Health Information Systems course

the course (systems overview-individual practice, GP, hospital) looks at systems
used in health care at various levels.
Courses objectives:
CO1. Students will be able to collect, analyse, evaluate and manage health information and analyse/generate solutions in health context.

CO2. Identify and discuss current issues in health informatics (such as electronic health records, systems integration in health, adoption of health IS and e-health) in Australia and other countries. Students will be able to analyse controversies in such issues, form an opinion and defend this opinion in a discussion individually and as a team.

CO3. Compare different approaches nationally and internationally such as electronic health records, coding systems, standards, guidelines.

CO4. Identify and analyse legal and ethical implication of IT utilisation in health domain
Assignment (Case study essay and presentation)

The assignment is divided into several components:

The task may involve searching literature for published
work, reading government policies, compare approaches
to utilisation of IT/IS in supporting health delivery in
different countries. Students are expected to use their
knowledge from health related courses (such as Health
and Society) to analyse the topic and summarise results in
the report (NB: IT/IS in health serve a purpose and should
be *always* assessed in specific health context).
The written report should be 6000 words long. The written
report should be aimed at educated health professional
reader and go to the point (so no lengthy “backgrounds”,
“introductions” and repeating the obvious please – distil
core points and refer the reader to the literature for detail)
This assignment expects lots of thinking, not lots of
writing.

1. Draft – this is expected to be a *finalised* version of
your report, ready for review. The draft will be reviewed by
other students and feedback will be given. I will review the
draft as well. The main goal is to improve the document.

Research Questions:
Dose the semantic information from lyrics in music affect the semantic information required in short term memory learning  in undergraduate students ?
Hypothesis:
Yes, Lyrics in music during learning negatively affect short term memory.

References:
Kantner, J. (2009). Studying with music: is the irrelevant speech effect relevant? In Kelley M. R. (Ed.), Applied Memory (pp. 19–40). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers
Balch, W. R , Bowman, K., & Mohier, L. A. (1992). Music-dependent memory in immediate and delayed word recall. Memory Cognition 20(1), 21-28
eaman, C. P. (2005). Auditory distraction from low-intensity noise: A review of the consequences for learning and workplace environments. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 79(8), 1041-1064.
Fogelson, S. (1973). Music as a distractor on reading-test performance of eighth grade students. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 36(3), 1265-1266
Freebume, C. M., & Fleischer, M. S. (1952). The effect of music distraction upon reading rate and comprehension. Journal o f Educational Psychology, 43(2), 101-109
Martin, R. C., Wogalter, M. S., & Foriano, J. G. (1988). Reading comprehension in the presence of unattended speech and music. Journal o f Memoiy and Languaget 27(4), 382¬ 398.
Ransdell, S. E., & Gilroy, L. (2001). The effects of background music on word processed writing. Computers in Human Behavior, 77(2), 141-148
Levy, Yiftach. (1986) “The Effects of calm Music on Learning:” Effect of music on learning.

Brewer, C. B. (1995). Music and learning: Integrating music in the classroom. Toronto: Zephyr Press. Retrieved, March 3, 2008, from http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/arts/brewer.htm.

16] Miranda, E. R. (2003). .Computational Models of Music. Digitial Music Online Tutorials.

Towell, H.T. (2000). Teaching Reading: Motivating Students through Music and Literature.

Weinberger, N.M. (2000). Music and the Brain: A broad Perspective. Music Educators Journal, 87 (2), 8-10.
[23] Weinberger, N. M. (1998). The music in our minds. Educational Leadership, 56 (3), 36 – 40.

Sample from previous students
Public Health: Understanding the different needs of a certain population
Population: Elderly people living in the Burnside council, experiencing falls

1)    What data do we need and why?
How many elderly people live in Burnside council?
–    Need to know the relative age of the population living in Burnside to grasp if there is a high demand for aged care.
Why do that number live in the Burnside council (be it large or small)?
–    Why a large or small amount of elderly people live within the Burnside council is important to assess whether the location is suitable for the needs they require.
What is the socio-economic status of the majority of elderly living in the Burnside council area?
–    To know whether or not the population can afford to have private support available within their own homes rather than rely on the government for financial aid.  Also allows assessing if they can afford nursing homes/ aged care facilities.
How physically able is the majority of the elderly population within the demographic?
–    If the majority of the population is physically able then it is less likely they will experience falls and/or require physical aid in their living environments.
How many nursing homes/ aged care facilities are in the Burnside area ?
–    Depending on the number we will be able to gage the number of elderly people within the population and the ultimate demand for nursing homes.
Do many falls occur? Why do they occur or why not?
–    The amount of falls that occur can either support the processes in place or demand that there be some safer and more reliable ones, depending on whether the numbers are positive or negative.
Do the elderly have access to public transport?
–    Assessing their risk of injury by evaluating whether they can easily get around to complete daily tasks.
What alternatives do they have if they are unable to access public transport?
–    If they are unable to get to busses or taxi’s independently the alternatives in place by their support/ care providers should be adequate enough to allow so.
Do many elderly receive occupational therapy/ physiotherapy or aged care support?
–    If a large number receive support we can assess the need and importance of how these alternate areas of care.
What support systems do they put in place?
–    If they are receiving support from alternative places what physical processes are being put in place to make their daily lives simpler and risk free, allowing us to assess if these processes are suitable and necessary.

2)    Where would you be getting this data from?

Data is the first thing that needs to be retrieved then analysis of the data is derived from that resulting in knowledge and understanding. The term data refers to either qualitative or quantitative research, of which a mix of both is ideal from reputable sources. Making sure all aspects of a population is covered.
As our population is quite specific, elderly people living in Burnside council experiencing falls, statistical data will need to be collected such as how many elderly people live in Burnside, their age range, employment status etc. Most of this data will be collected from Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and similar sites that will give representative and up-to-date data on the elderly and their demographic that we can apply to our population.
Primary research may consist of contacting the council, nursing homes  and/or aged care facilities in the area for statistics of the elderly population and whether or not they have health records about falls, that they would disclose (with no personal details revealed). However, the accessibility of this data may be difficult due to confidentiality reasons. Data on the availability of easy access places and what support the elderly are receiving; whether it is from a social worker/community developer, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, or nurse.
Primarily the data will be coming from databases online  that should include academic or peer reviewed literature to ensure it is reliable and valid.
Raw data (unprocessed data) can be appealing but this is typically too detailed and too unstructured to be a good basis for decision making.

How will you obtain the data?
How many elderly people live in Burnside council?
–    This data can be obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics by accessing the Burnside council statistics page.
The results of the 2011 Census data are listed in a table with age limits and the number of people living in the Burnside council. We can gather the number of people over 85 years old easily from the sub-group labelled 85 years and older.
–    This information can also be found on the Burnside council page.
Why do that number live in the Burnside council?
–    This data can be collected by using a survey targeted  at people living in the Burnside council area that are over 85 years old asking why they live in that council.
This survey could be given to elderly living in retirement villages or aged care facilities or community health centres that provide services to the elderly.
–    It could also be obtained by finding statistics on the facilities available to elderly in that area and then inferring from this data that elderly live here for the facilities available.
What is the socio economic status of the majority of elderly living in the Burnside council area?
–    This data can be obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics by accessing the Burnside council statistics page.
By analysing the occupation table and the median weekly incomes the main socio-economic status of Burnside can be concluded.
How physically able is the majority of the elderly population within the demographic?
–    This data can be collected by using a survey targeted at people living in the Burnside council area that are over 85 years old asking how they view their physical abilities. For elderly who have carers they could contribute the data on how they view the physical abilities of the elderly person they care for.
This survey could be given to elderly living in retirement villages or aged care facilities or could also be obtained from community health centres that provide services to the elderly.
–    The nursing homes or aged care centres may also have patient health records that they are able to provide while still ensuring confidentiality is met.
How many nursing homes/ aged care facilities are in the Burnside area?
–    This data can be collected from statistical resources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics  or Burnside council page.
Do many falls occur? Why do they occur or why not?
–    Contact nursing homes and aged care facilities to find out if they have a record of resident falls .
–    These records may be detailed enough to provide reasons for the cause of the falls.
–    If falls are not prevalent in nursing homes and aged care facilities they may be able to provide OH&S standards and policies that explain how they prevent falls from occurring.
–    For elderly living alone or with family a survey could be sent asking about any falls that the residents may have experiences or whether they have any actions in place to prevent falls from occurring.
Do the elderly have access to public transport?
–    Can be obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Burnside Council page for public transport available in Burnside.
–    To discover whether the elderly are able to access the transport, a survey could be used to get accurate data on what individuals can access and what their public transport of choice is.
What alternatives do they have if they are unable to access public transport?
–    To discover what alternatives different elderly people use to get around a survey would obtain the most accurate data as each individual would be different and public transport may not be an issue for all the elderly in the area as some may be immobile.

3)    How are you going to manage and process the data in order to achieve the project’s goal

The data will be managed and processed through a program called: ReadSoft – a census processor and analysing tool. Enables for automatic entry through a scanner – the relevant information is scanned in and stored either into a database or stores it in “the clouds”. This would be useful for any information the group would be looking for ourselves. The ability to scan surveys into an electronic system and have the results sorted automatically would save an enormous amount of time. Data can also be manually added, which means the data from the census can be stored within the same database. As ReadSoft is a computer program it can easily be managed by us without need to hire a company or organisation. Through the management of our own data it improves efficiency by eliminating the middleman of a company. This means we get our results faster and have constant access to them.

How will IT support the project?
Information technology will support the project as it will provide the researchers with a set of processes to analyze, store, share and present the data found.

Analyze – By using IT software such as ReadSoft, the data collected can then be easily analyzed. By having data in a user-friendly format, researcher will more easily be able to establish trends within data, ie number of falls, how many people have help (physiotherapist, occupational therapist).

Store –  IT software will enable researchers with a common place to store all information, for all aspects of the research not just final data. It also allows information to be stored for further use in other research.

Share  – by having all information stored together in an IT format it will make sharing our data with governments, health promotion officers, physiotherapist, OT’s, GP’s and researchers easier, aiding future research.

Present – By using IT software, researchers are able to incorporate all data and display the results from the study.

General Comments
•    You have a lot of information which is good, I was not able to many more things you would be able to research to assist this project.
•    The topic is clearly defined and most things have been given a definition- makes it easy to read
•    I am assuming you will write this as a report style after peer review- either way what you have is good, can’t really comment on layout if this is the case
•    There are some lapses from 3rd person into 1st, try keep it all in 3rd.
•    The methods/approaches to collecting the data could be a little more detailed, however what you have is realistic
•    Using diagrams and graphical representations may be useful to this project.

Health Information Systems course

the course (systems overview-individual practice, GP, hospital) looks at systems
used in health care at various levels.
Courses objectives:
CO1. Students will be able to collect, analyse, evaluate and manage health information and analyse/generate solutions in health context.

CO2. Identify and discuss current issues in health informatics (such as electronic health records, systems integration in health, adoption of health IS and e-health) in Australia and other countries. Students will be able to analyse controversies in such issues, form an opinion and defend this opinion in a discussion individually and as a team.

CO3. Compare different approaches nationally and internationally such as electronic health records, coding systems, standards, guidelines.

CO4. Identify and analyse legal and ethical implication of IT utilisation in health domain
Assignment (Case study essay and presentation)

The assignment is divided into several components:

The task may involve searching literature for published
work, reading government policies, compare approaches
to utilisation of IT/IS in supporting health delivery in
different countries. Students are expected to use their
knowledge from health related courses (such as Health
and Society) to analyse the topic and summarise results in
the report (NB: IT/IS in health serve a purpose and should
be *always* assessed in specific health context).
The written report should be 6000 words long. The written
report should be aimed at educated health professional
reader and go to the point (so no lengthy “backgrounds”,
“introductions” and repeating the obvious please – distil
core points and refer the reader to the literature for detail)
This assignment expects lots of thinking, not lots of
writing.

1. Draft – this is expected to be a *finalised* version of
your report, ready for review. The draft will be reviewed by
other students and feedback will be given. I will review the
draft as well. The main goal is to improve the document.

Research Questions:
Dose the semantic information from lyrics in music affect the semantic information required in short term memory learning  in undergraduate students ?
Hypothesis:
Yes, Lyrics in music during learning negatively affect short term memory.

References:
Kantner, J. (2009). Studying with music: is the irrelevant speech effect relevant? In Kelley M. R. (Ed.), Applied Memory (pp. 19–40). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers
Balch, W. R , Bowman, K., & Mohier, L. A. (1992). Music-dependent memory in immediate and delayed word recall. Memory Cognition 20(1), 21-28
eaman, C. P. (2005). Auditory distraction from low-intensity noise: A review of the consequences for learning and workplace environments. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 79(8), 1041-1064.
Fogelson, S. (1973). Music as a distractor on reading-test performance of eighth grade students. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 36(3), 1265-1266
Freebume, C. M., & Fleischer, M. S. (1952). The effect of music distraction upon reading rate and comprehension. Journal o f Educational Psychology, 43(2), 101-109
Martin, R. C., Wogalter, M. S., & Foriano, J. G. (1988). Reading comprehension in the presence of unattended speech and music. Journal o f Memoiy and Languaget 27(4), 382¬ 398.
Ransdell, S. E., & Gilroy, L. (2001). The effects of background music on word processed writing. Computers in Human Behavior, 77(2), 141-148
Levy, Yiftach. (1986) “The Effects of calm Music on Learning:” Effect of music on learning.

Brewer, C. B. (1995). Music and learning: Integrating music in the classroom. Toronto: Zephyr Press. Retrieved, March 3, 2008, from http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/arts/brewer.htm.

16] Miranda, E. R. (2003). .Computational Models of Music. Digitial Music Online Tutorials.

Towell, H.T. (2000). Teaching Reading: Motivating Students through Music and Literature.

Weinberger, N.M. (2000). Music and the Brain: A broad Perspective. Music Educators Journal, 87 (2), 8-10.
[23] Weinberger, N. M. (1998). The music in our minds. Educational Leadership, 56 (3), 36 – 40.

Sample from previous students
Public Health: Understanding the different needs of a certain population
Population: Elderly people living in the Burnside council, experiencing falls

1)    What data do we need and why?
How many elderly people live in Burnside council?
–    Need to know the relative age of the population living in Burnside to grasp if there is a high demand for aged care.
Why do that number live in the Burnside council (be it large or small)?
–    Why a large or small amount of elderly people live within the Burnside council is important to assess whether the location is suitable for the needs they require.
What is the socio-economic status of the majority of elderly living in the Burnside council area?
–    To know whether or not the population can afford to have private support available within their own homes rather than rely on the government for financial aid.  Also allows assessing if they can afford nursing homes/ aged care facilities.
How physically able is the majority of the elderly population within the demographic?
–    If the majority of the population is physically able then it is less likely they will experience falls and/or require physical aid in their living environments.
How many nursing homes/ aged care facilities are in the Burnside area ?
–    Depending on the number we will be able to gage the number of elderly people within the population and the ultimate demand for nursing homes.
Do many falls occur? Why do they occur or why not?
–    The amount of falls that occur can either support the processes in place or demand that there be some safer and more reliable ones, depending on whether the numbers are positive or negative.
Do the elderly have access to public transport?
–    Assessing their risk of injury by evaluating whether they can easily get around to complete daily tasks.
What alternatives do they have if they are unable to access public transport?
–    If they are unable to get to busses or taxi’s independently the alternatives in place by their support/ care providers should be adequate enough to allow so.
Do many elderly receive occupational therapy/ physiotherapy or aged care support?
–    If a large number receive support we can assess the need and importance of how these alternate areas of care.
What support systems do they put in place?
–    If they are receiving support from alternative places what physical processes are being put in place to make their daily lives simpler and risk free, allowing us to assess if these processes are suitable and necessary.

2)    Where would you be getting this data from?

Data is the first thing that needs to be retrieved then analysis of the data is derived from that resulting in knowledge and understanding. The term data refers to either qualitative or quantitative research, of which a mix of both is ideal from reputable sources. Making sure all aspects of a population is covered.
As our population is quite specific, elderly people living in Burnside council experiencing falls, statistical data will need to be collected such as how many elderly people live in Burnside, their age range, employment status etc. Most of this data will be collected from Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and similar sites that will give representative and up-to-date data on the elderly and their demographic that we can apply to our population.
Primary research may consist of contacting the council, nursing homes  and/or aged care facilities in the area for statistics of the elderly population and whether or not they have health records about falls, that they would disclose (with no personal details revealed). However, the accessibility of this data may be difficult due to confidentiality reasons. Data on the availability of easy access places and what support the elderly are receiving; whether it is from a social worker/community developer, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, or nurse.
Primarily the data will be coming from databases online  that should include academic or peer reviewed literature to ensure it is reliable and valid.
Raw data (unprocessed data) can be appealing but this is typically too detailed and too unstructured to be a good basis for decision making.

How will you obtain the data?
How many elderly people live in Burnside council?
–    This data can be obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics by accessing the Burnside council statistics page.
The results of the 2011 Census data are listed in a table with age limits and the number of people living in the Burnside council. We can gather the number of people over 85 years old easily from the sub-group labelled 85 years and older.
–    This information can also be found on the Burnside council page.
Why do that number live in the Burnside council?
–    This data can be collected by using a survey targeted  at people living in the Burnside council area that are over 85 years old asking why they live in that council.
This survey could be given to elderly living in retirement villages or aged care facilities or community health centres that provide services to the elderly.
–    It could also be obtained by finding statistics on the facilities available to elderly in that area and then inferring from this data that elderly live here for the facilities available.
What is the socio economic status of the majority of elderly living in the Burnside council area?
–    This data can be obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics by accessing the Burnside council statistics page.
By analysing the occupation table and the median weekly incomes the main socio-economic status of Burnside can be concluded.
How physically able is the majority of the elderly population within the demographic?
–    This data can be collected by using a survey targeted at people living in the Burnside council area that are over 85 years old asking how they view their physical abilities. For elderly who have carers they could contribute the data on how they view the physical abilities of the elderly person they care for.
This survey could be given to elderly living in retirement villages or aged care facilities or could also be obtained from community health centres that provide services to the elderly.
–    The nursing homes or aged care centres may also have patient health records that they are able to provide while still ensuring confidentiality is met.
How many nursing homes/ aged care facilities are in the Burnside area?
–    This data can be collected from statistical resources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics  or Burnside council page.
Do many falls occur? Why do they occur or why not?
–    Contact nursing homes and aged care facilities to find out if they have a record of resident falls .
–    These records may be detailed enough to provide reasons for the cause of the falls.
–    If falls are not prevalent in nursing homes and aged care facilities they may be able to provide OH&S standards and policies that explain how they prevent falls from occurring.
–    For elderly living alone or with family a survey could be sent asking about any falls that the residents may have experiences or whether they have any actions in place to prevent falls from occurring.
Do the elderly have access to public transport?
–    Can be obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Burnside Council page for public transport available in Burnside.
–    To discover whether the elderly are able to access the transport, a survey could be used to get accurate data on what individuals can access and what their public transport of choice is.
What alternatives do they have if they are unable to access public transport?
–    To discover what alternatives different elderly people use to get around a survey would obtain the most accurate data as each individual would be different and public transport may not be an issue for all the elderly in the area as some may be immobile.

3)    How are you going to manage and process the data in order to achieve the project’s goal

The data will be managed and processed through a program called: ReadSoft – a census processor and analysing tool. Enables for automatic entry through a scanner – the relevant information is scanned in and stored either into a database or stores it in “the clouds”. This would be useful for any information the group would be looking for ourselves. The ability to scan surveys into an electronic system and have the results sorted automatically would save an enormous amount of time. Data can also be manually added, which means the data from the census can be stored within the same database. As ReadSoft is a computer program it can easily be managed by us without need to hire a company or organisation. Through the management of our own data it improves efficiency by eliminating the middleman of a company. This means we get our results faster and have constant access to them.

How will IT support the project?
Information technology will support the project as it will provide the researchers with a set of processes to analyze, store, share and present the data found.

Analyze – By using IT software such as ReadSoft, the data collected can then be easily analyzed. By having data in a user-friendly format, researcher will more easily be able to establish trends within data, ie number of falls, how many people have help (physiotherapist, occupational therapist).

Store –  IT software will enable researchers with a common place to store all information, for all aspects of the research not just final data. It also allows information to be stored for further use in other research.

Share  – by having all information stored together in an IT format it will make sharing our data with governments, health promotion officers, physiotherapist, OT’s, GP’s and researchers easier, aiding future research.

Present – By using IT software, researchers are able to incorporate all data and display the results from the study.

General Comments
•    You have a lot of information which is good, I was not able to many more things you would be able to research to assist this project.
•    The topic is clearly defined and most things have been given a definition- makes it easy to read
•    I am assuming you will write this as a report style after peer review- either way what you have is good, can’t really comment on layout if this is the case
•    There are some lapses from 3rd person into 1st, try keep it all in 3rd.
•    The methods/approaches to collecting the data could be a little more detailed, however what you have is realistic
•    Using diagrams and graphical representations may be useful to this project.