The School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria: Towards an Integrative Model for Health Informatics Education and Research

Summary

Objectives

There is an increasing need for well qualified health informatics practitioners and for educational programs that produce them. Since 1981, the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria has delivered a range of educational programs in health informatics. The School’s objective has been to produce graduates who can assume a range of roles in health informatics, including managers, developers, researchers and evaluators of health care systems.

Methods

The approach taken by the School has been to provide an integrated “holistic” approach to health informatics education that balances both theory and practice. The curriculum has emphasized interdisciplinary skills and has been based on a process of consultation with key stakeholders in both industry and academia. In addition, several new distance collaborative models for health informatics education (including a distributed MSc degree program) have been recently initiated through the University of Victoria with collaborating Canadian universities.

Results

To date, graduates of the programs offered have become highly sought after, with the demand for graduates of the programs continually exceeding the number of graduates.The core undergraduate curriculum has recently been undergone refinement to include training in new emerging areas of health informatics. In addition, a distributed MSc program has been successfully initiated by the School, currently with 23 students participating from dispersed geographical locations across Canada.

Conclusions

The School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria has been involved in providing unique interdisciplinary education in health informatics for over twenty years. The School continues to maintain its emphasis on integrated education, refining its curriculum and moving into new areas such as distance education and cross-Canadian collaborations.

Keywords

Health Information Science - Health Informatics - Education - Training - Distance Education

• References

• 1 Brittain JM, Norris AC. Delivery of health informatics education and training. Health Lib Rev 2000; 17 (03) 117-28.
• 2 Murphy J, Stramer K, Clamp S, Grubb P, Goslan J, Davis S. Health informatics education for clinicians and managers – What’s holding up progress?. Int J Med Inf 2004; 73: 205-15.
• 3 Hovenga EJS. Globalization of health and medical informatics education – What are the issues?. Int J Med Inf. 2004: 73-101 9..
• 4 bAMIA. 10,000 trained by 2010. 2005 http://www.amia.org/10x10.
• 5 Lau F. Health informatics education in Canada – What’s ahead?. Electronic Healthcare 2001; 01 (02) 46-51.
• 6 Friedman CP, Altman RB, Kohane IS, McCormick KA, Miller PL, Ozbolt JG. et al. Training the Next Generation of Informaticians: The Impact of “BISTI” and Bioinformatics—A Report from the American College of Medical Informatics. JAMIA 2004; 11: 167-72.
• 7 Wood L. The School of Health Information Science: Beginnings. Health Care Inf Manag Comm 2002; 04: 14-16.
• 8 Huynh A, Lau F. Reflections on the HINF CO-OP education program at the University of Victoria. Health Care Inf Manag Comm 2002; 04: 54-55.
• 9 Coward P. New initiatives at the school of health information science. Health Care Inf Manag Comm 2002; 04: 22-3.
• 10 Borycki EM. Celebrating forty years of excellence in health informatics. Health Care Inf Manag Comm 2005; 03: 18-9.
• 11 School of Health Information Science. 20^th Anniversary Special Edition Annual Report. 2002
• 12 Shortliffe EH, Blois MS. The computer meets medicine and biology: Emergence of a discipline. In: Shortliffe EH, Perreault LE, Wiederhold G, Fagan LM. editors. Medical informatics: Computer applications in health care and biomedicine. 2nd ed. New York: Springer; 2001: 3-40.
• 13 McLaughlin CP, Kaluzny AD. Defining quality improvement: Past, present and future. In: McLaughlin CP, Kaluzny AD. editors. Continuous quality improvement in health care: Theory, implementation and applications. 2nd ed. Aspen: Gaithersburg, Maryland; 1999: 3-33.
• 14 Leven FJ, Knaup P, Schmidt D, Wetter T. Medical informatics at Heidelberg/Heilbronn: Statusevaluation-new challenges in a specialized curriculum for medical informatics after thirty years of evolution. Int J Med Inform 2004; 73: 117-25.
• 15 Protti D, Fisher P. Health informatics at the University of Victoria. Yearbook of Medical Informatics. Schattauer; 1996