Module Identifier IL30910  
Module Title HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (OPEN LEARNING MODULE ONLY)  
Academic Year 2001/2002  
Co-ordinator Ms Susan James  
Semester Semester 1  
Other staff Mrs Christine Urquhart, Mr Hugh Preston, Dr Sue Lithgow  
Course delivery Lecture   9 Hours  
  Seminar   6 Hours  
  Practical   3 Hours  
  Seminars / Tutorials   7 Hours  
Assessment Report   Submission Date - Report topic 1 or report topic 2 - 15.00 Friday 10th May 2000 Topics Write a report on one of the folloing topics (1,500 Words maximum) 1. You have been asked to advise the NHS Executive on the appropriate content of in-house training programmes for new staff recruited to posts in NHS inofmrormation services. Assuming that the staff concerned already hold general qualifications in information work, but have never worked with health information, what topics should be included in their training? In your report, distinguish between knowledge and practical skills, and offer justifications for your suggestions. Your report will be assessed against the following criteria. a. Areas of knowledge required: 30% b. Areas of competencies and practical skills required: 30% c. Justifications offered for the knowledge/competencies advocated: 30% d. Presentation and citation: 10% 2. You are a health care management consultant contracted to work with the staff of a specialist oncology centre in producing an Information Management & Technology (IM&T) strategy for the centre. Produce a report indicating the place of national IM&T objectives in the strategy with some suggestiions for incorporating existing information systems. (Essential Web page: NHS Executive. Information for health: an information strategy for the modern NHS, 1998-2005. 1998. Available : http:/www.imt4nhs.exec.nhs/strategy/full/contents.htm) Your report will be assessed against the following criteria: a. Coverage of key objectives of the strategy: 20% b. Description of information system types: 20% c. Analysis of issues for local implementation of the strategy: 40% d. Indication of role for current primary care and Trust-based information systems: 20%    
  Essay   1 Essay (1,500 words)   60%  
  Exam     40%  

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.

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.

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.

Reading Lists

Books
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
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.
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.