10x10 with University of Texas: Course Description

An important challenge in the development of computer-based health care environments is the design of effective user interfaces. User interface should be designed with consideration of the information requirements, cognitive capabilities, and limitations of the end users. The goal of the AMIA-UTH 10x10 program is to provide a detailed overview of user interface design for health information systems, medical devices, consumer health web sites, and other healthcare related systems.

Health care professionals will have the opportunity to learn the fundamental principles of human-computer interaction and human factors and learn how to apply them to real world problems. The focus is on learning why and how user-friendly interfaces can greatly improve work productivity and enhance the quality of health care without radically changing the underlying technology.

Course Logistics

The course is offered in two parts:

1. An 11-unit Web-based component starting July 8, 2013. Each web-based unit is composed of narrated presentations, assigned readings, online discussions, quizzes and course projects, etc.
2. An intensive half-day in-person session held in conjunction with the AMIA Annual Symposium in Washington, DC in November 2013.  The Symposium's dates are November 16-20, 2013.  The goal of the face-to-face session is to meet the instructor as well as other students in person, to go over course materials and other learning issues. Students will also have the opportunity to communicate their work to an audience of peers and faculty.

The registration deadline for the course is July 8, 2013. We will accept enrollees after that date on a space-available basis.

The course is taught in a completely asynchronous manner, i.e., there are no scheduled classes. Each unit contains the following elements:

• Unit Overview – This section contains a brief introduction to the unit, learning objectives covered in the unit, reading assignments, and learning tasks students need to complete.
• Narrated presentation(s) – The key materials are delivered via the Internet using the free Flash plug-in. Students can listen to the narrated lecture and view the corresponding PowerPoint slides.
• PowerPoint Slides (in PDF format) – PowerPoint slides are provided for the student to download
• Weekly quiz – Each unit is accompanied by a 10-question self-assessment that aims to have the student apply the knowledge from the unit.
• Course project - This course also contains a comprehensive course project that helps student apply the theories to practical EMR problems.

Students are responsible for reading all the materials and finishing the corresponding weekly quiz. There is no textbook required for this course, all readings are made freely available from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

The online portion of this course runs from July through September 2013.

Curriculum and Dates

The following table outlines the Unit titles, learning objectives, and posted dates of the UTH 10x10 course:

Course Competencies

Upon successfully finishing the course, the student will attain the following core competencies in the field of health interface design:

• Professional Perspective. Acquire professional perspective on human-centered design of health interfaces. Understand and analyze the history and values of the user interface design discipline and its relationship to healthcare fields while demonstrating an ability to read, interpret, and critique the core literature.
• Theories, Principles, and Methods. Master the fundamental theories, principles and methods in health interface design.
• Problem Identification. Use the methods to identify usability problems of existing products, communicate the findings to developers, designers, decision makers, and make appropriate recommendations.
• Problem Solving. Use the methods to understand the space of possible solutions and generate designs that capture essential aspects of the solutions.