: Information Storage & Use: Privacy, Security, Ethics, Law

• Information Storage
• Data Security
• Uses of Information and Privacy Issues
• Primary Uses
• Secondary Uses
• Information and the Law
• Human Rights
• Freedom of Information

This unit considers the responsibilities of the record keeper in maintaining the security of information, and ensuring that it is only accessible to authorised users for approved purposes. It considers moral and ethical issues, and then addresses the issues of information privacy and the impact of privacy and other legislation (human rights, freedom of information) on the primary and secondary uses of personalised information.

HI201-04: Procurement and Implementation of Information Systems

• Acquiring a System
• The Business Case
• Functional Specification
• Standards; Contracting
• Implementation
• Staff Preparation
• Support
• Evaluation and Review

This unit, the last of the HI201 level study units, addresses the issues involved in the specification, procurement and implementation of information systems, and the use of an appropriate project management methodology. It outlines approaches to making the business case for investment, introduces issues of standards specification, explores the topic of vendor ‘lock-in’ in the context of open/standard versus proprietary hardware and software architectures. Management of change and user education and support are topics that are explored in some detail. Finally the issue of continual quality improvement and how this is relevant to systems development is covered.

HI203-01: Information in the Healthcare Setting

• Information
• What Does This All Mean for Healthcare?
• Historical Perspectives
• What IS Information?
• Information and Records Management
• Medical Records on Paper
• Reporting and Using Paper Records
• Professionals and Information
• Patients and Information
• Trusting Information
• Visions of the Future

A more detailed overview of the role of information in the healthcare process considering where, why and how it is generated, moved, abstracted, processed, shared, used and re-used. Once information is held in electronic forms, it can be accessed and manipulated in ways that are too onerous to undertake with paper-based information, and can therefore serve many functions that were in a paper-based environment quite simply impracticable. This unit addresses these fundamental issues of the similarities and differences between electronic and paper-based information. It also addresses the vital issue of trust, and whether data on the web (or elsewhere) can be trusted.

HI203-02: Electronic Health Records

• Setting the Scene
• What exactly is a Medical Record?
• Investment in Medical Records
• Shortcomings of the Paper Record
• What IS an EHR (Electronic Healthcare Records) System?
• Obstacles to Adoption of Electronic Records
  • Cost
  • Clinician Comfort with Data Entry
  • Concerns about Privacy and Security
• Information in Electronic Formats
• Pictorial Material
• “Free” Text
• Structured Text – the options
• Data Entry Methods
• Events / Encounters / Episodes
• Communication
• Summary

An overview of the issues that surround the implementation of paperless hospitals and are able to support shared care between providers in different services and locations. This unit is all about capturing information from the clinical encounter into an electronic health record system, so that data can be viewed for patient care by multiple providers, as well as abstracted for clinical analysis and research, and for business and financial management. This unit forms an essential base upon which many of the following units build and expand.

HI203-03 Terminology, Coding and Classification

• Setting the Scene
• Medical Terminology
• Precision in Data Entry
• Classification Systems
• Coding
• Data Analysis
• Navigating a Classification System
• Data Exchanges and Collections
• Classification Updates and Versions
• Adding Codes
• A Brief Overview of Some Classification and Coding Systems
• Classification and Coding Systems – for CLINICAL Use
  • 1. SNOMED-CT – Merging Read and SnoMed Systems
  • 1b. The Read Clinical Classification System
  • 1c. SNOMED
  • 1d. International Classification of Primary Care – ICPC-2
• Classifications Primarily Intended for NON-CLINICAL Purposes
  • 2a. ICD
  • 2b. Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) and Healthcare Resource Groupings (HRGs)
  • 2c. Other Resource Groupings
  • 2d. Items of Service

An insight into the methodologies available for capturing data in a structured form that is amenable to electronic manipulation. Capturing free text unfortunately achieves not very much: the data is not automatically for analysis, nor for aggregation, research or management. Using structured systems for data capture, based on systematic approaches to classification, radically changes the qualities of the data, as well as its availability for other processes and applications, such as analysis and expert systems.

CHI Exam