Module Identifier ILM6910  
Module Title HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT  
Academic Year 2000/2001  
Co-ordinator Dr Christine Urquhart  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Mr Hugh Preston, Dr Christine Urquhart  
Course delivery Lecture   9 Hours  
  Seminar   6 Hours  
  Practical   3 Hours  
Assessment Essay   Submission Date - Essay topic 1 or essay topiic 2 - 15.00 Friday 24th March 2000 3,000 Words Topics Write an essay on one of the following topics (3,000 words maximun) 1. Assuming that demand for health care exceeds a government's abillity or willingness to pay:- a) discuss need versus demand in health care provision b) discuss the issues of principle which arise, and indicate the strategies which could be adopted to secure what may deem to be the 'right' expenditure on health care; c) what information provision implications are there? Your essay will be assessed against the following criteria: a. Definition of key concepts: 10% b. Coverage of principles and strategies: 40% c. Coverage of information implications: 40% d. Presentation and citation: 10% 2. Briefly distinguish between 'socialised medicine' and 'private medicine' as healthcare delivery systrems. What do you consider to be the strengths and weaknesess of these two approaches to health care? What are the implcations for information provision? Your essay will be assessed against the following criteria: a. Definition of key concepts: 10% b. Coverage of principles and strategies: 40% c. Coverage of information implications: 40% d. Presentation and citation: 10% Submission Dates : Essay Topic 1 or Eassay Topic 2 - 15.00 Friday 24th March 2000   100%  

Content
Health care is controversial because of a collision of medical and social factors: more people are living longer as medical knowledge is refined, the cost of medical technology rises faster than inflation, but there are fewer people in full time work whose taxes can pay the bills. The consequences is action by governments to control expenditure on health, principally by setting priorities to determine who most needs health care.

None of these attempts to spend available resources wisely can work without information. Health professionals need information to decide what the population's health needs are, which care procedures will have the best outcomes and at what cost. Patients and healthy members of the community need information to understand their own state of health, to sustain healthy lifestyles and to make informed choices about treatment options offered to them. It is the task of information professionals to create and operate information serives which support these information needs.

Aims of the module
The module explains those approaches and techniques needed so that the right information is made available to the right people at the right time. An information professional working in the health sector must first understand how health care provision works, because this will shape the inforamtion needs of those needing information. The information needs of doctors, nurses, health managers, patients and others must be understood so that appropraite databases and other services can be provided through a range of information and library services.

To accomplish these aims the syllabus covers:
The contexts of health information
political, economic and social issues ; structure of health care systems; the UK National Health Service

Inforamtion Needs
the needs of medical, nursing and health management groups; members of the public who seek consumer health inforamtion

Major inforamtion sources and services
databases of numeric and text information for management and clinical pruposes; medical records; issues related to the provision of information services in health organisations.

Learning outcomes
At the end of the module you should be able to :

. describe the social, political and economic contexts which effect the provision and use of health information;
. indicate the information needs of health professsionals and the consumers of health services;
. specify the kinds of sources and services which health information units and libraries should provide.

Reading Lists
Books
Benson, Tim and Neame, Roderick. Healthcare computing: a guide to health inforamtion management and systems 1994.
Carmel, Michael. Health care librarianship and inforamtion work 1995. 2nd.
Childs S M and Milner Susan J. Health information in the High Street: a DIY mkanual for setting up and running a health information center. 1990.
Clarke, Jean M and Going, Mona E eds. Hospital libraries and community care 1990. 4th.
Department of Health. The new NHS; modern,dependable. Available : http:/www.official documents.co.uk/document/doh/newnhs/newnhs.htm.
Peter Dale. Guide to libraries and information sources in medicine and health care 1995.
Entwistle, Vikki A, Watt, Ian S and Herrings, James E. Information about health care effectiveness: an introduction for consumer health inforamtion providers. 1996.
Keen Justin. Information management in health services. 1994.
Klein, Rudolf. The new politics of the NHS 1995. 3rd.
Klein Rudolf, Day Patricia and Redmayne, Sharon. Managing scarcity: priority setting and rationing in the National Health Service. 1996.
Levitt, Ruth and others. The reorganised National Health Services 1999. 6th.
Libraries and information services in the health sciences.. Special issue of Library Trends, Summer 1993, v42(1).
Lyon, elizabeth. Online medical databases 1991. 5th.
MacDougall, Jennifer and Brittain, J Michael. Use of information in the NHS. 1992.
Marlow, C and Preston H. Information contracting tools in a cancer scpecialist unit: the role of Healthcare Resource Groups (HRGs). Information Research, 4/2 October 1998
Merry, Peter. Effective use of health care information: a review of recent research 1997.
NHS Executive. Information for health: an information strategy for the modern NHS, 1998- 2005. 1998.
Ranade, Wendy. A future for the NHS? : health care for the millennium 1997. 2nd.
Rivett, Geoffrey. From cradle to grave: fifty years of the NHS 1998.
Sheaff, Rod and Peel, Victor. Managing health service information systems: an introduction. 1995.
Spurgeon, Peter. The new face of the NHS 1998. 2nd.
Timmins, Nicholas. The five gianrs: a biography of the welfare state. 1995.
Urquhart, Christine and Hepworth, John. The value to clinical decision making of information supplied by NHS library and information services.. BLR&DD Report n. 6205. 1995
Urquhart, Christine and Hepworth, John. The value of information services to clinicians: a toolkit for measurement. 1995.
Davies, R Urquhart, CJ, Smith J, Massiter C and Hepworth JB. Establishing the value of information to nursing continuing education: report of the EVINCE project.. BL RIC report 44. Wetherby: BLDSC, 1997