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e-newsletter November 2015
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NEWS










Dr Kathleen Gray
Senior Research Fellow

Development of a Competency-based Shareable Online Health Informatics Subject. Final Report

 

Dr Kathleen Gray & Ms Dawn Choo, The University of Melbourne; Professor Anthony Maeder, University of Western Sydney; Dr Kerryn Butler-Henderson & Dr Sue Whetton; University of Tasmania. 

The final report for Advancing Ehealth Education for the Clinical Health Professions 2014 has been released. The project aimed to encourage and support program coordinators and directors of Australian undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs in all allied health, nursing and medical professions to address the need for ehealth education for entry-level clinical health professionals, has been published.

The rationale for this project was that new initiatives in professional education, training, learning and development are required to build the capabilities that the Australian health workforce needs to work in a national ehealth system. In Australia, very few educational providers in the health professions had developed a systematic approach to teach, assess, evaluate or audit this aspect of professional education, and relevant curriculum initiatives were not widely known.
A copy of the report can be downloaded here
Please contact Dr Kathleen Gray for further information about this project: kgray@unimelb.edu.au; +613 8344 8936.

HaBIC Research Highlights 2015

The Health and Biomedical Informatics Centre projects included health informatics knowledge for the workforce,  using sensor data for healthcare monitoring and a standard framework for telehealth evaluation.
 

Health informatics knowledge for the workforce

The HaBIC-led project “Coordinated interprofessional curriculum renewal for ehealth capability in clinical health professions degrees” addressed key barriers to effective knowledge transfer of clinical informatics and ehealth capabilities among health professionals in the higher education sector.
HaBIC led a national health informatics expert research team comprised of Dr Kathleen Gray and Ms Dawn Choo, Health and Biomedical Informatics Centre, The University of Melbourne; Professor Anthony Maeder, University of Western Sydney, Dr Kerryn  Butler-Henderson and Dr Sue Whetton, University of Tasmania.
The project team, with support from the Commonwealth Government Office for Learning and Teaching, built on its previous national research to develop a clinical informatics and ehealth curriculum aligned with the Certified Health Informatician Australasia competencies and designed for postgraduate learning.  A semesterised online subject based on this curriculum was trialled successfully with an interprofessional student group.
Project  resources are downloadable from: http://clinicalinformaticseducation.pbworks.com  


Sensor data for healthcare monitoring

The HaBIC-led project “Non-Contact 3D Falls Detection, Prevention and Behavioural Monitoring in Aged Residential and Home Environments” tested the feasibility and accuracy of 3D non-contact sensors in residents’ rooms in an aged care facility.
Data are being aggregated and big data analysis techniques applied, with the aim of developing guidance for clinicians on using data from this form of unobtrusive, privacy-protecting behavioural monitoring to prevent falls and other risks to frail elderly patients.  Detailed outcomes will be available in 2016.
Funded by the Melbourne Networked Society Institute, the project team involved University of Melbourne staff Prof Fernando Martin-Sanchez, A/Prof Udaya Parampalli and Ms Cecily Gilbert, as well as team members from the Australian Centre for Health Innovation , Semantrix Pty Ltd and health service providers. 
Reference: https://networkedsociety.unimelb.edu.au/research/projects/ibes/3D-falls-detection.html


A standard framework for telehealth evaluation

HaBIC-led work on developing a standard approach to evaluating telehealth implementations was applied in a range of settings this year.  Aimed to support inter-organisational learning about telehealth, the framework has shown its utility in three evaluations whose reports were released in 2015: A Commonwealth funded Broadband Telehealth Pilot of integrated home telehealth; a Victorian Government funded 24-Hour Emergency Department Telehealth project; and an Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute funded trial of stepping up care for people with out-of-target type 2 diabetes.
Ref: Maeder, A., Gray, K., Borda, A., Poultney, N., & Basilakis, J. (2014). Achieving greater consistency in telehealth project evaluations to improve organisational learning. Studies in health technology and informatics, 209, 84-94.

Wanted

Research projects and work placements in ehealth and health informatics


We are looking for research project topics and supervisors, and also for ehealth and health informatics work placement opportunities, for 2016 Health specialisation students in the University of Melbourne's Master of IT and Master of Information System degrees.  Students are in the late stages of their degree, bring a wide range of skills, and are unpaid.  They are required to spend approximately 400 hours over 14 weeks, undertaking scientific research or on-the-job learning and writing an 8000 word report. If you would like to discuss an ehealth or health informatics research opportunity or work placement possibility for such a student, please contact Claudia Sandoval at 03 9035 8703 or email sandoval@unimelb.edu.au 

 

Wishing you a happy New Year filled with Prosperity and Success.

The HaBIC Team 

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