Computer applications in health care and biomedicine, 10 credits

A Bachelor's degree or a professional degree equivalent to a Swedish Bachelor's degree of at least 180 credits in health care, biomedicine, medical technology, computer and systems sciences, informatics or the equivalent. And proficiency in English equivalent to English B/English 6.

The general aim of the course is that the students should acquire knowledge and skills to be able to participate in the requirements engineering, the development, the introduction, the improvement and the evaluation of computer applications in healthcare, including heterogeneous settings, while considering interoperability, organizational, ethical and legal aspects.

On completion of the course the student should be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• analyse, discuss and reflect on the information and communication needs in the health care and describe common sources of information,
• analyse, discuss and problematize the use of information systems or computer applications in health care.

Skills and ability

• describe the structure, functionality and use of information systems or computer applications (e.g: medical record systems,  telemedicine applications)   in healthcare including consumer health, medical education or public health.

Assessment ability and attitudes

• reflect on the integration problems between different information systems that are used in health care,
• analyse, discuss and reflect on legal/ethical aspects concerning the structure and the use of information system in health care.

• Business processes, care processes, care logistic and referral management.
• The care information needs - communication - sources of information - transfer and use (basic informatics - collection processing and presentation of a patient-related data).
• Realisation of evidence based care and the connection to research.
• Operational follow up, quality assurance and Quality Register.
• Information retrieval - information structures - standards (introduction to classifications, terminologies and ontologies).
• Exemplification/description of information systems in the areas of Clinical informatics, Consumer health informatics and Public health informatics.
• The structure, contents and the use of the patient record - Legal and ethical aspects.
• Integration problems between different systems.
• Data Security - Legal and ethical aspects.

The course is divided into four separate parts consisting of lectures, workshops and demonstrations of IT systems. These four parts are:

• General part (Health informatics) (G)
• Clinical Informatics (CI)
• Consumer Health Informatics (CHI)
• Public Health Informatics (PHI)

and its practical use.

The examination is performed by two individual assignments. Each individual assignment will be graded with A-F. A mandatory group activity is for delving deeper into a specific topic of the course.for the second individual assignment. The group activity will be assessed by an oral group presentation, graded by Pass/Fail scale. To pass the course the student must get at least E grade in both of the individual assignments and pass on the group activity. The final grade for the course is an average of the grades of the two individual assignments. 

Limitation of number of occasions to write the exam
Students who have not passed the regular examination are entitled to participate in five more examinations. If the student has not passed the exam after four participations he/she is encouraged to visit the study counsellor. If the student has failed six examinations/tests, no additional examination or new admission is provided. The number of times that the student has participated in one and the same examination is regarded as an examination session. Submission of a blank examination is regarded as an examination. Delayed submission affects the possibility to receive a higher grade than C. An examination for which the student registered but not participated in will not be counted as an examination.

Compulsory participation
The course includes mandatory sessions marked in the course schedule. The examiner assesses if and, in that case, how absence from participation in the group activity and compulsory parts can be compensated. Before the student has participated in all compulsory parts or compensated absence in accordance with the examiner's instructions, the student's results for the course will not be registered. Absence from a compulsory part may result in the student having to wait to compensate until the next time the course is given.

If there are special grounds, or a need for adaptation for a student with a disability, the examiner may decide to deviate from the syllabus's regulations on the examination form, the number of examination opportunities, the possibility of supplementation or exemptions from the compulsory section/s of the course etc. Content and learning outcomes as well as the level of expected skills, knowledge and abilities may not be changed, removed or reduced.

Examination will be provided during a time of two years after a possible cancellation of the course. Examination can take place according to an earlier literature list during a time of one year after the date when a major renewal of the literature list has been made.

Course evaluation will be carried out in accordance with the guidelines established by the Committee for Higher Education.

The course is given in English.