MG483      Half Unit
eHealth: Policy, Strategy and Systems

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

There are no prerequisites. Students should have some appreciation of digital technologies, 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 aims to give students theoretical and practical insights into the key issues informing current policy and practice for digitalisation of healthcare. It does not focus on teaching technical design or programming skills. Instead, it aims to develop 'hybrid professionals' who can bridge the worlds of healthcare management and information technology, and critically evaluate the potential of digital technologies to deliver better, more equitable healthcare. Students from all backgrounds are welcomed. 

Healthcare is undergoing rapid transformation, with digital technologies playing an important role in this process. Telemedicine is enabling online delivery of services. Simulation modelling and population based management tools are increasingly utilised to better plan and manage health of populations and delivery of health services. Robotics and AI are hailed as breakthrough innovations. Many of the information technologies (IT) and service models utilised currently have existed in some form for years. Their adoption has been hindered by complex regulatory, organisational, social and technical problems. In this course we will explore opportunities for transforming healthcare and challenges faced in planning for, developing, adopting, and managing digital services and underlying healthcare information systems and infrastructures. The approach taken in this course to understanding those issues is informed by a socio-technical perspective that considers society (institutions, rules and regulations, work practices and people) and technology as inter-related. Both lectures and seminars are dedicated to presenting different aspects of eHealth, drawing on selected theories from information systems, management and organisational studies. The seminars consist of student-led, in-depth discussions on issues related to particular topics within eHealth. The course assignments offer the students an opportunity to critically engage with their chosen topic. Topics addressed in the course include: assessing the transformative potential of digital technologies for health, the evolution and current state of information systems in primary and secondary care with international comparisons, healthcare policies for digital technologies and information infrastructures, management of digital innovations in healthcare, issues of information systems implementation and use, evaluation of IT and building of an evidence base. Selected application domains discussed include: electronic health records and national information infrastructures, medicine management systems and e-prescribing, health apps, big data and data analytics, AI and robotics. 

15 hours of lectures and 13.5 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

In its Ethics Code, LSE upholds a commitment to intellectual freedom. This means we will protect the freedom of expression of our students and staff and the right to engage in healthy debate in the classroom.

Seminars are based around reading and discussing selected journal articles and case studies. Formative feedback on coursework is provided during seminars. In addition, students complete formative proposals for their essay on which written feedback is provided. 

• Christensen, C., Grossman, J.H. and Hwang, J. (2009) The Innovator’s Prescription. McGraw-Hill, New York. 
• Bertolaso M, Ilardo ML, Ribera J (Eds) (2025) Healthcare in the Digital Age. Perspectives for sustainable innovation and assessment. Palgrave. 
• Coiera, E. (2015) Guide to Health Informatics (Third Edition), CRC Press. 
• Lupton, D. (2017) Digital Health: Critical and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, Routledge, 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. 
• Topol, E. (2015) The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine Is in Your Hands, Basic Books. 
• Wacher, R. (2017) The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age, McGraw-Hill, New York. 
• Volpe, S. (ed.) (2022) Health Informatics: Multidisciplinary Approaches for Current and Future Professionals, Productivity Press, New York. 

Course participation (15%)

Essay (85%, 4000 words)

For detailed assessment information, including all deadlines and timings, please see the relevant course Moodle page. Assessment timings will be available at the start of each term.