Brandeis University Division of Graduate Professional Studies Rabb School of Continuing Studies Course Syllabus I. Course Information

1. Course Name:

Emerging Technologies in Health/Medical Informatics

2. Course Number:

RHIN 150

3. Course Start & End Dates; Class Meeting Times: January 20, 2016 – March 29, 2016 This course is offered via distance learning. For schedule and participation refer to the course information by visiting http://latte.brandeis.edu Distance Learning Course Week; Wednesday through Tuesday 4. Instructor’s Name and Contact Information 

Instructor: Mike Noonan Email: [email protected] Phone: 855-742-4200 x101 or 508-479-3907 (cell) Office Hours: Virtual by arrangement Email is always the best and fastest way to reach me! If you do need to call, please leave a message and I’ll respond as soon as I can.

5. Document Overview This syllabus contains all relevant information about the course: its objectives and outcomes, the grading criteria, the texts and other materials of instruction, and of weekly topics, outcomes, assignments, and due dates. Consider this your roadmap for the course. Please read through the syllabus carefully and feel free to share any questions that you may have. Please print a copy of this syllabus for reference.

6. Course Description In today’s dynamic health care information technology environment, emerging technologies represent a critical and exciting field of study. Advances in technologies across all aspects of health care promise to make dramatic impacts in terms of the efficiency and efficacy of care with major implications for clinical quality and cost. This course introduces students to a number of emerging classes of health care information technologies. In addition, the course considers the unique challenges that the healthcare industry presents in terms of planning, implementation, and adoption of new technologies. While the content of the class is dynamic and continually evolving, emerging technologies are broad enough to be split into static categories. The categories present emerging technologies that represent the major fields within Health and Medical Informatics, including:

    

Health/Medical information systems (including hospital-based information systems, billing, scheduling, etc.) Clinical/decision support systems, including standardized language lexicon Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Health Information Exchange (HIE) technologies including integration issues and standards. E-health, telemedicine, connected health, location-based technologies, personalized medicine. Inter-disciplinary integrations: Bioinformatics (Biomedical informatics), etc.

Prerequisite: Completion of required courses or permission of instructor. 7. Materials of Instruction a. Required Texts 

Jones, Stephan and Groom, Frank M., Information & Communication Technologies in Healthcare, 1st Edition, Auerbach Publications, 2012, ISBN 1439854130.



Ofek, Elie and Laufer, Ron, American Well: The Doctor Will E-See You Now, 1st Edition, Harvard Business School, March 2010 (revised April 2014).

b. Online Course Content 

Students will be provided with copies of additional course materials during the semester.

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DL Courses (LATTE): This section of the course will be conducted completely online using Brandeis’ LATTE site, available at http://latte.brandeis.edu. The site contains the course syllabus, assignments, discussion forums, links/resources to course-related professional organizations and sites, and weekly checklists, objectives, outcomes, topic notes, self-tests, and discussion questions. Access information is emailed to enrolled students before the start of the course. To begin participating in the course, review the Week 1 Checklist found in the Week 1 block.

c. Articles and cases to be assigned prior to and during the course 8. Course Objectives/Outcomes This course is intended to provide students with an understanding of:  Emerging technologies that are poised to transform healthcare from the perspectives of quality, delivery, and cost  How emerging technologies will interact within the context of an interconnected healthcare system  Unique challenges faced by healthcare organizations that implement new health information technologies  Technology lifecycle considerations, including evaluation approaches (e.g. ‘Gartner Hype Cycle’)  Issues around successful adoption of emerging technologies within healthcare organizations At the conclusion of this course students will have the ability to:  Demonstrate an understanding of the current state of emerging information technologies in health care.  Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of several specific technologies.  Describe the technology lifecycle and factors to be considered when evaluating new technologies in the context of business/clinical needs.  Discuss future trends in HIT and their implications for technology innovation.  Describe challenges/issues as they relate to emerging technologies, including cost, adoption, regulatory/safety concerns, etc.  Apply the above learning to an in-depth analysis of a specific emerging health information technology.

9. Course Grading Criteria Percent

Component

40% (DL)

Discussions/Online Participation: Each week, respond to all assigned discussion questions and post at least two (2) other substantive messages by Tuesday.

20% 20% 10% 10%

Emerging Technology Assessment Paper Group Case Analysis (details to be provided) Quiz 1 Quiz 2

10. Online Participation (40%, 4% per week) To earn full credit for the Participation component of the grade, participants will be expected to complete the following during weeks 1 through 10 of the course: 1. Respond to all assigned Discussion Topics (1-2) each week. These responses should consist of approximately 300-350 words and include your own insights into the topics. Students are encouraged to use professional experience, assigned weekly reading, and outside research to formulate their responses. Any relevant sources used within the post should be cited appropriately. 2. Post (at least) two other substantive messages to the Discussions each week by Tuesday. At least one of these posts must be posted to the weekly mini case study. These other posts may be responses to the messages of others or they may be questions or comments about the topics covered during the week. The assumption is that you will read through the posts of your classmates to enhance your learning; respond to those of your choice, based upon your own experiences and insights. 3. Post on at least three different days of each course week. 11. Participation Evaluation Students will receive a numeric grade for their weekly online participation, based on completeness, quality of writing, originality, and use/appropriate citation of research sources. Please refer to the Late Policies section below for policies related to course participation.

II. Weekly Information Week 1 (1/20 – 1/26)

The Healthcare Information Technology ‘Landscape’

Objectives

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Review the healthcare delivery ‘landscape’, including major system ‘actors’ Describe the issues/challenges facing the US healthcare system Identify categories of emerging technologies and describe their value/alignment within the healthcare delivery system

Readings

 

Jones, Chapter 1 (Healthcare Systems) Neil Smiley article

Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments

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Reading/discussion Purchase HBS Case for Group Exercise (use link in Week 1 course block)

Week 2 (1/27 – 2/2)

E-Power To The Patient: Patient-Centered Care

Objectives

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Review emerging technologies that enable patients to assume greater control of their healthcare:  Personal Health Records (PHRs)  Mobile Health (mHealth)  Social Media for Healthcare  Electronic Prescribing  Patient Portals

Readings

 

Jones, Chapter 9 (Home Health) Dolan reading

Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments Week 3 (2/3 – 2/9)

Reading/discussion

Clinical Information Technologies Objectives

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Review emerging technologies that will promote early detection and ‘high-tech healing’:  Operating Room/Patient Room of the Future  Location-Based Technologies  Robotic Surgery/Telemedicine  Advances in Imaging - PACS/DICOM  Diagnostic devices (e.g. 'camera pills')

Readings

 

Jones, Chapter 11 (Facility Planning) Lundt article

Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments

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Reading/discussion Course Project Proposals due

Week 4 (2/10 – 2/16)

New Care Delivery Models

Objectives

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Coverage of emerging care delivery models and implications for HIT:  Impact of Healthcare Reform (ACA) on HIT  New Models: Accountable Care Organizations, Patient-Centered Medical Homes  Outcomes measurement & quality reporting  Privacy & Security

Readings

 

Jones, Chapter 7 Additional readings TBD

Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments

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Reading/discussion Quiz 1

Week 5 (2/17 – 2/23)

Global Healthcare Ecosystem

Objectives

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Review technologies that enable ‘longitudinal HIT’, including:  Electronic Health Record interoperability  Informatics that support population-based health, evidencebased medicine  Cloud-based technologies

Readings

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Jones, Chapter 8 (Electronic Medical Record)

 Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments Week 6 (2/24 – 3/1)

Additional readings TBD

Reading/discussion

The Interconnected Healthcare System

Objectives

Readings Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments Week 7 (3/2 – 3/8) Objectives

Review/discuss how the emerging technologies covered in this course interact within an ‘interconnected healthcare system’?  Health Information Exchange (HIE)  Cloud-Based Computing  Privacy & Security  

Reading/discussion HIT Adoption – Issues and Challenges   

Readings Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments Week 8 (3/9 – 3/15)

Jones, Chapter 3 (Health Information Exchange) Additional readings TBD

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Discuss issues and challenges commonly associated with the successful adoption of leading edge technologies Change management considerations How do the regulatory environment and standards impact the adoption and value of HIT, particularly during early adoption phases? READINGS TBD

Reading/discussion Implementation of HIT Innovations

Objectives



Discuss unique challenges associated with implementation of new technologies, including:  Stakeholder management  Management of technology pilots  Quantifying value – cost-benefit analysis  Vendor management, including vendor/technology assessments  Process/workflow optimization issues

Readings

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Jones, Chapter 13 Additional readings TBD

Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments Week 9 (3/16 – 3/22)

Reading/discussion Future Trends In Healthcare Information Technology

Objectives

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Discuss future trends and challenges within HIT  How will technologies evolve at a global level?  Technology Lifecycle considerations

Readings

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READINGS TBD

Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments

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Reading/discussion Submit Assessment Paper Submit Group Case Analysis Submit Group Case Executive Summary

Week 10 (3/23 – 3/29)

Review of Course Objectives and Case Study

Objectives

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Review the concepts covered in the course Review the emerging technologies case study

Readings

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READINGS TBD

Assignments / Assessments/ Self-Assessments



Quiz 2

III. Course Policies and Procedures 1. Late Policies Course weeks run Wednesday to Wednesday at 12:01AM. Submit homework by midnight Tuesday in the week it is due. The assignment dropbox in LATTE will reflect a grace period during which you may submit homework without penalty, generally this will be until 6AM on Wednesday. Homework Assignments Late homework will lose 5 points for every day it is late. For example: Homework due Tuesday at midnight. Homework submitted by 6AM Wednesday – no penalty Homework submitted by midnight Wednesday – lose 2 points Homework submitted by midnight Thursday – lose 5 points Homework submitted more than one week late will not earn credit, unless you contact the instructors before the homework is due. Weekly Participation Original Posts that are one day late will receive 50% credit; posts that are more than one day late will receive no credit. Substantive Replies that are more than one day late will receive 50% credit. Please remember that course deadlines reflect the Eastern time zone, which might not be the same as your local time zone. 2. Grading Standards Students should expect to allocate 8-12 hours per week to coursework. Assignments must be your original work, with sources properly cited. Information on how to cite sources correctly is posted in our LATTE course site. All assignment/work submissions must be made in Microsoft DOC or Adobe PDF or OpenOffice formats. Microsoft DOCX submission not supported. 

How points and percentages equate to grades

94-100 points 90-93 points 87-89 points 84-87 points 80-83 points 77-79 points

A AB+ B BC+

74-77 points 70-73 points

C C-

Grades below B- will not earn credit toward a graduate program. Often, students will receive tuition reimbursement from their employers that varies based on final grades. The instructors have no control over these policies and cannot take them into account when determining grades. You are responsible for knowing about your employer’s reimbursement policy. 3. Feedback We will do our best to provide feedback on assignments within 2 weeks of the due dates. If we are delayed, we’ll post in LATTE so you will know what to expect. We will provide feedback on discussion participation within a week. We will check in with the class at least every other day during the week.

4. Confidentiality The LATTE course site is available only to students registered in the course. However, the course is also visited by administrators, LTS staff, and sometimes faculty who are training to be DL instructors. Staff who have access to the course site must agree to specific nondisclosure requirements. In some cases, you will be notified before visitors enter the course; in other situations (such as for emergency maintenance of LATTE), you will not be notified. Topics discussed in class are intended to remain private among class members. However, this is not the same as a formal nondisclosure agreement. Please do not share information that is proprietary to your employer or someone else. The materials and messages we post in LATTE become long-term academic records of the University. They will be used for program quality assurance, and as evidence for reaccreditation. 5. Class Schedule and Cancellations DL courses generally are not cancelled due to inclement weather, but course operations might be delayed due to serious problems with LATTE. We will post messages if course deadlines need to be adjusted.

IV. University and Division of Graduate Professional Studies Standards Please review the policies and procedures of Graduate Professional Studies, found at: http://www.brandeis.edu/gps/students/studentresources/policiesprocedures/index.html. Among them, we would like to highlight the following. Learning Disabilities If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this course, please contact me immediately.

Academic Honesty and Student Integrity Academic honesty and student integrity are of fundamental importance at Brandeis University and we want students to understand this clearly at the start of the term. As stated in the Brandeis Rights and Responsibilities handbook, “Every member of the University Community is expected to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty. A student shall not receive credit for work that is not the product of the student’s own effort. A student's name on any written exercise constitutes a statement that the work is the result of the student's own thought and study, stated in the students own words, and produced without the assistance of others, except in quotes, footnotes or references with appropriate acknowledgement of the source." In particular, students must be aware that material (including ideas, phrases, sentences, etc.) taken from the Internet and other sources MUST be appropriately cited if quoted, and footnoted in any written work turned in for this, or any, Brandeis class. Also, students will not be allowed to collaborate on work except by the specific permission of the instructor. Failure to cite resources properly may result in a referral being made to the Office of Student Development and Judicial Education. The outcome of this action may involve academic and disciplinary sanctions, which could include (but are not limited to) such penalties as receiving no credit for the assignment in question, receiving no credit for the related course, or suspension or dismissal from the University. Further information regarding academic integrity may be found in the following publications: "In Pursuit of Excellence - A Guide to Academic Integrity for the Brandeis Community", "(Students') Rights and Responsibilities Handbook" AND "Continuing Studies Student Handbook". You should read these publications, which all can be accessed from the Continuing Studies Web site. A student that is in doubt about standards of academic honesty (regarding plagiarism, multiple submissions of written work, unacknowledged or unauthorized collaborative effort, false citation or false data) should consult either the course instructor or other staff of the Rabb School for Continuing Studies.

University Caveat The above schedule, content, and procedures in this course are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances.