Virtualization of Health Care (2024)
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Welcome to Virtualization of health care
Organizer: Christian Nøhr
Lecturers: Faculty: ...
Welcome to Virtualization of health care
Organizer: Christian Nøhr
Lecturers: Faculty: Christian Nøhr, Professor, Department of Sustainability and Planning, AAU Craig Kuziemsky, Adjunkt Professor, Department of Sustainability and Planning, AAU, and MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Blake Lesselroth, Vice-Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Medical Informatics Adjunct Associate Professor and Teaching Hospitalist, Department of Internal Medicine School of Community Medicine, University of Oklahoma |OU-Tulsa. Helen Monkman, Assistant Professor, Health Information Science. University of Victoria, BC, Canada. Arild Faxvaag, Professor, Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Sidsel Villumsen, Post Doc, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Århus University Jeppe Eriksen, Assistant Professor, Department of Sustainability and Planning, AAU Johanna Viitanen, Assistant Professor, Human-Centred Health Informatics, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
ECTS: 5
Date/Time: 15, 16, 17 May 2024
Deadline: 23 April 2024
Max no. Of participants: 20
Description: The digitalization of the health care sector has been significantly slower compared to other sectors despite very large efforts in research, development, and implementation activities. It is often seen that in specific crisis situations technology can fundamentally change routines and cultural norms. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the digital health landscape by stimulating the delivery of digital care. When doctors’ offices and other care delivery services were forced to close or greatly reduce in person service delivery, digital care delivery became an essential part of the healthcare delivery system. However, the absence of permanent changes in the informatics response to COVID-19 has reaffirmed one of the foundational problems in medical informatics – “the last mile problem”. This problem refers to the difficulty in implementing and integrating informatics models, tools, and approaches into actual care delivery settings so that meaningful outcomes are achieved. The last mile problem is very much central to health system transformation initiatives. Informatics models, tools, or theories alone will not transform healthcare delivery but rather they must lead to meaningful impact at social, policy, economic, cultural, and other levels.
One of the most talked about phenomena in medical informatics are unintended consequences (UICs), which refers to the outcomes that occur but that were not anticipated when implementing health information technology (HIT). UICs occur because while HIT is a crucial part of healthcare delivery it is only one part of the system of systems that defines healthcare delivery. HIT’s interaction with other system components is what leads to UICs. Informatics solutions for COVID-19 have led to UICs including provider fatigue and burnout and inequality in access to digital care delivery.
A key contributor to the last mile problem is a poor understanding of the contextual system where HIT is implemented and used. HIT are not generic tools and cannot be implemented without due consideration of the contextual environment where it will be used.
This PhD course will present international research which contributes to an understanding of the main problem areas and discuss the development of methods to overcome the “last mile problem”. During the course international researchers will present their research in morning sessions. In the afternoons the students will present their research ideas and activities which will be discussed by the course faculty.
The PhD course will be relevant to students from a wide range of science areas: Planning, Techno anthropology, Medicine, Public health, Biomedical engineering, Computer Science, Political Science. Students from all universities in Denmark and possibly our neighboring countries can participate.
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of the organization of the health care system. Basic knowledge of information technologies used in health care
Important information concerning PhD courses: We have over some time experienced problems with no-show for both project and general courses. It has now reached a point where we are forced to take action. Therefore, the Doctoral School has decided to introduce a no-show fee of DKK 3000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start. This can hopefully also provide new students a chance to register for courses during the year. We look forward to your registrations.