INFM 210-10
Health Informatics
Spring 2021 Syllabus

Dr. H. Frank Cervone
E-mail 

Other contact information: You can contact me fastest through e-mail. If you send a message through Canvas, please realize there is an inherent delay in Canvas message delivery, so your message may not be scheduled for delivery until several hours after you actually send the message. 

Office location: Chicago, Online

Office hours: By appointment, send me an e-mail to schedule a one-on-one discussion. General online sessions will be scheduled throughout the semester on Zoom. Consult the course site in Canvas for more information.

Canvas Information: Class will open on the first day that the class meets, March 15h. This class runs from March 15 - May 16th.

Course Description

Informatics is the intersection of information management and information system engineering as a means for providing actionable information for professional practice. This course explores issues in health care informatics including health data and standards, electronic health records (EHR) and other healthcare information, data management concerns, and technology governance in the health care environment.

Course Schedule, module requirements, and due dates

This schedule and related dates/readings/assignments are tentative and subject to change with fair notice. Any changes will be announced in due time in class and on the course’s web site in the Canvas Learning Management System. The students are obliged to consult the most updated and detailed version of the reading material and syllabus, which will be posted on the course's website.

Please note the two sets of due dates: when your briefing post is due and the module end date by which all work for that module must be completed.

The course begins on a Monday and each week runs from Monday through Sunday. Due dates for the brief in each module are due no later than the fifth day of each module. Follow up posts as well as the quizzes are due two days later, on day seven of the module.

Assignment types

Specific details related to the assignments will be provided in the course website.

Briefs
Most weeks you will draft a brief on an issue related to that week’s topics. Participation is demonstrated through prompt and thoughtful contributions to the discussions. Both your individual contributions to the discussion topics and your responses to your colleagues’ postings are important.

Your briefs should be succinct and demonstrate a sound understanding of the key issues, express and illustrate your opinions in a clear and coherent manner, and communicate both these aspects effectively. Begin with an introduction to the topic and contain relevant examples to help illustrate points.

As part of the graduate education experience is to help you learn how to present information from an evidence-based perspective, it is a basic expectation that responses will include evidence and references to support your statements.

Final Presentation
The final presentation will demonstrate your knowledge of one or more aspects of the course content. You will develop a presentation that addresses at least one of the major topic areas in the course. Based on your own research into the area, in 10-12 slides, excluding title and reference list, your presentation should demonstrate the following:

• The ability to discuss a health informatics issue or topic area succinctly and in language a non-expert will understand,
• An overview of the issue/topic area, its context, and significance,
• Discuss the specifics your colleagues would need to know about this area to provide services or products, and
• Provide a list of additional resources your colleagues could consult for more information.

Quizzes
In most modules, after completing the required reading and listening to the week’s lecture and supplemental material, you will take a quiz related to the topics discussed

Policies on assignment submissions and grading

1. This class follows the standard iSchool Grading Scale.
2. Assignments are due by midnight Pacific Time on the date listed in the course site. 
3. Course grades are determined by the accumulation of possible points as outlined in the assignment summary section below.
4. Briefing assignments will not be accepted after the final posting due date. Late briefs submitted after the initial posting deadline will receive a 10% point reduction for each day they are late up to the end of the module.
5. All course activities must be completed by the last day of the class.
6. The only exemption for late work is a medical issue or death in the family. However, all arrangements for late submission must be made at least one day before the due date.

Assignment Summary

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Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

Graduate Standing or Instructor Consent. 

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Integrate research, clinical data, and theory to improve solutions that address patient outcomes.
2. Evaluate the issues of privacy and security in terms of social, ethical and policy decisions in health informatics practice.
3. Identify current health informatics application challenges and opportunities and determine possible solutions.
4. Discuss the discipline of health informatics and the role of clinical health care applications in supporting the health care system.

SLOs and PLOs

This course supports Informatics SLO 6: Identify and evaluate specific information, data, records, and ethics challenges in a defined specialized context (health, sports, cybersecurity), and apply knowledge and skills from foundation courses to design and implement technical user-centered solutions to the specified informatics problem.

SLO 6 supports the following Informatics Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs):

• PLO 1 Apply technology informatics skills to solve specific industry data and information management problems, with a focus on usability and designing for users.
• PLO 2 Evaluate, manage, and develop electronic records programs and applications in a specific organizational setting.
• PLO 3 Demonstrate strong understanding of security and ethics issues related to informatics, user interface, and inter-professional application of informatics in specific fields by designing and implementing appropriate information assurance and ethics and privacy solutions.
• PLO 4 Identify user needs, ideate informatics products and services, prototype new concepts, and evaluate a prototype's usability.

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Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Hersh, W., & Hoyt, R. (2018). Health informatics: A practical guide (7th ed.). Lulu Press. Available through Amazon: 1387642413

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Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation. You must repeat the class if you wish to stay in the program. If - on the second attempt - you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

Per University Policy S16-9, university-wide policy information relevant to all courses, such as academic integrity, accommodations, etc. will be available on Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs' Syllabus Information web page at: https://www.sjsu.edu/curriculum/courses/syllabus-info.php. Make sure to visit this page, review and be familiar with these university policies and resources.

In order to request an accommodation in a class please contact the Accessible Education Center and register via the MyAEC portal.

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