I Wonder Just How Useful This Educational Offering Will Turn Out To Be? At Least It Is Free..

I heard of this course last week.

eHealth: More than just an electronic record

About this course: The MOOC, "eHealth: More than just an electronic record!", is multidisciplinary in nature, and aims to equip the global audience of health clinicians, students, managers, administrators, and researchers to reflect on the overall impact of eHealth on the integration of care. It explores the breadth of technology application, current and emerging trends, and showcases both local and international eHealth practice and research.

The entire eHealth Course consists of 5 modules and takes about 5 weeks to complete. Completion certificates are issued on the basis of participation in all 5 modules. Completing the health practice assignment in Module 5 entitles you to advanced standing in some of the eHealth courses run by the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney.

What you'll learn:

 - The fundamentals of eHealth and where it is heading

- What kind of health data we are currently collecting and how it will transform healthcare in the future

- How new technologies are helping health consumers participate in their own healthcare

- How eHealth can improve the coordination and efficiency of healthcare and what the barriers might be

Length: Self-paced 5 week course Study time commitment: 3 hours per week

Assessable components: Assignment 1 in Module 2 (40%) and Assignment 2 in Module 5 (60%).

Guest presenters (listed in alphabetical order):

* Jordan Andersen | The University of Sydney

* Dr Teresa Andersen | Sydney Local Health District

* Dr Robert Birnbaum | Harvard Medical School / Partners Healthcare

* Melissa Brunner | The University of Newcastle & The University of Sydney

* Professor Jane Burns | Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre & The University of Sydney

* Professor Rafael A. Calvo | The University of Sydney

* Dr Andrew Campbell | The University of Sydney

* Dr Jelle Demeestere | John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle NSW

* Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte | The University of Sydney

* Karen Finnin | Physios Online

* Professor Afaf Girgis | UNSW Medicine

* Anna Janssen | The University of Sydney

* Professor Judy Kay | The University of Sydney

* Dr Melanie Keep | The University of Sydney

* A/Professor Jinman Kim | The University of Sydney

* Dr John Lambert | eHealth NSW

* Dr Melanie Keep | The University of Sydney

* Dr Karen Luxford | Clinical Excellence Committee NSW

* Michael Marthick | Chris O’Brien Lifehouse & The University of Sydney

* A/ Professor Mark McEntee | The University of Sydney

* Professor Kathryn Refshauge | The University of Sydney

* Dr Ursula Sansom-Daly | Sydney Children's Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital & UNSW Medicine

* Dr Arran Schlosberg | The University of Sydney

* Professor Stephen Simpson | The University of Sydney

* Professor Leanne Togher | The University of Sydney

* Josh Zadro | The University of Sydney

Course is Taught by: Tim Shaw, Professor in eHealth

Research in Implementation Science and eHealth Group (RISe)

Here is the link:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ehealth

Very interesting course categorisation is seen here:

HomeArts and HumanitiesMusic and Art

I guess I am wondering just what will be learned from all this. 15 hours seems not much time to provide much useful information. Also there seem to be a fair few areas in e-Health that do not appear to be covered and it is by no means clear to me from the course description just what the purpose is - other than to have a quick skate over the surface of a pretty complex area.

Those who want a free browse through Health IT might like to wander through my course which was written a year or so back and has a broader scope I reckon .

http://www.systemswiki.org/index.php?title=An_Overview_of_Health_Information_Technology_and_Health_Informatics

I look forward to feedback from those who try the course. I wish the course all the best and hope it will make a difference!

David.