Health Informatics education options in NZ

AUT offers Health Informatics and Bioinformatics papers for postgraduate and final year computing students, and people from a technical or management background.

Two papers are offered – Health Informatics  and Bioinformatics - as part of the Masters in Computing and Information Sciences degree, but these  papers can be taken as part of a PG diploma or as an elective from other programmes such as the MBA.

The Centre for Bioinformatics and Health Informatics forms part of the Knowledge Engineering and Discovery Research Institute (KEDRI).  PhDs and Masters theses are currently being undertaken in SNOMED CT coding via Crowdsourcing, Genomics for diagnosis,  RFID in healthcare and a number of other health-related areas.

On the teaching side, Massey offers a 15-credit postgraduate block course, Emerging Issues in E-Health, which is a component of PGDip and Master’s programmes. The course regularly recruits 15-20 students and has been running for three years now. E-Health also appears as single lecture topic in other courses.

E-health research is more evident. The collaboration between Inga Hunter and Dick Whiddett, at Palmerston North, and Tony Norriss, at Albany, has been very productive, generating an HRC grant and published work on aspects of electronic health records, telehealth, and more recently on mobile health with an emphasis on the more strategic aspects of identifying successful applications and integrating them into healthcare delivery. The research has spawned several PGDip and master’s theses and publications. Current PhD research areas include patient empowerment and informed consent.

Otago offers a number of programmes in Health Informatics.

Postgraduate Diploma in Health Informatics
A list of papers included in the Health Informatics diploma course for:
HEIX701 Essential Information Management Skills
HEIX702 Principles of Health Informatics
HEIX703 Health Information Systems
HEIX704 Evidence Based Practice
HEIX705 Computer Aided Learning in Health Care
HEIX706 Research Methods for Health Informatics
HEIX707 Ethics and the Internet
HEIX708 Health Data Management
 
Master of Health Sciences

Doctorate Programme
 

Otago also offers courses aimed at health professionals intending to undertake clinical research:
Postgraduate Certificate in Health Sciences (PGCertHealSc) endorsed in Clinical Research
Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences (PGDipHealSc) endorsed in Clinical Research
 

The University of Auckland offers a wide range of Health Informatics education, from first year undergraduate to PhD.

POPLHLTH104G – Future Health
Stage 1 general education course for students not enrolled in a programme produced by the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
Healthcare systems face complex challenges in improving people's health. The goal of this course is to give students the opportunity to learn how the health system works, the challenges it faces, what role innovation plays, and how they can make a difference with knowledge about the role of information in the delivery of healthcare in the 21st Century.

POPLHLTH303 – Health Informatics
Stage 3 course for Bachelor of Health Sciences.
Students will explore the development and management of information systems in contemporary New Zealand healthcare services. Health informatics concepts, conceptualised in different healthcare settings, are critically reviewed in terms of their practical application.
 
Postgraduate Coursework
We offer a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences in Health Informatics, which can extend to a Master of Health Sciences. Honours and Postgraduate Diploma students in Computer Science and Software Engineering can get permission to take select Health Informatics postgraduate courses, as can students in the Bachelor of Health Sciences Honours programme and students in studying postgraduate Public Health or Health Management.

From 2011 we're offering our core Health Informatics courses in fully online flexible delivery mode. This means you can start the Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences (Health Informatics) from overseas.
The courses to be delivered online in 2011 are:
o    HLTHINFO 728 Principles of Health Informatics
o    CRH 503 Legal and Ethical Issues of Emerging Health Technologies or CRH 505 Electronic Health Records*
o    HLTHINFO 723 Health Knowledge Management
o    HLTHINFO 730 Healthcare Decision Support Systems

* To provide four online mode courses so a student can study entirely overseas and get a Postgraduate Certificate in Health Sciences we are allowing our students to take one of these electives from the online Health Informatics programme offered by our colleagues at the University of Tasmania, Australia.

Note that while we are doing online (aka, 'distance') delivery, local students are still very welcome to enroll and enjoy the modern and convenient learning format.

Postgraduate Research. We have staff available to supervise research students from either Health or Computing backgrounds (and those with mixed backgrounds are most especially welcome!).