Dr Anthony Cornford NAB3.29 and Dr Elzbieta Klecun-Taylor NAB3.37

This course is available on the CEMS Exchange, IMEX Exchange, MSc in Health, Population and Society, MSc in International Health Policy, MSc in Management, MSc in Management (CEMS MIM), MSc in Management (MiM Exchange), MSc in Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation and MiM Exchange. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

There are no prerequisites. Students should have some appreciation of information management and systems implementation issues, and some understanding of healthcare systems. A short set of readings will be provided for students who require this background understanding.

This course explores the principal issues faced by healthcare policy makers, healthcare organizations, entrepreneurs and supplier organisations as they plan for and develop healthcare information systems and infrastructures. The course considers systems oriented towards both administrative and clinical activities from the simplest apps to national eHealth infrastructures.

The course is organised as follows: A survey of the history of computer-based systems in healthcare and some comparison with other sectors. The evolution and current state of information systems in primary and secondary care with international comparisons. The electronic patient record and national information infrastructures for health. The development of healthcare policies for systems and infrastructures. Assessing the transformative potential of health information systems. Issues of systems implementation. Selected application domains including electronic prescribing, computers in medicines management, Big Data, telehealth and telecare and new patient roles. Issues of evaluation and building of an evidence base.

15 hours of lectures and 13 hours and 30 minutes of seminars in the LT.

A reading week will take place in W6. There will be no teaching during this week.

Seminars are based around reading and discussing selected journal articles from the course study pack. Formative feedback is provided on class participation. In addition, students complete a formative proposal for their essay on which written feedback is provided. Feedback on the first coursework will inform the second coursework (essay).

Berg, M. (2004) Health Information Management: Integrating Information Technology in Health Care Work, Routledge, London.

Brennan, S. (2005) The NHS IT Project: The Biggest Computer Programme in the World...Ever, Radcliffe, Oxford.

Christensen, C., Grossman, J.H. and Hwang, J. (2009) The Innovator’s Prescription. New York: McGraw-Hill,

Coiera, E. (2003) Guide to Health Informatics (Second Edition), Arnold, London.

Liang, L.L. (2010) Connected for Health: Using electronic health records to transform care delivery.

Taylor, P. (2006) From Patient Data to Medical Knowledge: The Principles and Practice of Health Informatics, BMJ Books, London.

Timmermans, S. and M. Berg (2003) The Gold Standard: The Challenge of Evidence Based Medicine and the Standardization of Health Care, Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

Topol, E. (2012) The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the digital revolution will create better health care. Basic Books, New York.

Trotter, F. and Uhlman, D. (2013) Hacking Healthcare. O'Reilly. Sebastapol CA

Warner, N. (2011) A Suitable Case for Treatment: the NHS and Reform, Grosvenor House.

Wootton, R. (2006) An Introduction to Telemedicine. 2nd Ed., Royal Society of Medicine Press Ltd, London.

Coursework (20%, 700 words) in February.
Essay (70%, 5000 words) and class participation (10%) in the LT.