Syllabus

Schedule

Course Schedule at a Glance

Learning Modules	Topics	Assignments and Due Dates
Week 1 2/27-3/6	Introduction to Consumer Health Informatics	Introductory Discussion Discussion – Initial post by Sunday 3/3, responses by Wednesday 3/6 Individual Assignment 1 – Wednesday 3/6
Week 2 3/6-3/13	Medical Ethics for Consumer Applications	Discussion – Initial post by Sunday 3/10, responses by Wednesday 3/13 Individual Assignment 2 – Wednesday 3/13
Week 3 3/13-3/20	Provider-Patient Relationship in the Digital Era	Discussion -Initial post by Sunday 3/17, responses by Wednesday 3/20 Group Final Project Topic Proposal – Wednesday 3/20 Begin Group Case Study Assignment 1
Week 4 3/20-3/27	Patient Engagement Tools and Applications	Discussion – Initial post by Sunday 3/24, responses by Wednesday 3/27 Submit Group Case Study Assignment 1 – Wednesday 3/27
Week 5 3/27-4/3	Personal Health Records and Patient Portals	Discussion – Initial post by Sunday 3/31, responses by Wednesday 4/3 Begin Group Case Study Assignment 2
Week 6 4/3-4/10	Consumer P2P, Communities, Social Media	Submit Group Case Study Assignment 2 – Wednesday 4/10
Week 7 4/10-4/17	Patient Reported Outcomes in Clinical Research and Real-World Evidence	Discussion – Initial post by Sunday 4/14, responses by Wednesday 4/17 Submit Final Group Project Presentation – Wednesday 4/17
Week 8 4/17-4/21	Patient Advocacy Movements	Course Reflection – Sunday 4/21 Note: You will submit this assignment on the Discussion Board.

Weekly Course Schedule

Week 1 — Introduction to Consumer Health Informatics

Learning Outcomes:

• Discuss Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) tools
• Describe personal experiences as a healthcare consumer
• Describe the Office of National Coordinator’s strategy for engaging consumers

Course Materials:

• Wetter Textbook Chapter 1 (pages 5-24)
• Information technology in health care: The next consumer revolution. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/patients-families/benefits-health-it
• Strang, T. (2013, September 3). Success strategies for teamwork in the online setting [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://blog.cengage.com/top_blog/success-strategies-for-teamwork-in-the-online-setting/
• Tips for participating in group work & projects online. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://online.drexel.edu/news/group-tips.aspx

Video:

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012, September 12). ONC’s strategy for engaging consumers-2012 consumer health IT summit [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81SBwCENKnA

Assignments:

Introductory Discussion: Please introduce yourself to your classmates and your instructor. You will be working in groups in this class. The information from this discussion will help your instructor in assigning you to a group. Some things to include are (feel free to add other information as well): Your background in Health Informatics/Healthcare/IT. Previous classes you have taken in UNE’s Health Informatics program. If you are currently employed in healthcare. If so, in what capacity? Approximately where you live and/or your time zone. Please do this forum by the end of the day on Saturday.

Discussion Question: Each of us has had experiences with medical professionals and medical institutions—physicians’ offices, emergency rooms, and hospitals. Use your prior knowledge and your readings from this week to answer the following questions about how patient information is gathered:

• What type of information is taken?
• In what ways has technology improved the exchange of information?
• Where are you surprised to find that technology is not used?
• Is all the information you expected routinely available?
• How has technology enhanced or inhibited your experience as a patient or consumer?

Individual Assignment 1: Consumer Health Informatics Applications: What are the major types of consumer health informatics (CHI) applications available today? What are they used for? Pick a specific application. Research this application and discuss its successes, challenges, and opportunities. Submit a 2 to 3 page, double-spaced word document using APA formatting. Citations are expected.

Group Assignments: Your instructor will assign the groups this week. Once you have your group, you should contact one another to plan how you will meet.

There are a number of ways your group can choose to work together. It may be that a combination of several ways works best.

• Email
• Google hangout, etc – You can hold synchronous meetings via Google Hangout, Skype, Zoom, etc.
• Other?
• Discussion board – An ungraded discussion board has been set up for you to use within your group. You can see only the posts that pertain to your group. You may want to use this discussion board throughout the course to work with your group.

Week 2 — Medical Ethics for Consumer Applications

Learning Outcomes:

• Discuss the challenges and opportunities of consumer health informatics
• Evaluate consumer health applications in terms of ethical considerations
• Identify the principles of ethics for consumer health informatics
• Identify the dimensions of Patient Risks and Requirements for Patient Safety
• Analyze a specific consumer health informatics application

Course Materials:

• Wetter Textbook Chapter 8 (pages 157-183)
• Jimison, H. B. (n.d.) Ethical issues in consumer health informatics. Retrieved from http://eknygos.lsmuni.lt/springer/98/143-149.pdf

Assignments:

Discussion Question: In this week’s discussion, please consider the following questions: What were your key takeaways from this week’s online and textbook reading? What are some key challenges and opportunities to address in Consumer Health Informatics? How has your perspective or approach either as an informaticist or as a patient/consumer changed as a result of what you read about ethical issues in Consumer Health Informatics?

Individual Assignment 2: Sensor-based Technologies: Consider sensor-based technologies and answer the following questions. Breathometer was a widely popular consumer technology that was pitched on Shark Tank (please see this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/rx8I703K2RI for reference). It is an example from the growing field of sensor-based technology.

• What possibilities do sensor-based technologies introduce for CHI applications?
• What role does Medical Ethics play in these CHI applications?
• Describe another consumer app or Internet of Things application
• What do you like and/or dislike about this app?
• Are there ethical concerns about this app?
• Would you recommend it to others? Why or why not?

Submit a 2 to 3 page, double-spaced word document using APA formatting. Citations are expected.

Plan Ahead: Group Final Project and Topic Proposal: Your final project for this course will be a group presentation. Imagine that your group has been asked to make a presentation about a healthcare intervention to the Board of Directors of a healthcare system. Select a real-world (or hypothetical) project that could help improve the delivery of patient care or could improve outcomes for consumers. Because this is an Informatics course, there must be a strong technological component to your project. This week, your group should start thinking about the topic proposal for your final group project. Next week you will turn in that topic proposal. (The final project itself will be presented in week 7.)

Week 3 — Provider-Patient Relationship in the Digital Era

Learning Outcomes:

• Evaluate online consumer healthcare sites to determine accuracy and transparency
• Evaluate how Telemedicine is transforming healthcare
• Analyze the evolving Provider-Patient relationships through technology
• Identify a Consumer Health Informatics project for your final presentation

Course Materials:

• Wetter, Textbook Chapter 4, (pages 83-97)
• Beck, M. (2016, Jun 27). Health care & technology (A special report) — how telemedicine is transforming health care: The long-anticipated revolution is finally here, and with it comes a host of questions for regulators, providers, insurers and patients. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://une.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.une.idm.oclc.org/docview/1799512858?accountid=12756
• Required Case Study: Ofek, E. & Laufer, R. (2010, March 30). American Well: The Doctor Will E-See You Now. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/product/american-well-the-doctor-will-e-see-you-now/510061-PDF-ENG

Video:

• PBS News Hour. (2015, July 15). Telemedicine puts a doctor virtually at your bedside [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/u1-MFo7_n-Y

Assignments:

Discussion Question: Choose a doctor you are familiar with. Go to at least three non-governmental consumer sites to find evaluations of the doctor you have chosen. Now do the same for a hospital you are familiar with.

• What type of information did you find?
• Is the available information helpful?
• Do you think differently about the provider or hospital after visiting the sites?
• Does the site have a commercial interest?

Visit a government website for the hospital and compare that information with the information you found previously.

• Is the information more helpful or less helpful on the government site?
• Is there physician information on the government site?
• Is there a trend toward transparency?

Group Final Project Topic Proposal: This week, please submit the topic proposal for your final group project. (Look back at information in week 2 to read more about the final project. The final project will be presented in week 7.) Your proposal should be a 2-3 page APA styled word document; citations are required. Please include the following sections:

• Background – Why is the project being undertaken? Describe an opportunity or problem that the project will address. Clearly outline the current state.
• Expected Results – After the interventions that you will propose in your project, what do you predict that the future state will look like? How will it solve the problem or opportunity that you described in the first section?

Note: Your instructor will approve all topics.

Plan Ahead Group Work: Case Study — American Well: This week you should begin working with your group on the first case study. Read the case study, American Well: The Doctor Will E-See You Now and start to think about the questions below:

• Do you share the assessment of the founders regarding the potential for online care to revolutionize healthcare delivery? Why or why not?
• What value do you see “Team Edition” creating? What barriers to its adoption do you foresee?
• Which of the new market opportunities did you see as most promising? Why?
• If you were in the shoes of American Well Management, would you have pursued any of the next-generation options (products or markets) in 2010, or would you have focused on the core platform with the core target market? Why?
• Note: Please limit your answers to information based on the content from the case study itself.

This week get together as a group and discuss how you will break up the task. You should plan for each group member to write their part this week. At the end of this week or early next week, you should meet again to review the individual pieces and decide on a plan for editing the work. You will turn in one document for the group. Next week your group will turn in a 3 to 4 page APA formatted paper which answers the above questions.

Week 4 — Patient Engagement Tools and Applications

Learning Outcomes:

• Discuss the relationship between wearable devices and patient outcomes
• Examine how a healthcare service organization can design its next-generation offering
• Identify the commonly used Consumer Health IT applications and their impact
• Analyze the online and self-service offerings for consumers in healthcare

Course Materials:

• Wetter Textbook Chapter 5, (pages 101-131)
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). Consumer Health IT Applications. Retrieved from https://healthit.ahrq.gov/key-topics/consumer-health-it-applications
• Dorfman, S. (2015, June 26). Ochsner leverages retail, connected health tools & Apple watch to engage consumers. Retrieved from http://www.himss.org/ochsner-leverages-retail-connected-health-tools-apple-watch-engage-consumers?ItemNumber=42912

Assignments:

Discussion Question: How does self-monitoring help patients and consumers? What impact has wearable devices (such as Fitbit and Smart Watches) and mobile health apps made on patient outcomes? Please discuss a specific example and include supporting references.

Group Case Study — American Well: This week you will submit the case study assignment you began last week. Your submission should be in the form of a 3 to 4 page APA formatted paper that answers the questions from last week. Remember to limit your answers to information based on the content from the case study itself. Your group will submit 1 copy of the assignment for the entire group. (See week 3 or Blackboard for the list of questions and detailed instructions.)

Plan Ahead Group Work: Once you have received approval for the topic of your final presentation, your group should begin working on the presentation itself. In week 7 you will submit your slides (Google slides) along with a video slide presentation of those slides in Adobe Spark. Refer to course for detailed assignment instructions.

Week 5 — Personal Health Records (PHRs) and Patient Portals

Learning Outcomes:

• Examine the differences between Personal Health Records and Patient Portals
• Discuss the successes and challenges of Personal Health Records
• Describe how Personal Health Records and Patient Portals can be more effective and improve outcomes

Course Materials:

• Wetter Textbook Chapter 14
• Required Case Study: Gupta, S. & Riis, J. (2011, February 16). PatientsLikeMe: An Online Community of Patients. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/product/patientslikeme-an-online-community-of-patients/511093-PDF-ENG

Videos:

• Microsoft HealthVault. (2010, April 7). HealthVault in Action [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ri123bhhMtg
• Google. (2009, August 19). Google Health Product Overview [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/yNe6-p4G7Ik. This PHR has been discontinued, but it is still a good example for learning.

Assignments:

Discussion Question: Describe how Personal Health Records like Microsoft HealthVault or Google Health are meeting (or not meeting) consumer needs. What’s working well? What’s not working well? As a consumer, what would you like to see? How are PHRs different from Patient Portals? Describe your personal experience with PHRs and/or Patient Portals.

Plan Ahead Group Work: Case Study — Patients Like Me: This week you should begin working with your group on the first case study. Read the case study, PatientsLikeMe: An Online Community of Patients and start to think about the questions below:

• In 2011, why did patients join PatientsLikeMe (PLM)? Did the platform work for any disease?
• What are the reactions of physicians to sites like PLM? Do you agree with them?
• Should PLM launch the General Platform? If no, how would PLM grow?
• As of 2011, PLM had generated revenues by providing market research to pharmaceutical companies. Should it expand its business model to insurance companies and research institutions? Does it have the potential of becoming the “Bloomberg of medical data?”
• Note: Please limit your answers to information based on the content from the case study itself.

This week get together as a group and discuss how you will break up the task. You should plan for each group member to write their part this week. At the end of this week or early next week, you should meet again to review the individual pieces and decide on a plan for editing the work. You will turn in one document for the group. Next week your group will turn in a 3 to 4 page APA formatted paper which answers the above questions.

Plan Ahead Group Work: Continue work on Final Presentation. Remember that your final presentation is due in 2 weeks. Please don’t leave all the work until just before it is due. Once you have consolidated your ideas, you should begin writing your script. Refer to the course for complete detailed instructions for the final project.

Week 6 — Consumer P2P, Communities, Social Media

Learning Outcomes:

• Examine the evolving landscape of Social Media in Consumer Health
• Evaluate the effectiveness of online patients communities in improving outcomes

Course Materials:

• Wetter Textbook Chapter 6
• PatientsLikeMe (https://www.patientslikeme.com/)
• Bell, J. & Mertz, j. (2015, February 24). Hashtags and health literacy: How social media transforms engagement. Retrieved from http://www.himss.org/hashtags-and-health-literacy-how-social-media-transforms-engagement?ItemNumber=39495

Video

• AkronChildrens. (2012, September 26). The healthcare social media revolution [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/YEp0e69b4Ag

Assignments:

Group Case Study — PatientsLikeMe: This week you will submit the case study assignment you began last week. Your submission should be in the form of a 3 to 4 page APA formatted paper that answers the questions from last week. Remember to limit your answers to information based on the content from the case study itself. Your group will submit 1 copy of the assignment for the entire group. See week 6 or Blackboard for the list of questions and detailed instructions.

Plan Ahead Group Work: Continue work on Final Presentation. Your final group presentation is due next week. By now you should have done quite a bit of work on it. If you haven’t yet started writing your script, you should begin working on that this week. Please don’t put off all the work until then.

Week 7 — Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs)

Learning Outcomes:

• Examine the role of patient reported outcomes to advance patient-centric care
• Analyze how PRO organizations help consumers make informed decisions based on research guided by patients, caregivers, and healthcare communities
• Discuss the successes and challenges in using Patient Reported Outcomes data
• Apply the Consumer Health Informatics lessons learned in your Final Presentations

Readings:

• Wetter, Chapter 15 (Cost Effectiveness regarding Patient Reported Outcomes)
• PRO Measures and Measure Databases: AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) (https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/index.html)
• PRO Organizations: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) (https://www.pcori.org/)
• Basch, E. (2016, May 26). The Rise of Patient-Reported Outcomes in Oncology. Retrieved from https://am.asco.org/daily-news/rise-patient-reported-outcomes-oncology
• HIMSS Center for Patient and Family-Centered Care. (n.d.) Value of Patient-Generated Health Data (PGHD). Retrieved from http://www.himss.org/value-patient-generated-health-data-pghd?ItemNumber=36962
• Johnson, M. & Tritle, B. (2016, April 26). Emerging Value of Patient Generated Health Data. Retrieved from http://www.himss.org/emerging-value-patient-generated-health-data?ItemNumber=48249

Assignment:

Discussion Question: Based on your research and this week’s readings on Patient Reported Outcomes, what role do Patient Reported Outcomes data play in clinical research and patient care today? What recommendations would you make to improve the use of PROs in driving outcomes?

Group Final Project Presentation: Your final group presentation is due by 11:59 pm on Wednesday of this week. You should submit a pdf of your Google Slides and a link to your Adobe Spark video of your presentation. See course for detailed instructions.

Week 8 — Patient Advocacy

Learning Outcomes:

• Analyze the impact and changes driven through Patient Advocacy Movements
• Discuss the role of technology in enabling Patient Advocacy services

Course Materials:

• Kamaker, D. (2015, September 26). Patient advocacy services ensure optimum health outcomes. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/patient-advocacy-20150920-gjr53j.html
• Haskell, H. (2014). Patient advocacy in patient safety: have things changed? Retrieved from https://psnet.ahrq.gov/perspectives/perspective/160/patient-advocacy-in-patient-safety-have-things-changed

Video:

• NPSFoundation. (2014, May 15) National Patient Safety Foundation QA [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/EWk6-8N3ZlI

Assignments:

Discussion Question: What does a Patient Advocate do? How do they interact with consumers and other stakeholders? What role can technology play in enabling Patient Advocacy services and improving outcomes?

Course Reflection: What are your top 3-5 key takeaways from this course? How do you see applying these concepts as a healthcare professional and/or personal life as a patient?

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Questions? Visit the Student Support Health Informatics page

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• https://www.apastyle.org

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