ON THE DESIGN OF A HEALTHCARE INFORMATION

SYSTEMS CONCENTRATION

Shafaq Naheed Khan

University of Dubai, U.A.E.

Keywords: Healthcare Information Systems, Program concentration, Curriculum, IS education.

Abstract: Information Systems as a field of academic study has witnessed tremendous growth both in scope and depth

since its beginning in 1960s. With rapid growth of Information Technology in the field of healthcare, there

is a need growing worldwide for IT personnel specializing in healthcare area as well. Market surveys

involving the stakeholders at the regional level indicate the need for a bachelor’s degree in computing and

information systems with concentration in healthcare. This paper proposes a curriculum for such a study as

an addition to the existing accredited portfolio of BSc. in Computer Information Systems (CIS) program

being offered at the university level. Efforts have been made that the proposed HCIS curriculum conforms

both to the standards laid out by the accrediting agency and the University mission. The focus of this report

is to inform others of local efforts needed on their campuses and to share findings that may be of use to

researchers in similar situations.

1 INTRODUCTION

Health information technology has the potential to

transform health care delivery, bringing information

where it is needed and refocusing health care around

the consumer (Tommy and David, 2004). Rapid

growth of information technology and its widespread

adoption for the healthcare delivery are the

indicators of the growing demand for the IT

personnel in healthcare organizations. As observed

by Richard (2003), healthcare workers with IT

knowledge are in great demand. The knowledge and

skill shortfalls with healthcare managers in this

discipline, however, undermine their strategic and

tactical planning responsibilities. Healthcare

information management systems practitioners all

over the world are keenly aware of this shortage with

IT personnel. According to Wilkins, Cheryl and

Marilyn (2002), IS jobs are becoming diversified

and that generic IS curriculum will not meet all the

needs for all IS jobs. According to them, the

curricula can be developed for separate and

distinctive concentrations targeting the diverse job

market requirements. It is the responsibility of

educators to offer programs to meet the future

healthcare information systems (HCIS)

professionals’ demand. It thus becomes imperative

to re-evaluate the situation and design the programs

as should meet such market demand.

The College of Information Technology (CIT)

offers a BSc. in CIS. This program is accredited by

Computing Accreditation Committee (CAC) of

ABET. Courses in the existing program curriculum

meet the ABET standards. CIT has a proposal to

offer the same program with six concentrations

including the one with concentration in HCIS. The

instant paper is the result of efforts at developing a

concentration in HCIS.

With a view to assess the feasibility for the

proposed HCIS concentration at the undergraduate

level, the following questions have been

consideration as the touchstone.

A. Is there is any requirement for this

concentration at the regional and the national

level?

B. Is this concentration should serve the purpose

of the beneficiary institutions?

C. Is this course would invite sufficient numbers

of prospective students to take up the course?

D. Is the institution ready with the faculty and

other support services needed for

implementation of the concentration?

275

Khan S. (2010).

ON THE DESIGN OF A HEALTHCARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCENTRATION.

In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Health Informatics, pages 275-281

DOI: 10.5220/0002739102750281

 SciTePress

Last two questions are beyond the scope of this

research work and hence not dealt with. As for the

first two questions, measures were taken to study the

market needs and the results are detailed out below.

2 MARKET FEASIBILITY

According to a recent Gulf News (2008) report,

UAE’s healthcare sector is showing robust growth

and is poised to attract foreign direct investment in

sufficient measure in the near future. There are

around 36 hospitals in UAE. The Chamber has

established Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), an

ongoing project worth $3 billion, as well as the $400

million Dubai Biotechnology and Research Park

(DuBiotech). DHCC has the distinction to be the

world’s first healthcare free zone. It is one of the

numerous specialized 'City-within-a-City' in Dubai

targeting phenomenal growth in healthcare and

pharmaceutical industries. The project comprises of

a collection of medical teaching institutions, private

hospitals and clinics, pharmaceutical research

centers, their offices, spas and rehabilitation centers.

Overall, there are 17 hospitals planned for DHCC.

These are currently partially functional and expected

to be fully operational by 2010. The initiative for

establishing DHCC and DuBiotech aligned with

global positive healthcare prospects will increase

investment in the sector indicating high employment

potential for the work force specialized in this sector.

With a view to further substantiate the

requirement need; a market feasibility study at the

level of all the stakeholders was organized. There

were two surveys undertaken inside and outside the

University as follows:-

First survey

was conducted within CIT to study

the need for the six concentrations, including the

proposed concentration in HCIS. This survey was

done with existing senior and graduating students at

the college, university faculty, university alumni,

and employers. The survey showed 72.7% demand

from the faculty, 24.1% demand from the students

currently on roll; 33.3 % from the alumni and 12.5%

demand from the employers. Figure 1 here is a

graphic presentation of the demand for HCIS

concentration.

Second survey

was conducted to study the need

for the HCIS concentration specifically. Survey data

was collected from two premier hospitals located in

Dubai.

The survey questionnaire consisted of five parts

Figure 1: Chart Showing the Demand for New

Concentrations in HCIS.

and responses were ranked on 1-5 scale.

Response key 1 represented “Strongly disagree”

performance, key 2 represented “Disagree”, key 3

denoted “Don’t know” key 4 represented “Agree”

and the key 5 stood for “Strongly Agree”.

The survey received feedback from 39

employees from the Rashid Hospital and 60

employees from Al Baraha Hospital. The

respondents were the doctors, head of departments,

nurses, radiographers, pharmacists, hospital

administration staff, executive assistants & etc.

There were 66 female and 30 male respondents

(three participants did not specify their gender). On

the nationality count, 65% respondents were UAE

nationals followed by 35% people from other

nationalities.

The feedback and summary of the ratings from

the employers are shown in Figure 2 hereunder.

Figure 2: Summary of Employer’s Ratings.

2.1 Analysis

• The overall growth pattern in UAE and

initiatives at establishing DHCC and DuBiotech

highly indicate the need for services of HCIS

professionals here.

• First survey results point to the fact that the

• faculty needs such a concentration most and

the least was felt by the organizations, mostly not the

healthcare organizations. However, the second

survey carried out among the healthcare

organizations resulted in an encouraging average of

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Table 1: Mapping of HCIS concentration objectives to HCIS outcomes.

4.72 on a scale of 1-5 from the Rashid hospital, 4.13

on this scale from the Al-Baraha hospital that gives

an aggregate rating of 4.36 from the two hospitals.

The results of the surveys strongly recommend the

need for graduates with specialization in healthcare

information systems.

• The fact that no university in UAE is offering

such a specialization reaffirmed the need for offering

such a concentration hereafter.

• International recognition of the program,

academic and professionally qualified faculty,

University association with Dubai Chamber and the

University’s focus on learning and applied IT

research are the factors that will promote the

students to enroll themselves for the HCIS

concentration program.

3 CURRICULUM VS

STANDARDS

Developing and revitalizing the IS curricula is an

evolutionary process because of the exponential

development of technology (Hunt, 2004) and (Tracie

& Rebecca, 2008). Several available curriculum

models provide guidelines for adoption and further

shaping the curriculum for undergraduate programs.

Recent public draft of IS 2009 and its predecessors

IT 2008, OEIS (Organizational End-User

Information Systems) and MTC (Managerial,

Technical & Communication) models are there to

name a few. Accreditor’s guidelines are equally

important for developing and analyzing the

curricula.

Concentration in HCIS comes under the umbrella

of the CIT’s CIS program. Efforts were made to

ensure that the HCIS concentration is in agreement

with the ABET standards. ABET has five statements

about objectives and assessment (Criteria for

Accrediting Computing Programs, 2007). First two

standards related to the objectives are:

Standard I-1. The program must have

documented educational objectives.

Standard I-2. The program’s objectives must

include expected outcomes for graduating students.

The objectives and outcomes of the CIS program

strongly conform to the University mission. An

important design aspect of the HCIS concentration

was the need for a HCIS curriculum that would

relate to the objectives and outcomes of the CIS

program. Objectives and outcomes of the BSc. CIS

with concentration in HCIS are defined below.

3.1 Program Objectives (with

Concentration in HCIS)

The CIS program with concentration in HCIS is

designed to prepare graduates who are able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of concepts and

practices of healthcare systems and the

processes required to support health service

delivery.

2. Understand and analyze the important issues

with regard to the social impact of advanced and

emerging computer information technologies

3. Apply a variety of techniques, software tools

and applications to enhance the effectiveness

and efficiency of health care organizations.

4. Formulate questions and critically investigate

and solve business-related computing &

HCIS Concentration Outcomes

HCIS Concentration Objectives

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Apply knowledge of computing, information systems and mathematics.

X X

2. Analyze a healthcare IS- related problem, identify and define the computing and

information systems requirements appropriate to its solution

X X X X

3. Design, implement and evaluate a computer-based system, process, component, or

program to meet desired needs.

X X X X

4. Function effectively in teams to create a project plan to accomplish a common goal.

X X

5. Understand professional, ethical and social responsibilities.

X X

6. Communicate effectively with a range of audiences.

X X

7. Analyze the impact of computing on individuals, organizations and society, including

ethical, legal, security and global policy issues

X X

8. Apply current techniques, skills, and tools to enhance the operational and managerial

aspects of healthcare organizations

9. Understand the organizational, administrative, managerial, and regulatory processes that

support the delivery and management of evolving health systems

X X

ON THE DESIGN OF A HEALTHCARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCENTRATION

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information systems problems

5. Be engaged in ethical issues in information

systems, particularly questions of social

responsibility and professional decision-making

6. Build and lead team of professionals to tackle

challenging Computing & Information Systems

Projects

7. Communicate effectively and professionally

with technical and non-technical professionals.

3.2 Program Outcomes (with

Concentration in HCIS)

Upon graduation, each CIS graduate with

concentration in HCIS will possess the knowledge,

skills, and ability to:

1. Apply knowledge of computing, information

systems and mathematics.

2. Analyze a healthcare IS-related problem,

identify and define the computing and

information systems requirements appropriate to

its solution.

3. Design, implement and evaluate a computer-

based system, process, component, or program

to meet desired needs.

4. Function effectively in teams to create a project

plan to accomplish a common goal.

5. Understand professional, ethical and social

responsibilities.

6. Communicate effectively with a range of

audiences.

7. Analyze the impact of computing on

individuals, organizations and society, including

ethical, legal, security and global policy issues.

8. Apply current techniques, skills, and tools to

enhance the operational and managerial aspects

of healthcare organizations.

9. Understand the organizational, administrative,

managerial, and regulatory processes that

support the delivery and management of

evolving health systems

The mapping between the HCIS concentration

outcomes and the corresponding HCIS concentration

objectives is highlighted in Table 1on next page.

These healthcare concentration objectives and

outcomes map directly to the CIS program

objectives and outcomes and are thus aligned with

the University mission to prepare high caliber

graduates of lifelong learning and serve the

educational and professional needs of all

stakeholders.

4 CONCENTRATION COURSE

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

A review of the ABET standards show that students

must have at least 30 semester hours of study in

information systems topics, at least 15 semester

hours of study in an information systems

environment, such as business, at least 9 semester

hours of study in quantitative analysis, and at least

30 semester hours of study in general education. The

information systems area is further broken into core

content and advanced content. According to ABET

Standard IV-9 (Criteria for Accrediting Computing

Programs,2007) all students must take at least 12

credit hours of advanced course work in information

systems that provides breadth and builds on the IS

core to provide depth.

BSc. CIS degree consists of 41 courses, an

internship and an applied research project. Each

course is worth three credits. Students must

complete 129 credit hours to be awarded a BSc.

degree. CIT requires the same 129 credit hours for

the degree of BSc. with concentration in HCIS as

shown in Table 2. However, the curriculum for

BSC-CIS with concentration in HCIS has been

customized to include 15 credit hours for HCIS

concentration requirements comprising of five

courses.

Table 2: Curriculum for BSc. CIS – Concentration HCIS.

CATEGORY

REQUIREMENTS

General

Requirement

Total

1 General Education 27 27

2 Humanities & Social

Sciences

6 6

3 Natural & Applied

Sciences

6 6

4 Business Requirements

for IT professionals

33 33

5 IT Core Requirements 4

HCIS Concentration

Requirements

TOTAL 72 5

129

4.1 Design Criteria

According to Srinivasan, Guan and Wright (1999) &

Charles and Terri (2002), a strong partnership

between IS academics and industry is vital for the

curriculum development. There is a growing

demand for clearer, higher, and measurable

educational outcomes as well as increased industry

input into the development of the standards (Grubb

and Lazerson, 2004).

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Essential characteristic for graduates seeking

employment is not the knowledge alone but also

their proficiency in technical and non-technical skills

(Karoly and Panis, 2004),(Charles and Terri, 2002),

(Judy and D'Amico, 1998), (Smith, Hunt, Berry, and

Hunt, 2005), (Lee, Trauth, and Farwell, 1995),

(Judith, Eric, Gary and Laura,2008), (Karoly and

Panis, 2004), (Gandossy, Tucker and Verna,2006),

(Karoly and Panis, 2004) & (Judy and D’Amico,

1998).

Addressing the local employment needs is not

the only objective for the Bsc. HCIS-Concentration.

Students from IS program should be able to accept

jobs in widely dispersed geographic areas.

Therefore, it is necessary to maintain programs that

are consistent both with regional and national level

employment job market and with the common body

of knowledge of the IS field (IS, 2002).

Relevant and suitable HCIS-Concentration

specific courses and their learning outcomes have

been designed carefully based on following criteria:-

1. The need to equip the students with the HCIS

knowledge and skills.

2. The appropriateness of the support (pre-

requisite) courses provided by the existing CIS

program.

4.2 List of Newly Introduced Courses

HCIS specialization courses introduced in the

curriculum are listed in Table 3 below.

Table 3: HCIS Specialization Requirements.

Specialization Requirements (15 Cr. Hrs)

Course

Code

Course title Course pre-requisite

ITHS

450

Healthcare Informatio

Systems Management

ITGN 215: Introduction to

Information Systems

ITHS

451

Healthcare Computer-

based risk

ITGN 315: Object-

Oriented Programming

ITHS

453

Healthcare Process

Improvements

ITGN 220: Software

Project Management

BBUS 200: Quantitative

Methods for Business

ITHS

464

Electronic /Mobile –

Healthcare Systems

ITGN 350: Web Design &

Development

ITIS

465

Database Security and

Audit

ITGN 250: Database

Management Systems

ITGN 345: Information

Systems Security

Each course in the HCIS curriculum is out-

come focused and detailed. All the outcomes are

mapped to the assessment tools and HCIS

concentration outcome. Finally each syllabus shows

(also shown in the Table 4) the course mapping to

the program-level outcomes.

Table 4: Mapping CIS-HCIS Curriculum to Program

Outcomes.

Specialization

Requirements (15 Cr.

Hrs.)

Program Outcomes (PO)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

ITHS

450

Healthcare

Information

Systems

Management

ITHS

451

Healthcare

Computer-based

Risk

X X

X X X

ITHS

453

Healthcare

Process

Improvement

X X X

ITHS

464

E/M-Healthcare

Systems

X X X

ITIS

456

Database

Security &

Auditing

X X

4.3 Course Design Considerations

The following section outlines the design criteria

that have been adopted in the selection of the HCIS

concentration-specific courses and their learning

outcomes.

ITHS 450: Healthcare Information Systems

Management

This course will provide students with the ability to

define operational and strategic objectives for health

services management information systems.

Particular emphasis will be placed upon the technical

knowledge area and the proper interpretation and

utilization of processed information for program

management purposes. Students will get hands-on

knowledge of software tools and applications.

Addressing investment decisions will be a part of

this course. By addressing the additional social,

legal, and ethical issues related to IS usage and their

practical implications from a healthcare perspective

(Criteria 1). A student with a basic understanding of

information systems concepts will be able to take-up

this course. Therefore, the course “Introduction to

Information Systems” has been chosen as the pre-

requisite to this course, in accordance to criteria 2.

ITHS 451: Healthcare Computer-based Risk

This course provides an overview of the theory and

applications of risk management practices within

healthcare organizations and aims to develop

students’ ability to manage risk associated with

potential system failures. It explains what needs to

be done to successfully achieve quality and

compliance of computer systems in the

pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. This

course will address criteria 1. In this course, Java

will be used as the implementation language to apply

ON THE DESIGN OF A HEALTHCARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCENTRATION

279

various risk management and validation techniques

within healthcare applications. Hence, the course

“object-oriented programming” has been selected as

the pre-requisite course (criteria 2).

ITHS 453: Healthcare Process Improvements

This course exposes students to the programs,

techniques, and tools for process improvements in

healthcare settings. Students will learn quality and

performance improvement tools and techniques and

apply them to improve various healthcare processes

like patient flow, patient scheduling, inventory

tracking etc. Students will use several software tools.

This course will address the concepts and

applications of IT knowledge area in HCIS (criteria

1). With the push towards decentralizing the IT

decision-making process, it is imperative that

healthcare administrators become adept at managing

IT projects. Students will be gaining this

knowledge/skill through the pre-requisite courses

ITGN 220- Software project management criteria

BBUS 200-Quantitative Methods for Business has

also been selected as the pre-requisite for this course,

as it equips students with the required background in

Linear programming and decision analysis.

ITHS 464: Electronic / Mobile Healthcare

Systems

The purpose of including this course in the

concentration is to make students aware of the recent

trends in electronic and mobile healthcare. It will

also expose students to the application of these

technologies to add value to a health-care

organization. Students will learn the best approaches

used in developing the internet strategies, in dealing

with transition from traditional care to e-healthcare

and the legal pitfalls of these applications. In

addition, as part of the course work, students will

work on a project to develop an on-line health

application (criteria 1). Hence, ITGN 350 - Web

Design & Development has been selected as the pre-

requisite to this course (criteria 2)

ITIS 465: Database Security and Audit

The ability to structure, access, manage and leverage

patient records and associated data is becoming more

and more critical to any healthcare organizations,

large or small, public or private. Central to

supporting this ability, and at the core of every

healthcare information system, is the database.

Security has always been a problem when

implementing medical information systems, where

data represent in many cases a valuable and sensitive

asset. The fundamentals of database technology have

been adequately addressed in ITGN 250 - Database

Management Systems course. Hence, security of the

database is the priority and the focus of this course.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Feasibility of adding a concentration in HCIS to the

existing CIS program was studied. Curriculum was

designed to be in alignment with the University

mission and the accrediting agency standards.

HCIS-Concentration courses were designed to meet

the objectives and the outcomes of the concentration.

While conforming to the mentioned design criteria,

these courses have been designed to address the

market need by preparing IT professionals with the

knowledge and skills necessary to fill entry level

HCIS management, analytical, technical and

administrative roles.

Each specialization course syllabus in the

proposed concentration is a descriptive document

having specific learning objectives and outcomes.

These outcomes become the basis for assessment of

students learning. In particular, each course syllabus

includes:

1. Course objectives linked to

measurable learning outcomes.

2. Course learning outcomes that are

measurable and that cover the appropriate spectrum

of Bloom’s cognitive domains with focus on

"higher-order thinking skills" as student’s progress

in their studies.

Besides following the ABET standards,

CIT solicited inputs from the various stakeholders

including the faculty, Academic Advisory Council,

Business Advisory Council, alumni, and currently

enrolled CIT students. Some renowned international

schools offering similar concentrations were also

studied as input reference for the course designs.

This work can be useful to other institutions

offering similar concentrations.

Survey results by Charles and Terri (2002 )

suggest that the geographic location of the survey

sample seems to play a part in the perception of

desirable skills. Hence, an important area of

improvement is to modify the survey questionnaire

to gather information about the knowledge and the

skill areas that the prospective employers are looking

for. That will help in improving the curriculum

based on the market requirements.

The proposed curriculum focuses mainly on

the hospital information systems. Current trends

focusing on the home care technologies, elderly care

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and telemedicine needs to be addressed adequately.

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