Course Projects
- The first project involves the investigation of the issues associated with a specific healthcare industry problem from the perspective of either providers, insurers, state and federal governments, or the consumer. The report should address who are the players, what is the problem, why is this a problem, what proposals have been made for resolution, what is the status of the proposal, and what is the role of IT. Examples include physician profiling, HEDIS reporting, claims administration, and disease management. Discussion of the role of IT requires identification of a major vendor of software products for the problem, and identification of the gaps in existing solutions to the problem.
This report should include
(1) description of the problem and the context
(30%)
(2) analysis of the requirements of the problem (30%),
(3) identification of a major software vendor and product which is a potential
solution to the problem (10%),
(4) discussion of the gaps in existing information systems approaches and
solutions to the problem (10%)
The report, composed as a Word document in 12 point and double spaced, should not exceed 15 pages. It should be justified on both sides and include page numbering, appropriate section titles, and references.
Submissions should include a hard copy of the Word document, presentation slides, and a copy on disk (to include on the course web pages), due on the day of your presentations.
Grading points:
Content: 80% (as indicated above); Style (syntax, organization, references,
etc. and presentation): 20%
|
Student Name |
Project Title |
|
Dan Baker Dan Schreiber |
The Benefits of Preventative Medicine and
Health Risk Assessment Tools |
|
Debbie Jankowski Joan Horen |
Referral and Authorization Process in the
Managed Care Environment |
|
Noel Chua Rosalinda Raymundo |
The Role of Information Technology for a Private
Medical Practice |
|
Tanaz Dutia Debby Keller Emily Zajano |
|
|
Lisa Bembenick Jeff Gallagher AnnE Rice |
Catch 22: Information Technology in the Long Term
Care Industry |
|
Janice Kaczmarek Susan Lovejoy |
The Use of Decision Support Systems in
Continuous Quality Improvement |
|
Steven Sousa Ann Thompson |
ICU Clinical Information
Management System: An Investigation for a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit |
- The second project should explore the role of information technology (IT) in providing an effective decision support solution strategy for a significant health care industry problem. A decision support system (DSS) can be defined as any computer system, composed of data management and analysis tools, designed to support decision-making. In health care, one can broadly think of two main types of decision support systems: clinical and administrative. Clinical decision support systems help to improve delivery of healthcare by supporting health professionals make more informed clinical decisions. Administrative decision support systems help administrative professionals, such as finance and human resource management, make decisions to improve management and organization of healthcare resources.
The underlying conceptual architecture of a generic decision support system is depicted in the diagram below.
The presentation and language systems comprise the user interface component of a DSS. They help the user access the system (for instance, a mini electronic medical record) and interact with it. The knowledge system is a systematically organized collection of knowledge that is accessible electronically and interpretable by the computer. A database, data warehouse, or a medical knowledge base consisting of a vocabulary with relationships that capture the medical literature and expert domain knowledge, are examples of knowledge system. The problem processing system provides a reasoning strategy or analytical approach to harness the knowledge system. For example, drug-drug interaction rules can be applied to a database of drugs before a transaction takes place. Patient data in the form of an electronic patient medical record makes up the final database component.
You will use the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint) to implement a healthcare-related decision support system. The project will include a written report (using Word), an in class presentation (using PowerPoint), and a prototype application (using Access and/or Excel). In order to share your work with current and future classmates, you must also prepare a simple Web page that provides access to each of these project components. Note: additional information and instruction for web enabling your project will be provided later in the semester.
In the past, successful prototypes have taken advantage of Microsoft Access/Microsoft Excel integration. For example, Microsoft Access can serve as the database, with embedded links to Microsoft Excel to provide the analytical decision support capabilities. An in-class tutorial on Microsoft Office Suite integration is scheduled for March 1st. It is also possible to develop the entire prototype DSS in Microsoft Access, but this may require some Visual Basic for Applications coding. In this latter case, the architectural distinctions between patient database, knowledge base, and analysis engine are blurred, as Access integrates these services.
The written report should be composed in Word using 12 point, double-spaced text and should not exceed 15 pages. It should be justified on both sides and include page numbering, appropriate section titles, and references.
Paper Due: April 26, 2000
Presentation Due: when group
scheduled on April 26 or May 3
Grading points:
Content: 80%:
(1) Describe the big picture and the context (20%),
(2) Describe your specific problem (10%),
(3) Analyze the decision support requirements of the problem (20%),
(4) Identify the major components of the IT solution (10%),
(5) Examine the solution for sample "what-if" scenarios (15%),
(6) Conclusions and recommendations (5%)
Style (executive summary, syntax, organization, references, etc., and presentation): 20%
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Date |
Student Name |
Project Title |
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Examples of Project 1 from Spring 1998
- Selecting a Behavioral Health Information System
- Medical Records Systems
- Community Hospital Laboratory Information System
- HEDIS System
- Home Health Care System
- Imaging Systems
- Healthcare Scheduling Information System
- Surgical Information System
Examples of Project 2 from Spring 1998
- Home Health Care
- Computerized
Decision Support in a Perioperative
Environment - Choice Health Plan (Information Technology Solutions)
- Implementation of Computer-based Patient Records
- Keep it Confidential: An Overview of Healthcare Information Security from a Systems Approach