INFO780-902-200625:Organizational and Sociological Issues in Healthcare Informatics
Winter Term2006-2007(January 8 - March 24, 2007)
Scot M. Silverstein, MD
Assistant Professor of Healthcare Informatics and IT
College of Information Science & Technology
DrexelUniversity, 3141 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215)895-1085
In view of increasing recognition that information technology is essential to improve healthcare quality and control costs, strengthening the breadth and depth of the health informatics workforce is a critical component in the transformation of the American health care system.
Sessions in this course on sociotechnical issues in healthcare informatics involve appropriate readings from 1) the textbook “Managing Technological Change: Organizational Aspects of Health Informatics, Lorenzi & Riley, Springer, 2nd edition, 2004(one of the few on this subject), 2) articles selected from a review ofthe periodical literature indexed by the National Library of Medicine on this topic,3) other readings that I select from web, media and print sources, 4) some personal essays, and 5) electronic discussions via Blackboard.
Book chapter references are keyed to the textbook, and article references to the list of articles on the spreadsheet readinglist_780.xlsin the same folder as this syllabus and at the following URL: The next-to-last column of the spreadsheet contains a session number (1-10). Note: some articles are required, others optional – see the required/optional column. Most articles will be posted in appropriate Blackboard folders, and are also available onlinevia in full text and PDF formats.
There will be a midterm written exam (posted Wed Feb 7 and due Sun Feb 11), and a Final Paper (topic proposal due Fri Feb 16, paper itself due Wed Mar 21).
Grades will be determined based on: midterm exam (25%), final paper (50%), Blackboard eDiscussion participation (25%). See grading standards at the end of the syllabus. Also see “Standards for Academic Honesty” at the end of the syllabus and on the Blackboard INFO780 site.
NOTE: please be assured that medical experience is not a requirement for the course and you will not be evaluated on the basis of how much medical knowledge or background you have - or do not have. Of course, you will likely know more about certain aspects of medical care after this course than before!
1. Chapters from Lorenzi & Riley
2. Articles are keyed to readinglist_780.xls spreadsheet available in Blackboard “Course Information/Basic Housekeeping” section
3. Additional materials will be available in Blackboard “Course Materials” section
Week 1 / Mon Jan 8 / Introduction to Healthcare Informatics and the healthcare environment
- What is Healthcare Informatics, who are its practitioners
- Healthcare organizations in today’s healthcare environment
- Introduction to healthcare IT’s unique challenges
See description of Informatics paper in the first Course Information folder in Blackboard (Note: topic proposal due Fri Feb 16, paper itself due Wed Mar 21). / Ch. 1, 2, 3
Articles for session 1
“Building the Work Force for Health Information Transformation”
VA EHR Demo
Week 2 / Tue Jan 16
(Monday 1/15 is university holiday) / Healthcare IT strategy and organization
- Role of leadership in setting strategy
- Health IT Strategic plans
- Role of informatics specialists
Articles for session 2
“CEO Survival Guide to EHR systems”
“The Candid Healthcare CIO”
Week 3 / Mon Jan 22 / Preparatory steps to facilitate change in healthcare organizations
- Readiness for change
- Teambuilding
- Project planning and management
Articles for session 3
Week 4 / Mon Jan 29 / Implementing change
- Gaining clinician acceptance
- Critical role of leadership
- Political minefields, swimming with the sharks
- Personal reactions to environmental challenges
Articles for session 4
Week 5 / Mon Feb 5 / Health IT difficulty and “failure” examples and analyses
- Real-world case examples. What goes wrong and why?
- Avoiding the “F” word
Website
Week 6 / Mon Feb 12 / Clearing up misconceptions - focus on the “people factor”
- Clinical vs. Management computing
- Tactics and stereotypes
- Territorial issues
- Unqualified decision making
Week 7 / Mon Feb 19 / Political, social and regulatory issues in healthcare IT
- Affording the change
- Information privacy and confidentiality
- ROI issues
“Trust and Sources of Health Information”
Week 8 / Mon Feb 26 / Managing post-implementation
- People issues
- Project evaluation
Articles for session 8
Week 9 / Mon Mar 5 / Large scale clinical IT initiatives
- National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII)
- ONCHIT
- National Programme for IT (NPfIT) - NHS Connecting for Health
- Others
“Accelerating Transformation through Health Information Technology”
Week 10 / Mon Mar 12 / Current issues in health IT / Final Paper dueWed Mar 21 / Articles for session 10
At the end of this course, students should be able to understand and discuss:
- How and why clinical information technology is increasingly important to healthcare
- The basic structure of healthcare organizations
- Sociotechnical issues that may delay or impede implementation and use of clinical IT
- The unique issues in the healthcare field regarding clinical computerization, as well as similarities to issues in other domains
- Clinician attitudes, both pro and con, towards clinical IT and process change
- Leadership issues, including the role of healthcare informatics professionalsin health IT project leadership and success
- The value and role of medical informatics education for IT and information professionals involved in healthcare settings
- Large-scale, regionaland national initiatives in healthcare IT
- whyit is advantageous to see clinical IT projects as“incredibly complex social endeavors in unforgiving clinical environments that happen to involve computers, as opposed to computer projects that happen to involve doctors.”
Midterm & Final Paper Information is at:
There will be a midterm written exam (posted Wed Feb 7 and due Sun Feb 11), and a Final Paper (topic proposal due Fri Feb 16, paper itself due Wed Mar 21). Assignments should be submitted via the Digital Dropbox in Blackboard.
1. The midterm will be a written test.I will evaluate your answers based on how they show comprehension of the readings, critical thinking about the issues raised, creativity, and cross-fertilization with ideas from your own backgrounds.
2. Details about the Final Paper are in the MS-Word document above. Iwill help in topic selection. Please let me know if you have questions.
On the final paper, thegoal is toauthor a paper that can demonstrate and enhance your understanding of a topic of current interest in health informatics.
Excellent sources of paper topic ideas: A site such as rich withmany current topics that you could review in more detailin a paper. Pick on of interest and email me with your ideas, so they can be refined. A site such as is also worth reviewing as a source of ideas.
Standards for Academic Honesty:
Standards for academic honesty are described in the Student Handbook which is available as a .pdf here, starting on page 50, and at DrexelUniversity's academic honesty policy at . All students are responsible for reading and understanding these policies and procedures.
Important excerpt from the Student Handbook:
Plagiarism: the inclusion of someone else’s words, ideas, or data as one’s own work. When a student submits work for credit that includes the words, ideas, or data of others, the source of that information must be acknowledged through complete, accurate, and specific references, and, if verbatim statements are included, through quotation marks as well. By placing his/her name on work submitted for credit, the student certifies the originality of all work not otherwise identified by appropriate acknowledgments. Plagiarism covers unpublished as well as published sources. Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to:
- Quoting another person’s actual words, complete sentences or paragraphs, or an entire piece of written work without acknowledgment of the source
- Using another person’s ideas, opinions, or theory, even if it is completely paraphrased in one’s own words without acknowledgment of the source
- Borrowing facts, statistics, or other illustrative materials that are not clearly common knowledge without acknowledgment of the source
- Copying another student’s essay test answers
- Copying, or allowing another student to copy, a computer file that contains another student’s assignment, and submitting it, in part or in its entirety, as one’s own
- Working together on an assignment, sharing the computer files and programs involved, and then submitting individual copies of the assignment as one’s own individual work
Students are urged to consult with individual faculty members, academic departments, or recognized handbooks in their field if in doubt regarding issues of plagiarism.
Important! Under university policy, students found guilty of plagiarism may fail the assignment and the course. You may expect that the minimum penalty will be a one full grade reduction in your final grade. Students committing plagiarism will be reported to the University Judicial Office where a permanent record of the offense will be maintained.
The College of IST takes the issue of Academic Honesty very seriously. Note that regardless of the decision of the Judicial Affairs Office in such matters, and depending on the severity of the infraction, a Graduate student may not be re-admitted to the College of IST after their first offense of the Academic Honesty policy.
Grading scale (derived from a scale used by the IndianaUniversity program, which has been adopted as the uniform grading scale by their faculty, and which is used by Dr. Kate McCain who communicated the scale at IST):
A+ / 100 / Professional work of the highest caliber.A / 95 / Outstanding achievement. Student performance demonstrates full command of the course materials
and demonstrates a high level oforiginality and/or creativity that far surpasses project and course expectations.
A- / 90 / Excellent achievement. Student performance demonstrates thoroughknowledge of the course
materials and exceeds project and course expectationsby completing all requirements in asuperior manner.
Note: A key difference between a B and an A is the degree to which the work turned in is original, creative, and shows mastery of key concepts. Doing what is expected and no more, or simply following suggestions for improvement, however well done, earns, at best, a B+.
B+ / 87 / Very good work. Student performance demonstrates above-averagecomprehension of the
course materials and exceeds project and courseexpectations on all tasks as defined in the course syllabus.
B / 84 / Student performance meets designated project and course expectations anddemonstrates
understanding of the course materials at an acceptablelevel.
B- / 80 / Marginal work. Student performance demonstrates incompleteunderstanding of course materials.
Note: In graduate school, a C does not mean satisfactory, even though it is considered a “passing” grade. It’s an indication that there is something wrong that needs to be addressed
C+ / 77 / Unsatisfactory work. Student performance demonstrates incompleteand inadequate understanding
of course materials.
C / 74
C- / 70 / Unacceptable work at varying levels of unacceptability.
D+ / 68
D / 64
D- / 60
F / 0.0 / Failing—or dropped the course and forgot to inform the appropriate personnel
Students needing accommodations:
Any student with a documented disability who needs accommodations should contact the Office of Equality and Disability via the contact information below. All communication is strictly confidential.Contact Information:
3201 Arch Street
Suite 210
Philadelphia, PA19104
Mailing Address:
3141 Chestnut Street
81-210
Philadelphia, PA19104
Phone (215) 895-1401
TTY (215) 895-2299
Fax (215) 895-1402
Rhonda Karp, Ed.D.
Sr. Associate Vice President
Equality, Disability and Civil Rights Compliance Officer