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Certi!cate in Health
Informatics
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Short Courses (/courses-category/short-courses)

Introduction
Information and communication technologies
(ICTs) have opened up new opportunities for
health care provision in Africa. Health
Informatics is an interdisciplinary !eld that
demands for knowledgeable and experienced
health care personnel in the !eld of health, social
sciences and informatics. In Uganda most of the
personnel have been traditionally trained in the
health discipline or informatics separately. This
course is intended for professionals with any
background, who are practicing or intend to
practice in the health !eld and are interested in
learning about how ICTs can be used to deliver
better health care.

The short course on Health Informatics will

explore the role of informatics in managing health
care systems, with an emphasis on current issues
and future innovations and trends. Through
speci!c research-driven examples and case-studies
in practice, the course will provide the attendees
with the skills and concepts in order to address the
core issues in delivering and managing health care
systems for the information use.

Each course unit will examine a core issue in detail

at every stage in context of health care in resource
constrained environment, such as rural hospitals
in Africa. Special interest will be considered for
the people, technology, processes that these
systems support in order to realize simple and
innovative solutions to health care problems. It is
anticipated that each of the issues above will have a
greater emphasis at certain stages of the course,
and this will be re"ected in the health-problem
orientated case-studies to be used.

AIM
The overall aim of this training will be to equip
health professionals with knowledge on how to
manage the implementation and utilization of
health informatics within health care setting for
improved service delivery.
Speci"c Objectives
Identify how health information technology
(HIT) can be implemented and used to
create positive change through
understanding the current health care
landscape in Uganda.
Gain up-to-date knowledge of electronic
medical records (EMRs) and their
requirements for use at health centers,
integration and interoperability, while
familiarizing with environmental constraints
and other governmental regulations
Learn how to manage and implement
change in health care systems to provide and
utilize information at all levels for better
decision making.
Become familiar with the trend of mobile
health technology and its application in
telemedicine and wearable
Understand key topics in health
information management, including
security, privacy, and con!dentiality of
patient data, as well as mandatory policies
regarding data handling and reporting

Potential students
The target student for this multidisciplinary
program is one who has appropriate
competencies, knowledge and experience, has the
demonstrable interest to innovate technology
solutions to improve health care delivery. We
desire to have students from diverse background
this would enable e$ective collaboration as well as
building e$ective teams. Participants working
with health care setting with diverse academic
backgrounds may apply. Related disciplines may
include but not limited to: nurses, doctors,
paramedical personnel, hospital administrators,
social-scientists, statisticians, data managers,
pharmacists and graduate in medical science.

Duration
The course has been proposed to run for a period
not exceeding four (4) weeks half- day (9:00
-1:00).

Mode of Delivery:
Practical and Case studies
Site visits

Assessment
Assessment at the end of every module

2.0 Module description

Module 1: Health
Information Technology
The health care !eld is becoming increasingly
complex. Patients, providers, and insurance
companies all rely on technology to access health
records and other important data. Trained health
information specialists, data managers, and other
skilled professionals help to keep this sensitive
information accurate and secure.
The Health IT course combines elements of
business, computers, health sciences and health
IT. Students learn skills in areas such as coding,
billing, electronic health records (EHRs),
registries, data analysis and reporting, quality
improvement, legal compliance and other
technical processes.

Technologies

1. Web-based systems (Web services, Cloud-

based systems)
2. Mobile-based systems (Android, iOS,
USSD, SMS, Play store)
3. PC-based systems (Windows)
4. Limitations and opportunities of mobile
technologies
Networks

Mobile networks and technologies

Local Area Networks (LANs)
WIFI and Blue tooth
Mobile Internet (GPRS, 3G, 4G,Mbs)
Shared resources (Servers, printers, etc)

Module 2: Adoption and

Di#usion of Health care IT
Developing or purchasing an Information system
can be a daunting task. Unlike tangible products
like shirts that can be bought o$ the shops, an
Information System is Intangible, thus requiring
procuring agencies to come up with an
appropriate adoption strategy. This strategy is
hinged to understanding the process of developing
or acquiring an Information system.
The purpose of this course is to enable managers
of Health Information Systems to understand the
process of developing an information system and
de!ne the role they would play as clients.

Project initiation

1. Making a decision for HIS

2. What to include in Terms of reference
3. Vendor identi!cation and resource
mobilization
Preparatory Phase

1. Feasibility studies
2. Making a business case
3. Make or buy decision
4. Open source Vs proprietary
Requirements Phase

1. Developing a project plan

2. Data collection
3. Data analysis and interpretation
4. Software requirements speci!cations
Design and Development

1. Agile Development
2. Technology choices
3. Inter-operability
4. WhatsApp, skype
Deployment and changeover

1. System Migration
2. Changeover approaches
3. Processes Re-engineering
4. System Maintenance
Module 3: Clinical decision
support systems
This course provides an introduction to clinical
decision support systems in health information
technology. The use of these systems by health
care personnel needs to be clearly understood and
contextualized in order to derive appropriate
meaning from the information provided.

Content

1. De!nition, Scope and History of CDS

2. CDS System Adoption and Implementation
3. Knowledge Management for CDS
4. Public & Personal Health Decision Support
5. Legal, Regulatory, and Financial Issues
Reference:

Greenes, R.A. (Ed.) Clinical Decision Support:

The Road to Broad Adoption. 2014. Waltham,
MA: Academic Press. ISBN: 978-0-12-398476-0

Module 4: Electronic Health

Records
Overview of Electronic Health Records
Case study OpenMRS

Module 5: Health care I.T

industry & policies from a
global perspective
Issues currently being faced in Health care I.T and
policies governing health care on a global
perspective

Learning areas

Historical developments that have shaped

global health care systems
Di$erences in the health care professionals
that help to meet the goals and objectives in
respect to the health care I.T industry
Factors a$ecting dissemination, regulation
and utilization of technology in health care
delivery
Impact of technology on quality of care,
quality of life, health care costs, access to
care and structure of health service delivery.
Outcomes of the health care system in terms
of cost, access, quality, and the policy issues
surrounding these outcomes.
Ethics of Electronic Health Records

How the ethical principles of autonomy,

justice, bene!cence/non-male!cence, and
privacy and con!dentiality apply to a large,
integrated system of EHRs

Module 6: Telemedicine
This course will introduce students to
telemedicine and eHealth and their application in
delivery of health care services.

Course objective
For students to understand the telemedicine as a
concept and as a tool to enhance access and
quality of health care services.

Learning outcome
On completion of this course unit, the students
should be able to:

What is Telemedicine and eHealth

Understand the need and utility of
telemedicine and eHealth and their
applications
Distinguish the di$erent forms of
telemedicine.
Explain the challenges with telemedicine
especially.
Content

Health Issues: The MDGs and SDGs,;

description of the current health care system
What is Telemedicine?
Classi!cation and constituents of
telemedicine;
Telemedicine networks
State-of-the-art Telemedicine applications;
Challenges and issues

Module 7: Ethics, security,

con"dentiality and privacy of
health records

Session 1: Objectives of the

course of Ethics, security,
con!dentiality and privacy of
health records short course
Overview of course for Ethics, security,
con!dentiality and privacy of health records

Overview of Ethical issues of medical health

records
Overview of security issues of medical health
records
Overview of con!dentiality and privacy
issues of medical health records

Session 2: Introduction and

Historical perspectives in
Research Ethics
Overview of historical perspectives in
Medical records ethics
Overview of basic principles in Ethics,
security, con!dentiality and privacy of
health records
Regulations in ethical issues of medical
health records
Risks and bene!ts

Session 3: Health systems and

Medical Health Records
Overview of the health service delivery
system in Uganda
Overview of medical health records within
the Ugandan Health service delivery system
Overview of importance of medical health
records in health service delivery
Session 4: Case study:
Identify and discuss a case study or article
on ethical issues in health records
Identify and discuss a case study or article
on security, con!dentiality and privacy
issues in health records
Discuss challenges in implementing medical
health records

Session 5: Research methods in

ethics, security, con!dentiality
and privacy of health records;
Over view of Research methods
([Link]
Over view of proposal writing
Overview of background and literature
review, problem statement, research
questions and objectives

Session 6: Groups make

presentations of outputs from
the case studies and articles

Session 7: Final short MCQ

Test

Module 8: Health care Data

collection and management
Collecting Health Care Data

1. Basic Concepts
2. Key Data Categories
 3. Mobile data collection systems (Open Data
Kit Software)
4. Web-based data collection system
5. Organization of Data Elements in a Health
Record
6. Data Quality
7. Geo-coded data
Storage

1. Comparison between Paper and electronic

records
2. Database management systems
3. Databases and data organization
4. Master Patient Index 3. Filing 4. Alternative
Storage Methods 5. Chart Locator Systems
6. Security of Health Information
Analysis

1. Longitudinal Vs vertical data collection

2. Data Retrieval
3. Reporting of Data
4. Analysis of Patient Information
5. Routine Institutional Statistics HMIS
Reference

1. Lati!, Rifat. Current principles and

practices of telemedicine and e-health. No.
131. Ios Press, 2008.
2. Wootton R. Telehealth in the developing
world. IDRC; 2009 Feb 24.
3. Sanjay P Sood, Victor Mbarika, Shakhina
Jugoo, Reena Dookhy, Charles R. Doarn,
NupurnPrakash, Ronald C. Merrell. What
Is Telemedicine? A Collection of 104 Peer-
Reviewed Perspectives and Theoretical
Underpinnings. Telemedicine and e-Health.
2007, 13(5): 573-590.
4. Sanjay P Sood, Solomon Negash, Victor W
Mbarika, Mengitsu Ki"e, Nupur Prakash.
“Di$erences in public and private sector
adoption of telemedicine: Indian case study
for sectoral adoption”, Studies in Health
Technologies & Informatics, 2007;130:257-
68.
5. Sood, S.P. (April 2006). Telesurgery.
Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering,
Editor: Akay, M.,Publishers John Wiley and
Sons (New York, USA). ISBN: 0-471-
24967-X
6. Meso, P., Mbarika, V.W.A. and Sood, S.P.
(2008) An Overview of Potential Factors for
E$ective Telemedicine Transfer to Sub-
Saharan Africa. IEEE Transactions on IT in
Biomedicine, (Pre-print publication at IEEE
Xplore, DOI: 10.1109/TITB.2007.899807)

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