By the end of the module students should have an understanding of electronic patient records, why they are so important, and also just why it is so difficult to do well. They should also have some appreciation of the governance and data security problems surrounding the capture, use and sharing of such data.

To be updated shortly.

Knowledge and understanding

Basic understanding of electronic patient records
An understanding of the complexities and problems in capturing clinical data
An understanding of the ethical and privacy issues surrounding medical data governance

Intellectual skills

An understanding of the theoretical underpinning of coding schemes and data sharing protocols
Critical evaluation of health care literature around EPRs

Practical skills

Basic familiarity with the process of medical coding
Ability to understand the processes involved in mapping between different coding schemes
Ability to understand the processes involved in medical data sharing
Ability to critically evaluate current literature on EPRs

Transferable skills and personal qualities

Interdisciplinary teamworking
Self-directed learning
Reflection upon learning

Part 1: Coding

Introduce students to basic concepts in coding systems used in health care
Examine the history of coding schemes in medicine
Explore some of the current coding schemes in detail (Read codes) and discuss future developments (Snomed)
Examine some of the issues and problems around the use and maintenance of coding schemes
Discuss the development and deployment of electronic patient records (EPRs)
Explore issues of data governance and patient confidentiality around electronic patient records.

Part 2: Sharing

Introduce students to basic concepts in of interoperability in health care
Introduce basic messaging concepts, including an overview of HL7
Introduce issues and problems around data interoperabilty
Examine strategies for data integration

Part3: EPRs in practice

Introduce students to basic concepts in of organisational and human factors in e-health
Explore issues of EPRs in practice
Introduce basic concepts around qualitative research methodologies
Introduce basic concepts around useability in healthcare
Introduce concepts around organisational change in the health service

Exam: 50%, Coursework: 50%, Lab: 0% .

All the course materials are provided within the Moodle virtual learning environment (VLE). The tools provided will allow you to navigate and search through the course textbook, practical exercises and references to other useful texts and URLs. The course textbook is provided as a set of web pages. It will be used to provide the necessary background to the focus of the course, which is problem-based learning.

You will interact with the members of the course team, and with other learners, through course bulletin boards. Our students and graduates can use the programme bulletin boards after a course has ended, so we now have a large and supportive online community.