Healthcare Decision Support Systems

Welcome to Healthcare Decision Support Systems course for 2011!

There are many expectations nowadays that computers can somehow deliver solutions to problems of healthcare quality. One form of such expectations - when people bother to think this through at all - is that some form of ‘Artificial Intelligence' (AI) will be embedded in health information systems to ensure safe and effective care. Alas, most people are more ‘informed' by I Robot than by any experience of using, nonetheless programming, computer-based decision support tools. This course is about getting inside the reality of tools and methods to back up the expectations of healthcare decision support systems. Just how do we get 'intelligent' support for decision making into our healthcare systems?

We had a face-to-face orientation lecture on Tuesday 19 July, 9-11am in 730.266 (main level, School of Poulation Health building, Tamaki Campus, Glen Innes). For those of you overseas, that's New Zealand Standard Time (about the earliest timezone in existence!)... all times mention in the course will be Auckland time. We will blog on a private group in the HIVE to summarise main discussion points from the orientation. If you have questions, feel free to post them. A supporting welcome Powerpoint is available. And here is the audio of the orientation session:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The debriefing lecture was held in 730.266 from 9-11 on Friday 14 October. Here is the Powerpoint for that lecture. The lecture discussed specifics for Assignment 3, some of the lecture material for evaluation methods, and reflection on the rationale of evaluation and the course in general. Audio is here:

Part 1

Part 2

You can get a quick overview of the course layout here. You can navigate around this course website by using the navigation frame on the left:

click on Course Information to access essential information about the course
click on the section topics, and the modules beneath them, to access course content, tasks and resources for Modules 1-11. Feel free to browse these modules as you see fit, but focus on them in keeping with the 12 weeks of this course as the semester progresses (final week is for review and last-minute questions on final assignment).

You can also use the « previous page | next page » buttons at the bottom of the screen to navigate back and forth within any set of pages in the course.