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HIT Curriculum Under Development

By Lydia S. Middleton, MBA, CAE posted 11-10-2011 12:21

  
AUPHA has just completed the first year of the Health Information Management, Systems, Technology & Analysis project which it has undertaken through a grant from the Health Information Management & Systems Society. In 2010, AUPHA was awarded a $225,000 grant to support a three-year effort to develop a curriculum in HIT for use in our healthcare management programs. AUPHA is working closely with CAHME on this effort which was originally conceived by John Lloyd and Carla Smith, HIMSS Vice President and CAHME Board member.

Given the strong focus on, and significant investment in, the development and implementation of the electronic health record across the US, it is critical that those who are in key roles in provider and vendor organizations understand the complexities and decisional factors related to successful health IT (HIT) implementation.  Graduates and undergraduates of programs in health administration are positioned to play leadership roles in HIT selection and implementation processes and to manage the related workforces. It is critical that they have a keen understanding of health IT and its applications and utilization in order to manage complex healthcare systems as well as fill workforce needs in the vendor, insurance and consulting sectors.

Since the awarding of the grant, AUPHA has formed a task force comprised of the following individuals: Kendall Cortelyou-Ward, University of Central Florida; Mark Diana, Tulane University; Kevin Leonard, University of Toronto; Brian Malec, Cal State University; David Masuda, University of Washington; Karen Wager, Medical University of South Carolina; and David Wyant, Weber State University. The effort is staffed by Margaret Schulte who is serving as a consultant to the effort.

The Task Force met in April of 2011 to define the outiline of the curriculum to be developed. The outine defined fourteen moduls to be developed covering the following domains:

• Information Management
• Strategy & Planning 
• Assessment, System Selection and Implementation
• Management of Information Systems and Resources  
• Assessing emerging technologies
• Assessment of the Value of IT
• Security and Privacy
• Systems and Standard

In May AUPHA issued a request for proposals inviting faculty to share how they would go about developing a module in any of the requested competency areas. As a result of the first call, eight $5,000 grants were awarded to four faculty. There remained six modules for which additional proposals were needed and a second RFP was sent out in September. One additional grant has been awarded and we are in the process of finalizing the remaining five.

As of this date sixty two programs have agreed to consider using the modules, in part or in whole, in their curriculum. This is significant because HIMSS is seeking a demonstration of interest on the part of the programs and it is clear that programs are eager to obtain this resource.

The first draft of the modules will be reviewed in the spring with an expected rollout in the fall of 2012. Following the rollout, we will be working to develop train the trainer opportunities. It is expected that in addition to training existing AUPHA faculty to implement the modules as part of existing or new courses, we will train practitioners from the HIMSS membership who can serve as adjunct faculty to our programs. 

If you would like more information on the curriculum and how it can be used in your program, please contact Margaret Schulte at mfschulte530@gmail.com.

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