| Literature DB >> 36042919 |
Abstract
Objective: There is a growing need for innovation to prepare a well-trained health informatics workforce with data science and digital technology skills. To meet the workforce demands and prepare students for a career in health informatics, a Health Data Science (HDS) concentration was added to the Master's in Health Informatics (MSHI) program at the University of Illinois at Chicago.Entities:
Keywords: Health Informatics; active learning; curriculum; data science; workforce
Year: 2022 PMID: 36042919 PMCID: PMC9420044 DOI: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooac073
Source DB: PubMed Journal: JAMIA Open ISSN: 2574-2531
Figure 1.Health data science levels of learning. These are levels needed to prepare students for highly complex jobs, such as healthcare data analyst, and to successfully meet the needs of the health data science labor market. The job market success formula combines hard, soft, and competency-based skills with domain knowledge.
Figure 2.Health data science competencies. This is the detailed listing of all competencies covering technical and soft skills developed by the Health Data Science curriculum.
Core HDS knowledge domains
| Knowledge domain | Description |
|---|---|
| Essentials of health data science | Competencies address the foundational knowledge of health data science. Assessments teach students to understand, define and describe concepts, and recognize healthcare problems that can benefit from data science solutions. |
| Application of information decision sciences | Competencies address the application of knowledge about data, databases, statistics, and programming. Assessments teach students to apply foundational knowledge and develop real-world skills in data science. |
| Data transformations to information and knowledge | Competencies address analytics and interpretation of results. Assessments teach students to design and develop analytic products and tools to evaluate and communicate results effectively. |
| Organizational change and adoption of analytics within the healthcare organization | Competencies address the collaboration with stakeholders to make data a strategic asset for the organization. Assessments teach students to make data actionable for decision-making to meet the strategic goal of an organization. |
Summary of factors in HDS curriculum creation and maintenance
| Factor | Contributor | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Develop skills | Students | What skills are necessary for graduates to succeed in the targeted jobs? |
| Student feedback | Students | Feedback from students, as collected via brief weekly reflection assignments, as well as targeted application exercises and academic term evaluations. |
| Expert and practitioner feedback loop | Experts—job market | Collecting, evaluating, and translating into curriculum input from the Advisory Board and practicing faculty teaching in the program. |
| UIC versus other informatics and HDS programs | Job market | Understanding of the competitive landscape, in partnership with our program marketing and student advising vendor. |
| Job prospects, employer expectations, market demands | Job market | Evaluation of the constantly changing job market and employer expectations for skills, obtained through several methods including: Advisory Board, faculty feedback, practitioner feedback, and reports by our program marketing vendor. |
| Feedback to faculty from past students reporting their successes, ask for letters of recommendation, and requests for mentoring focused on specific job opportunities. |
Figure 3.Rapid infusion cycle—industry demand into the health informatics curriculum. Curriculum infusion cycle begins with faculty experience that influences assessment of the job market demands, opportunities, and trends. This assessment ultimately leads to creation of the highly relevant assignments and projects that prepare students for successful careers in the highly dynamic and rapidly changing fields.
Overall satisfaction with course
| Strongly agreed that the quality was excellent, it met the defined learning objectives | Strongly agreed that it was intellectually challenging and stimulating | |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2019 | 88% | 88% |
| Fall 2019 | 94% | 94% |
| Spring 2020 | 95% | 90% |
| Fall 2020 | 93% | 93% |
Figure 4.Most beneficial assessments. Summary of the open-ended question asking students to select the most beneficial aspects of the course revealed that direct interaction with faculty, real-world problems, hands-on exercises, practical applicability to the health informatics field, and reduced focus on asynchronous interaction were several of the top features. This question on the course survey shows how faculty involvement and real-world challenges, in combination, support learning in a dynamic field that experiences high demand for new job market entrants.