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2009-03-25 South China Morning Post BIZ9 

PolyU's MSc in Health Informatics enables staff to manage health care related IT projects more effectively, writes Elizabeth Turner IT and Health

Information technology has revolutionised the way that companies operate, but in some sectors workers are finding it difficult to adapt to the IT age.

Paper has traditionally been used in the health care sector to record patient data, but the physical size of paper records makes the management and processing of the data difficult. The introduction of electronic health records (EHR) has allowed records to be stored electronically, not only saving space but also making data entry, data access, analysis and distribution much easier and faster.

Thomas Choi Kup-sze, assistant professor at Polytechnic University's School of Nursing and programme leader of its MSc in Health Informatics programme, said that medical records were no longer owned by physicians but were becoming patient-centred.

"All health care providers, physicians from different specialities or clinicians providing in-patient or out-patient care, access a common record for each individual patient," he said. "Diagnosis and treatments previously provided by other health care providers are readily available in a one-stop manner with EHR to assist in making better and faster judgments."

This was one example of the way that IT was playing an increasingly important role in health care as health care workers made use of computerised information in their routine work.

But Dr Choi said that training and education in information technology did not receive enough attention in the health care domain. This made it difficult for workers to adapt to the use of IT in their daily work.

"In particular, there is a rising demand for health information systems in their workplace. The development of these systems requires close collaboration of health care workers and the technical IT staff," Dr Choi said.

"The lack of understanding about IT and the way IT people work can lead to ineffective communications, misunderstanding of workflow, and even failure to develop a truly practical and effective health information system."

To try to address this problem, PolyU launched its MSc in Health Informatics programme, which saw its first intake last September. The programme is designed to give students advanced skills in the use of information technology in the health care setting, with students focusing on a field directly relevant to their job.

The programme covers the conceptual and theoretical aspects of health informatics, and serves as a bridge for health care workers to gain an understanding of how IT can facilitate their work, Dr Choi said.

"Health care workers will acquire knowledge about the workflow of information system development, the system's architecture, design considerations and implementation issues," he said. "These allow them to initiate and conceptualise health IT projects specific to their work place."

The understanding students gained would streamline the communication and co-operation with technical IT staff, and enable them to manage health care related IT projects in a more effective way, Dr Choi said.

The need for advanced IT skills in health care was driven by the numerous advantages it offered. They included a streamlined daily workflow, fast access to medical data, and secure sharing and distribution of patient information.

"Various clinical information systems have been in place to process the vast amount of patient data and medical records, including a computerised physician order entry system, nursing information system, radiology information system and pharmacy system," Dr Choi said.

"To keep pace with the rapid development of health IT, health care workers need to equip themselves with not just the basic operation skills but more importantly, the concept of health information infrastructure and systems at large, and the associated enabling technologies which allow them to capitalise on IT and take a leading role in the development of new systems to complement or enhance conventional health care services," Dr Choi said.