HSE Digital Academy promotes GMIT– ‘Certificate in eHealth’ (L8)

HSE Digital Academy promotes GMIT– ‘Certificate in eHealth’ (L8)

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The HSE Digital Academy was recently established to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies/solutions across the HSE Network and to support and influence digitally driven change in support of Slaintecare. A key enabling role of the Digital Academy is to deliver a digital learning program to a wide range of staff in the HSE and across the wider health sector. To this end the academy will be co-developing and promoting a range of educational offerings to educate and inspire staff to help drive digital transformation. For example, co-design of a new Masters in Digital Health Transformation with all of the Irish Universities is already underway.

The Digital Academy is delighted to recommend the GMIT Mayo Certificate in eHealth: a level 8, Special Purpose Award, commencing in September 2019. The three - month online/blended programme, consisting of two 5-credit modules: eHealth Strategy and Data, and eHealth Systems and Implementation, is aimed at nursing, medical, health care and social care professionals, healthcare administrators, and the wider allied health professional environment.  

This programme familiarises students with the core tenets of Ireland's eHealth strategy: patient wellbeing, efficiency, and data availability, and will provide an explanation of the technologies and data standards which will underpin the ‘Stay Left, Shift Left’ strategy, enabling graduates to play a proactive role in the implementation of the strategy in their own health care setting.

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Students engage with the programme through GMIT’s online learning platform, Moodle, and live tutorials are facilitated through the ‘Skype for Business’ portal. The initial run of the programme, from February to May 2019, saw 14 candidates from diverse backgrounds; Nursing, Health Service Management, Administration, Pharmacy and other AHP’s, complete the course.

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Programme Content:

  1. eHealth Strategy and Data (5 Credits); This module is designed to enable students to develop a critical understanding of the concepts, strategies, and data standards, which will drive the eHealth initiative in Ireland. The module explores topics such as data management, quality and governance, standards; the legal and ethical issues around private and shared patient data; coding systems for disease classification, diagnosis and interventions (SNOMED CT, ICD 10); and government policy initiatives namely, the Individual Health Identifier, and the Electronic Health Record.

  2. eHealth Systems and Implementation (5 Credits); This module introduces students to the technology of eHealth, and the project management techniques used in implementing eHealth systems. The generic components of an electronic information system are examined, and systems architectures and web-based computing models, cloud and mobile technologies are explored. This module also investigates topics such as eHealth ecosystems, and change management in healthcare environments.

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To close the first run course GMIT Mayo’s Nursing & Health Science Dept hosted an eHealth Seminar last April. Organised by lecturers Richard Holmes and Brian Mulhern, the half-day event was attended by healthcare and allied professionals, and administrative and management personnel within the healthcare community, along with students of the eHealth course.

Speakers at the seminar included:

Professor Martin Curley, Director of the HSE Digital Academy and Open Innovation, who introduced the Digital Academy and explained its role in facilitating the ‘Stay Left, Shift Left’ Strategy.

Dr Ann Shortt, Emergency Medicine Consultant at Mayo University Hospital (MUH,) and co-founder of Full Health Medical, a health tech company focussed on tackling the root causes of preventable illnesses before reaching A&E departments.

Ms. Catherine Jinks, Senior Manager with responsibility for the national rollout of the Maternal & Newborn Clinical Management System (MN-CMS), outlined about how the new system will ensure that every child now being born is starting off with an electronic record which will eventually contribute to a full patient Electronic Health Record (EHR) in the coming years.

Mr. David Touhy, CEO of Syncrophi Systems Ltd, demonstrated the company’s electronic Point-of-Care system.

Mr. Sean Calvey, Information Technology Administration student at GMIT Mayo, demonstrated a prototype sepsis smartphone app which he developed in conjunction with a team at Mayo University Hospital and the GMIT iHub.

It is anticipated that this type of closing seminar will be a feature of the Certificate in eHealth programme during future offerings.

We are recommending and promoting this Level 8 certificate in eHealth to employees across the HSE network and ecosystem to prepare for and help drive the upcoming Digital Transformation of Healthcare.

Entry Requirements:

Candidates must meet the minimum requirements for entry to a level 8 programme in line with GMIT admissions policy.

Further Information:

For further information on the programme visit: https://www.gmit.ie/nursing-and-social-care/certificate-ehealth or contact:

Richard Holmes, Lecturer in Nursing and Health Sciences. Email: Richard.Holmes@gmit.ie Tel: 094 9043196.

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