10x10 with Utah: Course Description

Overall Objectives and Rationale

Public health informatics is an emerging interdisciplinary field that uses  informatics methods to meet public health goals.  To meet these goals and fully engage in various Meaningful Use initiatives, public health practitioners need to develop skills and knowledge to optimize their contribution to public health informatics initiatives; similarly, informaticians need to understand the unique public health environment and opportunities for the application of informatics methods and tools.  Public health is a resource-limited field that can benefit from the efficiencies gained by informatics and lessons learned from clinical informatics projects, and cannot afford the system failures observed in clinical settings.  This course provides foundational knowledge relevant to public health informatics, and introduces students to skills, resources, and concepts that will allow them to be a life-long learner and work in this evolving field.

The 10x10-Utah is led by Dr. Catherine Staes, faculty, Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Utah, but individual modules are taught by other faculty from The University of Utah, Utah Department of Health and elsewhere.  Dr. Staes was funded by the National Library of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop public health informatics training for the University of Utah informatics research academic program.  This 10x10 course is based on the public health informatics course taught to graduate students in informatics, public health and nursing.

Course Goal

To introduce informatics and public health students/practitioners to informatics principles and their application to public health problems. Students will develop basic analysis and lifelong learning skills to engage in the evolving field of public health informatics.

Course Objectives

At the completion of the course, students will be able to:

1) Describe the mission and practice of public health and identify opportunities to advance public health using informatics methods and tools.

2) Describe fundamental informatics principles and their application to public health.

3) Examine standards relevant to public health and create design artifacts to enable system interoperability.

4) Describe current and evolving public health surveillance systems and perform a basic system analysis.

5) Describe the current and evolving relationship between clinical and public health systems, including needs, challenges, and opportunities.

6) Examine roles required to develop and manage public health informatics projects and systems.

Course Logistics:

Canvas, the University's online learning management system, will be used to manage the course.  Students will be given instructions about how to use Canvas after they enroll.  Students must set up their email in Canvas so emails will be forwarded to an address of their choice.  Any communication to the group will be initiated from Canvas, so correctly specifying the mail forward feature is critical for communication.  Use the Canvas email to communicate with the Instructor and TA so your emails do not get lost.

The course is an adaptation of the Population and Public Health Informatics class currently taught in the University of Utah Department of Biomedical Informatics. 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, there is one in-person session (details to come).  Students should keep up with the course materials so they can benefit from the interactive discussion with faculty and other students, and complete the assignments.

This graduate level course has three main parts:

1) A 6 module Web-based component starting February 1, 2012.  Didactic learning is web-based and is provided through voice-over powerpoint lectures, readings, interactive discussion, and self-assessment tests. High speed internet access is highly recommended.  The readings and resources required for the course are publically available.  Students will build a library of resources that will provide ongoing learning after the course is completed, and will be pointed to relevant free online webinars that occur during the course. 

The following text will be used during the course to provide information for students without a strong public health background:

• The Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, 3rd Edition which is available from the Public Health Foundation at http://bookstore.phf.org/product_info.php?cPath=44&products_id=12 or may be downloaded at http://www.cdc.gov/training/products/ss1000/ss1000-ol.pdf.

2) An intensive in-person session held in conjunction with a professional meeting.  This in-person session will bring attendees together to integrate the material, allow discussion and hands-on exercises, and meet leaders in the field as well as other students.

3) Skill development is enabled by participation in interactive exercises.  The students will be given feedback and the opportunity to share and learn from one another.  At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Describe a system from both a public health and informatics prospective.
• Diagram business processes and data flows.
• Become familiar with the breadth of the existing public health related surveillance systems, and understand their purpose, operation, strengths and limitations.
• Map data to standard vocabularies for information exchange and system integration.

Evaluation

To satisfactorily complete the course and get the full continuing education credits, students need to do the following: 1) score an average of at least 80% on the quizzes; 2) participate in the online discussions assigned for selected modules; 3) participate in the face-to-face session; 4) complete the exercises assigned during the course. The students will be given the grading criteria for each assignment.  Graduate-level thinking, writing, and independent study will be expected.  If students are unable to complete selected modules or attend the face-to-face meeting, then partial CEU credits will be provided based on the material completed.

Outline of Course Topic Modules

 

The topics and schedule are described below.  We will provide detailed "topic guides" that specify the readings and learning activities.

ADA policy:  The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services and activities for people with disabilities.  If you will need accommodations in this class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the instructor and the Center for Disability Services, 162 Olpin Union Building, 581-5020 (V/TDD).  CDS will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accommodations.  All written information in this course can be made available in alternative format with prior notification to the Center for Disability Services.