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SOCI59715: Health Informatics and Clinical Intelligence

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Type Tied
Level 5
Credits 15
Availability Available in 2024/2025
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Sociology

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • SGIA49915 Quantitative Methods and Analysis or MATH42715 Introduction to Statistics for Data Science or other R experience approved by the module convenor.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • To introduce the concepts and skills for generating health knowledge from electronic medical/health records and health system datasets.

Content

  • Fundamentals of health informatics
  • Public health data, including standardisation methods and inequality measures
  • Electronic health/medical records, including privacy requirements, coding, and linkage principles to support the use of such records for broader health purposes
  • Applications of health informatics, using machine learning and other methods with health datasets for clinical and public health policy decision support.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • By the end of the module students will have a working knowledge and understanding of concepts in the following areas:
  • Understand the purpose and role of health informatics;
  • Appreciate the different types of data in care delivery and public health;
  • Benefits and barriers to using different types of health data for clinical and policy decisions in the health sector.

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Students will have necessary skills to analyse electronic health data to support care delivery and public health objectives.

Key Skills:

  • By the end of the module, students will be able to:
  • Develop computer code to process and analyse data from electronic health/medical datasets;
  • Conduct data analyses to support clinical and population decision-making in the health sector;
  • Critically analyse informatics issues relevant to health care delivery and public health objectives.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • There are two types of workshops, lectures and practicals, with eight of each.
  • Lectures will present the methodological and conceptual foundations for health informatics as described in the 'Content' item, with other modes of teaching aligned accordingly. These will be recorded in line with the University's Lecture Capture Policy and will be available for the duration of the programme.
  • Practical sessions are conducted in R and students are expected to work on their own laptop. They build on the lectures and readings by applying knowledge to case studies, and consider how concepts apply in practice.
  • Summative assignments are designed to test both the application of data analysis and communication skills and critical analysis of health informatics concepts and issues.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Workshops162 per week (Term 2, weeks 1-4 and 6-9)2 hours32 
Preparation, exercises and reading118 
Total150 

Summative Assessment

Component: CourseworkComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Data Analysis Report800 words + figures50 
Issue Analysis1,500 words50 

Formative Assessment

During a workshop, prepare two appropriate plots in R. As a group, we will also consider the plots against the assessment criteria.

More information

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