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AMIA 10x10 Partner Programs

About the American College of Emergency Physicians

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is the largest and most influential emergency medicine association in the world. Founded in 1968, ACEP promotes the highest quality of emergency care, represents more than 25,000 emergency medicine specialists, and serves as the leading advocate for emergency physicians, their patients and the public.

Registration

Special Offering for the American College of Emergency Physicians

This offering is tailored to emergency physicians and other emergency personnel. It culminates in an in-person session at the 2008 Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Register Here for AMIA 10x10 at OHSU (American College of Emergency Physicians)

Course Description

Curriculum

The goal of the OHSU 10x10 offering is to provide a detailed overview of informatics to those who will work at the interface of health care and information technology. It also aims to provide an entry point for those wishing further study (and career development) in the field.

Overview of the topics covered in the program:

  1. Welcome and Overview of Field
  2. Biomedical Computing
  3. Electronic Health Records and Health Information Exchange
  4. Decision Support and Health Care Quality
  5. Standards, Privacy and Security, Costs and Implementation
  6. Evidence-Based Medicine and Medical Decision-Making
  7. Information Retrieval and Digital Libraries
  8. Bioinformatics
  9. Imaging Informatics and Telemedicine
  10. Other Informatics: Consumer Health, Public Health and Nursing
  11. Organizational and Management Issues in Informatics

Competencies

The OHSU offering of 10x10 will aim to impart the following competencies to students:

  • The value proposition of health information technology and how medical informatics and other fields contribute to it.
  • The role of various individuals in the health information technology workforce.
  • The basic tenets of biomedical computing to enable optimal selection of hardware, software, and network connections for a given setting.
  • The essential functions of the electronic health record (EHR) and the barriers to its use.
  • The principles of implementing EHRs in ambulatory, hospital, and other settings.
  • The role of clinical decision support in health care settings and within the EHR.
  • Computerized provider order entry and how it enhances clinical decision support.
  • The basic principles of health care quality assessment, including pay for performance programs, and how the EHR enables them.
  • The role of health information exchange and Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs).
  • The personal health record (PHR), its interface with the EHR, and its value in promoting personal health.
  • The importance of standards and interoperability of clinical data and the major initiatives underway.
  • Maintaining privacy, confidentiality, and security, including the role of HIPAA.
  • The core principles of evidence-based medicine and their application in clinical practice.
  • Accessing medical knowledge resources and linking them to clinical practice.
  • People and organizational issues in the use of health information technology.
  • The unique aspects of nursing information and practice in relation to clinical information systems.
  • The growing impact of genomics on medicine and its implications for health information systems.
  • The management of images in clinical settings, including the use of PACS systems.
  • The role of telemedicine and barriers to its use.
  • The function of public health information systems and their interaction with clinical systems.
  • The key issues in organizational, project, and business management in informatics projects and the notion that informatics projects require more than an understanding of technology.

Complete Curriculum

The table below lists the segments covered within each unit.

1. Welcome and Overview of Field 1.1 A discipline whose time has come
1.2 The discipline of biomedical informatics
1.3 Problems in health and biomedicine motivating biomedical informatics
1.4 Seminal documents and reports
1.5 Resources of field
2. Biomedical Computing 2.1 Types of Computers
2.2 Data Storage in Computers
2.3 Computer Hardware and Software
2.4 Computer Networks
2.5 Software Engineering
2.6 Challenges for Biomedical Computing
3. Electronic Health Records and Health Information Exchange 3.1 Clinical Data
3.2 History and Perspective of the Health (Medical) Record
3.3 Potential Benefits of the Electronic Health Record
3.4 Definitions and Key Attributes of the EHR
3.5 EHR Examples
3.6 Current Status of the EHR
3.7 Health Information Exchange
4. Decision Support and Health Care Quality 4.1 Historical Perspectives and Approaches
4.2 Health Care Quality
4.3 Medical Errors and Patient Safety
4.4 Approaches to Improving Quality and Safety
4.5 Reminders and Alerts
4.6 Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE)
5. Standards, Privacy and Security, Costs and Implementation 5.1 Standards: Basic Concepts
5.2 Identifier and Transaction Standards
5.3 Message Exchange Standards
5.4 Terminology Standards
5.5 Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security: Basic Concepts
5.6 HIPAA Privacy and Security Regulations
5.7 Cost-Benefit of the EHR
5.8 Implementing the EHR
6. Evidence-Based Medicine and Medical Decision Making 6.1 Definitions and Application of EBM
6.2 Interventions
6.3 Diagnosis
6.4 Harm and Prognosis
6.5 Summarizing Evidence
6.6 Putting Evidence into Practice
6.7 Limitations of EBM
7. Information Retrieval and Digital Libraries 7.1 Information Retrieval
7.2 Knowledge-based Information
7.3 Content
7.4 Indexing
7.5 Retrieval
7.6 Evaluation
7.7 Digital Libraries
8. Bioinformatics 8.1 Overview of Basic Molecular Biology
8.2 Important Biotechnologies Driving Bioinformatics
8.3 Genetics-Related Diseases
8.4 Bioinformatics Information Resources
8.5 Informatics Challenges and Opportunities for Molecular Biology
9. Imaging Informatics and Telemedicine 9.1 Imaging in Health Care
9.2 Modalities of Imaging
9.3 Image Management
9.4 Telemedicine: Definitions and Barriers
9.5 Efficacy of Telemedicine
10. Other Informatics: Consumer Health, Public Health, and Nursing 10.1 Consumer Health Informatics Overview
10.2 Consumer Information Access and Decision-Making
10.3 Consumer-Provider Communication
10.4 Personal Health Records
10.5 New Models of Health Care
10.6 Public Health Informatics
10.7 Nursing Informatics
11. Organization and Management Issues in Informatics 11.1 Organization Behavior
11.2 Organizational Issues in Failure and Success of Informatics Projects
11.3 Change Management

Logistics

The course is offered in two parts: an 11-unit week Web-based component followed by an intensive one day in-person session which will take place on October 26th in conjunction with the ACEP Scientific Assembly in Chicago, October 27-30, 2008. The Web-based portion is provided through readings, lectures, interactive discussion, and self-assessment tests. The in person session will bring attendees together to integrate the material, allow presentation of course projects, and meet leaders in the field and other students. It will take place on October 26th.

The registration deadline for this offering of the course is June 30, 2008. Please contact the course instructor for late registration if space allows.

The course is an adaptation of the on-line Introduction to Biomedical Informatics class currently taught in the OHSU biomedical informatics education program. This survey course provides a broad overview of the field, highlighting the key issues and challenges for the field. The course is taught in a completely asynchronous manner, i.e., there are no "scheduled" classes. However, students must keep up with the course materials in order to benefit from the interactive discussion with faculty and other students. The course uses the following teaching modalities:

  • Voice-over-PowerPoint lectures - The key material is delivered using the Flash plug-in, which is freely available and already installed in almost all Web browsers. The content is easily accessed by connections to the Internet using a telephone modem.
  • Interactive threaded discussion - Students engage in discussion on important issues using the on-line bulletin board. An on-line faculty moderator helps keep the discussion on track.
  • Reading assignments - The course uses the best-known general textbook in the field, Medical Informatics - Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine, by Shortliffe et al., with supplemental readings as necessary. In addition, students are pointed to key documents, reports, and papers from the field.
  • Homework/quizzes - Each of the 11 units is accompanied by a 10-question multiple-choice self-assessment that aims to have the student apply the knowledge from the unit.

The on-line part of the course is accessed via the Blackboard course delivery tool. At the onset of the course, each student is provided a login and password by the OHSU distance learning staff, who also provide technical support for the course. Students are required to purchase the textbook; all other assigned readings are either freely available on-line or provided by OHSU. Students are expected to keep up with the materials each week and participate in ongoing discussion. The on-line portion of the course will run from early July through the end of October. The in-person session will take place on October 26th in conjunction with the ACEP Scientific Assembly in Chicago, October 27-30, 2008.

The in-person component aims to bring students, faculty experts, and the materials together for an intensive in-person session. The program for the in-person session will consist of a one day interactive session with fellow students and faculty. Students must complete the on-line portion of the course to be eligible to attend the in-person session, and must complete both to obtain the 10x10 certification of completion.

For the in-person session, students must complete a short course project consisting of an environment scan of an organization (which could be their own practice or a department in their hospital) to assess readiness for an organization-wide IT implementation, such as electronic health record. At the in-person session, they will present their assessment to their fellow students and faculty, gaining new insights into the required elements for such an undertaking.

Reading assignments consist of chapters from the required textbook as well as additional articles and other readings. Students are responsible for learning all content in the readings, whether discussed in the lectures or not. The textbook for the class is: Edward H. Shortliffe, James J. Cimino, (Eds.), Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine (3rd edition), Springer-Verlag, 2006.

The instructors for the course are William Hersh, MD, Jeff Nielson, MD and Jim McClay, MD. The best way to reach them is via email (hersh@ohsu.edu, JeffNielson@gmail.com, jmcclay@unmc.edu).

Schedule

This special 10x10 course offering, in partnership with the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) for the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), will start on July 2, 2008, with the in-person session taking place at Scientific Assembly 2008 on October 26th. The registration deadline is June 30, 2008. After that date, you must contact the course instructor for late registration if space allows.

In-Person Session, October 26, 2008
One of the goals for the in-person session at the end of the 10x10 course is to provide a means for students to integrate the knowledge they have gained in a practical way. To this end, the course faculty developed a plan for the in-person session that will allow students to identify an informatics problem in their local setting (e.g., where they practice or work) and propose solutions based on informatics research and best practice.

Based on feedback, students from previous courses considered the in-person session a great opportunity to learn more in the track areas emphasized at this meeting and network with others in the field.

The following table outlines the curriculum with unit number, topic, reading assignment, and date posted. The course materials are lumped into five groups (Units 1-2, 3-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11). Materials for each unit must be completed by the specified due date.

Unit Topic Reading Date Posted Date Due
1 Welcome and Overview of Field 1, 2, 23, and Hersh papers 7/2 7/16
2 Biomedical Computing 5, 6, and Malan paper 7/9 7/16
3 Electronic Health Records and Health Information Exchange 12, 13 7/23 8/6
4 Decision Support Systems: Evolution and Current Approaches 20 7/30 8/6
5 Standards; Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security 7 8/13 8/27
6 Evidence-Based Medicine and Medical Decision-Making 3 8/20 8/27
7 Information Retrieval and Digital Libraries 19 9/3 9/17
8 Bioinformatics 22 9/10 9/17
9 Imaging Informatics and Telemedicine 9, 14, 18, Hersh paper 9/24 10/15
10 Other Informatics: Consumer Health, Public Health, and Nursing 14, 15, 16 10/1 10/15
11 Organization and Management Issues in Informatics 6 10/8 10/15

Students who successfully complete this offering will be provided with a complimentary 2009 AMIA Membership, the in-person session at Scientific Assembly 2008, a 10x10 Completion Certificate and will be eligible for CME Credit