Submitter: Hadi Kharrazi, PI
Additional: (1)
Title: Developing a New Online Interdisciplinary Course - Fundamentals of Clinical Care for Health Informaticians
CTL Funding Level: $2,500.00
Abstract: The Health Informatics (HI) graduate program, offered by the School of Informatics at IUPUI, is an interdisciplinary field where the application and integration of informational systems in healthcare are scientifically studied. Students with different backgrounds may enter the program and therefore prerequisite courses are mandated for most applicants to fill their knowledge gaps in either the technical aspects or health related topics of HI. Currently, students who do not hold a medical degree are required to take three general medical courses (e.g. Human Anatomy) before entering the HI program. The longer study plan, low learning outcome reported by HI faculty and dissatisfying experience found in the student feedbacks, have identified the existing curricular structure exhausting and a major barrier in attracting technical-oriented students. Based on prior research, it has been proposed to develop an interdisciplinary course that would replace the existing prerequisites with a tailored course that will introduce students to the fundamentals of clinical care that are of importance to Health Informaticians. The course will implement various techniques to enhance the learning experience of the students, make them able to apply and integrate the acquired medical knowledge in HI contexts, teach them how to seek and learn new medical information by themselves, and assist them to prepare themselves for the HI graduate program in a shorter timeframe. It is expected that this course will positively impact the potential enrollment of students with technical background and hence enhance the teaching and research outcome of the overall HI program.
