The information management and technology strategy for the National Health Service in England: an approach worth watching.

This paper is an analysis of England's National Health Service (NHS) Information and Management (IM&T) strategy as a result of a March-June 1994 on-site study, which included an extensive review of the literature as well as over 60 interviews with general practitioners, senior executives in acute care hospitals and community care units, representatives of District and Family Health Services Authorities (FHSA), and senior executives from the Information Management Group of the NHS Management Executive. The observations are those of an outsider who was initially skeptical but finished quite impressed with the level of national commitment being made to the use of information technology to support the radical health care reforms the country is experiencing.

Health and medical informatics education.

Health and medical informatics education has meanwhile gained considerable importance for medicine and for health care. Specialized programs in health/medical informatics have therefore been established within the last decades. This special issue of Methods of Information in Medicine contains papers on health and medical informatics education. It is mainly based on selected papers from the 5th Working Conference on Health/Medical Informatics Education of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), which was held in September 1992 at the University of Heidelberg/Technical School Heilbronn, Germany, as part of the 20 years' celebration of medical informatics education at Heidelberg/Heilbronn. Some papers were presented on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the health information science program of the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Within this issue, programs in health/medical informatics are presented and analyzed: the medical informatics program at the University of Utah, the medical informatics program of the University of Heidelberg/School of Technology Heilbronn, the health information science program at the University of Victoria, the health informatics program at the University of Minnesota, the health informatics management program at the University of Manchester, and the health information management program at the University of Alabama. They all have in common that they are dedicated curricula in health/medical informatics which are university-based, leading to an academic degree in this field. In addition, views and recommendations for health/medical informatics education are presented. Finally, the question is discussed, whether health and medical informatics can be regarded as a separate discipline with the necessity for specialized curricula in this field.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Health information science at the University of Victoria: the first ten years.

The University of Victoria has the only program in Canada offering a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Information Science. To meet the requirements of the degree, students must complete 40 courses and 4 CO-OP work terms over 4.3 years. The School admits 30 students each September of which 60% are normally female. Seventy-five percent of the students come from British Columbia, ranging in age from 18 to 42 with the average age being 26 years. In addition to recent high school graduates, over 40% have previous degrees or diplomas, and 65% have over 5 years of work experience. The School's teaching team consists of 5 full-time faculty, 3 professional staff and 4 part-time faculty. The majority of the faculty have health backgrounds, totalling 135 person-years of practising health care experience. As of November 1992, the School had 113 graduates; 75% are employed in British Columbia, 18% are in other parts of Canada and 7% outside the country. Forty-five percent of the graduates work in government departments including community health agencies; 29% work in hospitals; 26% work in management consulting firms, software houses, or computer hardware firms. They work as systems/project analysts, systems consultants, research assistants, planning analysts, system-support staff, trainers/developers and client account representatives. Some are already in senior management positions.

Can health/medical informatics be regarded as a separate discipline?

The participants of the panel on education and training in Medical Informatics, concurred that health/medical informatics is today thriving as a separate discipline, despite inevitable uncertainties regarding the future. Conferees discussed the distinctions between physician-built systems and those designed by medical informaticians, focusing on methodology as critical to medical informatics.

An international health/medical informatics programs database.

The University of Maryland at Baltimore has established a database of health/medical informatics programs worldwide. Since 1991, IMIA's Working Group on Education and Training in Medical Informatics has provided guidance on critical issues of policy and purpose. At the Heidelberg/Heilbronn Working Conference in 1992 on Health/Medical Informatics education, representatives to WG1 and participants made suggestions regarding database intent, structure, and attributes.

The newest member of the senior management team.

The introduction and operation of an effective information system can be difficult. To meet this challenge health care organizations are beginning to add information specialists to their staff. This article describes the role of the newest member of the senior management team--the chief information officer. It details the background credentials of a good CIO and explains why the position is essential to the development and success of a comprehensive information system.

The chief information officer in Canadian hospitals: fact or fancy?

Although the title "chief information officer" (CIO) has enjoyed some success in the private sector, it is not yet a common term in Canadian health care. However, with the explosion of information technology, the particular responsibilities of the person overseeing hospital information are significantly different from those using the title "chief financial officer", "chief operating officer" or "associate/assistant executive director". To determine the popularity of the term in Canada, 146 hospitals with more than 200 beds were surveyed. In all, the person handling hospital information had 40 different titles, with 11 appearing more than once. Only two respondents used CIO as a title. It is suggested that a CIO is a bridge between older systems and models, and new technologies and techniques. The future success of CIOs in Canadian health care, however, depends partly on those holding the positions today, and their acceptance that information is both a resource and a strategic opportunity.

The status of medical informatics in Canadian medical schools.

Many have suggested that information technology in its various forms will continue to have an effect on all aspects of medicine, including medical education. If so, the introduction of information technology into medicine brings with it critical educational policy questions. This paper reports on the findings of an inquiry into the impact of information technology on medical education. It reviews the extent to which Canadian and American medical colleges have adopted the 1985 recommendations of the American Association of Medical Colleges. In particular, it looks at the recommendations that "medical informatics should become an integral part of the medical curriculum" and that "the teaching of medical informatics should include opportunities for specific instruction in its fundamentals as well as adequate examples of its application throughout the medical curriculum".

Teaching hospital information systems by simulating what really happens.

This paper discusses the teaching of a course which simulates what a hospital goes through when it conceptualizes the need for a Hospital Information System, identifies its goals and objectives for the system, prepares a Request for Proposal (RFP), and selects a particular system. The course is taught entirely in simulation and role playing modes. Students are taken on site visits, vendors come to the University to demonstrate their systems, and consultants are brought in to give advice. The pros and cons of this particular style of teaching are discussed.

The synergism of Health Information Science/Health Informatics.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to review the status of Health Information Science (Health Informatics) as reported in the literature; to suggest a taxonomy to integrate the many varied concepts being discussed under the rubric of Health Information Science; and to propose a framework into which research can be classified and potential research hypotheses generated. It is suggested that such a framework is needed if generalizations are to be made to the end that the knowledge produced from research efforts may be cumulative with that from other studies. A framework for research is needed if the field is to become an established academic discipline; whether or not it takes on the mantel of a "science" is another matter.