Found­a­tions of Health Care IT

Course content

Today, in the context of technology intensive business environments and service-oriented infrastructures, digital innovation has become a key source of sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Yet, the health care sector has remained a domain with a relatively low degree of digitization, which in turn culminates in an unrealized potential to harness information technology to aid in achieving health care delivery goals that have become a priority for health care providers and governments across the globe, namely lower costs, higher quality, and increased patient access to health care services.

This course lays the foundations for discussing the potentials and challenges of implementing information technology in the healthcare field. Towards this aim, the course is divided into three segments:

In the first segment, we lay out the methodological foundations for the design, development, management, and deployment of digital technologies in general. This includes a review of classic systems development methodologies up to more recent approaches and the notion of design thinking. Consequently, this segment of the course primarily aims to equip participants with the necessary tools to analyze requirements, design mockup solutions, and guide technical implementation projects – without having to be technical experts themselves.

The second segment focuses on the application of information technology to the health care sector. We introduce essential types of information systems such as electronic health records, personal health records, health information exchanges, and health information infrastructures. We will also discuss how such information systems can be designed, implemented, and deployed in a health care context. This segment also addresses the potential and challenges of implementing information technology in the health care industry in relation to managerial, strategic, organizational, and privacy considerations.

In the third segment, we tackle the issue of how digital technologies can provide the basis for innovation. Here the focus is on digital innovation at the consumer-end such as mobile and digital health platforms. We will discuss implications for digital business models and marketing in the online space. Finally, this section also includes a discussion of the pertinent privacy and security regulations and safeguards for digital health solutions.

The course concludes with a summary and wrap-up, in which the students pitch the case they investigate for their synopsis paper.