NIHI Workshops - Tuesday October 2, 2012
NIHI is a Canada-wide institute bringing together experts in Health Informatics (HI). NIHI has a dominant focus on the problems and issues that are perceived as important by the health system and by private industry as it seeks to deliver the basis for products and services that are needed by the health system.
Workshops are planned and delivered by Dominic Covvey, Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo and President, National Institutes of Health Informatics.
Dominic CovveyFACMI, FHIMSS, SMIEEE, ITCP
Dominic Covvey is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and the President of the National Institutes of Health Informatics. He was the Founding Director of the Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research at the University of Waterloo (2003-2010). His research is...[Read More]
Tuesday Oct 2, 9 AM - 12 PM
Lessons from Complexity Science for the Future of eHealth
Introducing ehealth into our health system is a world-class challenge. Right now we are investing heavily in ehealth. This increases the risk that we are pursuing a rate of change that our health system cannot safely attain, especially given a limited complement of competent informatics human resources, the possible underestimation of needed effort and investment, and our understanding of the complexity of the health system. This could set the stage for failure. One challenge for informatics solutions is that healthcare delivery systems are complex adaptive systems. To appreciate the implications of this, we will explore the nature of complexity and what it implies for developing, introducing and managing informatics interventions. In particular, we will question the current assumption that health care is a linear, non-interacting, predictable system and we will explore how complexity impacts our interventions. Then we will provide aides that will better equip us to deal with the challenges we face.Learning Objectives
On completing this tutorial, participants will be able to:- Understand the nature of complex adaptive systems and incorporate the lessons of Complexity Theory into their work.
- Conceptualize and implement new approaches to planning, development, implementation, management, and budgeting that are sensitive to the true nature of complex adaptive systems.
- Avoid the dead ends, traps, and failure modes that derive from our misconstruing health care as a linear, predictable system.
- Refocus their further study so as to more deeply appreciate and be able to apply Complexity Theory to their work.
- The nature of complexity and of complex adaptive systems.
- Nonlinearity and its implications.
- Human health and the health system as dynamic complex adaptive systems.
- Comparison the nature of healthcare to the nature of other industries regarding complexity.
- Aids for dealing with complexity.
- The implications of complexity related to developing, deploying and managing ehealth solutions.
- What we have learned about planning, development, implementation and management of complex adaptive systems and how this applies to healthcare.
- Lessons that we can draw from studies that change our view of what we currently do.
- Seeing where our implicit assumptions of low complexity come back to bite us.
- Better equipping ourselves to address the true nature of the challenges we face in incorporating ehealth into the health system.
IS Professionals including CIOs, Health System Executives, Health/Biomedical Informaticians, Physicians and Allied Healthcare Professionals, System Developers, and Management Professionals.
Content level
25% basic; 50% intermediate; 25% advanced.
Tuesday October 2, 1 PM - 4 PM
Rethinking and Restructuring the IS Function – the eHealth Swiss Army Knife
For decades we have pursued a technology-driven approach to organizing and applying Information Services (IS) resources to planning, designing, procuring, implementing and managing eHealth capabilities in our institutions. Over the last 10 years, though, it has become more and more clear that success in delivering on the promise of eHealth is dominantly dependent on the application of the cofactors of technology – management of change, team-building process re-engineering, education and training, HR and organizational restructuring – rather than on the technology. This realization has stimulated thinking and new approaches to the organization and population of the IS department. Matters such as: obtaining and retaining personnel with competencies in the cofactors, the development of shared regional or trans-regional teams, outsourcing mundane functions, more effective involvement of super-users, etc., have been under consideration and, in some jurisdictions, actually implemented. This workshop puts forward ideas and solicits contributions for participants on the options we need to consider and experimentally implement to evolve a more effective IS function.Learning Objectives
On completing this tutorial, participants will be able to:- Examine their local IS departments and understand opportunities for improvement.
- Consider alternative approaches to realizing greater value from the IS function.
- Bring forward the case for re-defining the IS function at their institutions.
- Assess the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches.
- The challenges targeted by the classic IS department.
- The classic complement and organization of the IS Department,
- Today's and the future's new demand on the IS Department.
- The crucial role of the co-factors of technology.
- The need for new competencies.
- Organizational models for the ISD in its new roles.
- Human resources structure and function.
- The role of super-users and users: The ISD without walls.
- Issues and specific challenges.
- Responding to local environmental factors.
- Discussion of the pros and cons of various approaches.
- Planning for the future.
IS Professionals including CIOs, Health System Executives
Content level
25% basic; 75% intermediate.