10x10 with UIC: Course Description

Over the past decade, researchers have come to understand that it is rarely the technology alone that contributes to unsafe conditions in health care, but rather it is the "technology in place" that is the cause.  In November 2011, The Institute of Medicine published its report, "Health IT and Patient Safety:  Building Safer Systems for Better Care," describing the need to incorporate a systems approach when thinking about health information technology (HIT).

Following the success of last year's offering, UIC will repeat its 10x10 with the focus on health information technology (including the EHR in inpatient, ambulatory, and physician office sites) and implications to patient safety.

UIC remains committed to an interdisciplinary focus to its biomedical and health informatics curricula; as a student, you will work with peers and faculty from many healthcare disciplines.  We also remain committed to our unique focus on understanding the sociotechnical aspects of computing, including understanding why implementation of the best software or hardware sometimes fails to meet expectations.

This graduate-level online course requires participants to assimilate concepts and develop critical thinking skills.  The design of the UIC 10x10 course semester recognizes the work and lifestyle of our adult learners.  Spanning 15 weeks, participants will:

• Learn concepts in a 9-week intensive period of readings, discussions, and self-assessments
• Explore an independent area of interest in a 2-week period of independent research and reading
• Apply concepts in a 4-week period of group development of an interdisciplinary capstone project; and
• Participate in the required face-to-face session at AMIA 2013 at which the groups will present their capstone projects.

No prerequisites are required.

We invite you to register for UIC's 10x10 course whose focus is intended to support your educational needs to improve the safety of health information technology.

Topic Overview

I. Orientation to Patient Safety and Health Information Technology (HIT)

II. Enabling Technologies and Applications

• CDS/CPOE/Diagnostic Decision Support
• Consumer Health Informatics
• mHealth
• Adverse Event Reporting

III. Patient Safety in the Context of HIT Use

• Communications, Hand-offs
• Sociotechnical Aspects
• Ethical Issues
• Evaluation/Measurement and Analysis

IV. Interdisciplinary Capstone Project and Face-to-Face Session at AMIA 2013 Annual Symposium

Competencies

At the completion of UIC's 10x10 course, you will be able to:

• Examine HIT's opportunities in the context of safety
• Formulate an HIT implementation plan that respects organizational culture and standards as well as personal work preference.
• Examine patient safety through the lens of consumer health informatics.
• Reflect on, in the context of Mobile Health (mHealth), the strategic factors, key drivers and innovations that promise to catalyze paradigm changes in health care delivery and patient safety.
• Identify and evaluate ethical issues arising from HIT-related errors and analyze them through the lens of an ethical decision-making model.
• Organize an evaluation of HIT in the context of safety
• Integrate opportunities for HIT and cultural intervention to improve patient safety.
• Apply theories learned to health informatics practice.

Logistics

UIC's 10x10 course consists of 15 weeks of online education, plus a face-to-face interactive session.  The face-to-face session will be led by Dr. Annette L. Valenta at the AMIA 2013 Annual Symposium in Washington, DC on November 17, 2013.  Should a student be interested in this course, but unable to attend the face-to-face session, s/he will be required to submit an independent five-page paper that explores some facet of the capstone assignment.

Students access UIC's 10x10 course through Blackboard, UIC's course management system.  Access to all readings is through UIC's electronic library reserve system.  Each student will be provided a login and password.  Technical support is provided as needed. 

In the online course site, participants will be engaged in readings, online lectures and interactive discussions.  Students can participate anytime day or night, when their schedule allows, while still meeting due dates for weekly assignments.  No additional course materials need to be purchased; students can print course materials for future use.  For successful completion of the course, students are expected to keep up with the unit assignments, participate in discussions and complete self-assessments.  In addition, students will collaborate with assigned group members to complete a capstone project to be presented during the face-to-face session at the AMIA 2013 Annual Symposium. 

The teaching modalities used in this course include:

• Interactive threaded discussion. Students will interact with fellow health care and IT professionals, answering and discussing thoughtful questions posed by the lead instructor who is an expert in the field. A faculty member with content expertise will facilitate the discussions.
• Short self-assessments. Students will be periodically given a multiple choice self-assessment to test their knowledge of the course content.
• Reading assignments. Students will be expected to read assigned journal articles and items posted in the electronic reference of the UIC library.  No textbook is required for this course.  All reading assignments will be freely available from UIC.
• Group work.  Students will interact with fellow students on an interdisciplinary capstone project.
• Face-to-face interactive session on November 17, 2013, at the AMIA 2013 Annual Symposium in Washington, DC.

Schedule

Week 1: Patient Safety and HIT

Week 2: CDS/CPOE/Diagnostic Decision Support

Week 3: Consumer Health Informatics

Week 4: Mobile Health

Week 5: Adverse Event Reporting

Week 6: Communication, Hand-offs

Week 7: Sociotechnical Aspects

Week 8: Ethical Issues

Week 9: Evaluation/ Measurement and Analysis

Weeks 10-11: Independent Study-Additional Readings

Weeks 12-15: Group Work: Interdisciplinary Capstone Project

Face-to-face Session

The face-to-face session will be held on November 17, 2013, at the AMIA 2013 Annual Symposium in Washington, DC (November 16-20, 2013).

Registered students will receive one day of tutorials at the AMIA 2013 Annual Symposium (two half-day or one full-day tutorial) as well as a half-day interactive session with fellow students and faculty. They will also receive an AMIA Membership for the calendar year (Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st) and an AMIA 10x10 Completion Certification once the online and face-to-face sections of the offering are completed.