Degree Requirements

The MHI is a 16-month program (4 consecutive sessions), which requires the completion of 10.0 full course equivalents (FCE). There is no thesis requirement.

The program includes required coursework (7.5 FCE), elective course work (0.5 FCE) and a 4-month full-time practicum or field placement (2 FCE).

 

Subject to Change


Year 1

Session 1 - Fall
MHI1001H Introduction to Information and Communication Technology in Healthcare (J. Cafazzo)
This course will introduce the fundamental concepts of information and communication technology for those students with a non-technical background. The course will cover material that is relevant to health informatics and focus on the understanding of hardware and software systems. The proper design and specification of health information systems will be emphasized. The purpose of this course is to provide the students a sufficient background to understand the technical details of healthcare ICTs and apply their knowledge in the design and specification of systems.
MHI1002H Complexity of Clinical Care for Non-Clinicians (A. Stern)
This course has been designed to provide non-clinicians (or International clinicians) with an overview of the clinical aspects of the Canadian health care system, focusing on the flow of health information amongst and between interdisciplinary health care providers in a variety of settings. The course will alternate between lectures/seminars (50%) and clinical site visits (50%), with relevant readings assigned as needed. Students will be exposed to clinical cases across the lifespan, covering major body systems and health care settings. Emphasis will be placed on the relationship between patients, providers, and health information, using complexity theory as a framework.
MHI2001H Health Informatics I (A. Shachak)
This course is designed to provide an overview of basic concepts and recurrent themes in Health Informatics (HI)- an emergent discipline that deals with the collection, storage, retrieval communication and use of health related data, information and knowledge. It will explore a number of topics central to understanding of the field including the history of and motivation for HI, Biomedical data, information and knowledge, information systems design for the health care domain, and organizational and societal issues.
INF1003H Information Systems, Services and Design (M. Ratto)
Fundamental perspectives and skills necessary for sound technical judgment about the place of information and communication technologies in contemporary society. Critical analysis of the design fabrication, deployment, use, and maintenance of information systems and services. Analysis of modeling, architecture, implementation, inclusive access, modularity, life-cycle, and interoperability. Use of and familiarity with programming languages, databases, interfaces, interactive technologies. Critical methods and analytic techniques from Science and Technology Studies and related disciplines.
INF1341H Analyzing Information Systems (E. Yu)
In the information systems world, the system analyst acts as the intermediary between technical system developers on the one hand, and business managers and users on the other. Techniques have been developed to enable them to analyze business situations and communicate requirements to technical developers. With the rapidly changing role of IT in today's organizations, there is also need to rethink the methods and techniques used in systems analysis. This course will cover traditional system analysis methods as well as recent developments. Modelling approaches will include process modeling, data modeling, object modeling, and strategic modelling. Strengths and limitations of various techniques will be examined.

Session 2 - Winter
MHI2002H Health Informatics II (A. Shachak)
This course provides an overview of applications of ICT to health care and biomedicine. Potential and actual benefits as well as the challenges associated with these applications will be discussed. Topics include Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE), patient care systems, telehealth, clinical Decision Support Systems (DSS) and bioinformatics.
MHI2003H Consumer Health Informatics and Public Health Informatics (G. Eysenbach)
The course will give an overview of:
  1. how information technology and consumer health informatics are becoming an integral part of modern concepts of public health and national healthcare policies in many developed countries; and
  2. consumer and public health informatics applications, and also touch on public health informatics applications which specifically deals with population-level data collected and analyzed for or by public health professionals, for example for surveillance purposes.
MHI2007H Quantitative Skills in Health Informatics (O. Falenchuck)
This course is designed to give students a working knowledge of selected statistical analysis techniques relevant to health services research. Specifically, the course covers intermediate statistical methods normally found in research and work applications: analysis of variance for one-way and multi-way data with fixed, mixed and random effects models; linear and multiple regression; multiple correlation, analysis of covariance, repeated-measures analyses. In addition, students will learn about survey sampling, experimental design, and power analysis. The emphasis will be placed on conceptual understanding of statistical techniques and their application to address real problems.
INF2183H Knowledge Management and Systems (E. Yu)
The course aims to expose students to the issues of knowledge management in organizations and across communities, and to provide opportunities to learn and apply modelling and analytical techniques to understand the use of various types of information technologies in meeting organizational knowledge management needs.
MHI2004H Human Factors and Change Management in Health Services (J. Cafazzo)
The purpose of this course is to provide the students with a sufficient background to understand the technical, organizational and individual issues associated with the changes related to the introduction of clinical computing solutions. It will address the socio-technical challenges of introducing information and communication technology into healthcare settings as well as cover contrasting strategies in the successful adoption and deployment of systems by introducing the fundamental concepts of human factors and the principles and strategies associated with organizational change management. The course will focus on psycho-social and behavioural issues and how they affect the design and usability considerations related to clinical applications and devices.

Session 3 - Summer
MHI2008H Project Management for Health Informatics (J. Alleyne)
This web-based course covers the strategic, organizational and operational aspects of managing projects. Students learn to manage the technical, behavioural, political and cultural aspects of temporary groups performing unique tasks. Topics covered include: defining deliverables, formulating project strategy, effective group organization and management, dynamically allocating resources, managing without authority, and resolving conflict. Traditional cost and time management techniques are covered using contemporary software packages.
MHI2005Y Health Informatics Practicum (2 FCE)
The 4-month practicum will provide an opportunity to apply the theory and knowledge gained in course work directly in a health care related organization. Students are required to spend a minimum of 600 hours involved in appropriate, supervised field practice.

Total Course Load for Year 1 - 15 half-course credits

Year 2

Session 4 - Fall
HAD5010H Canada's Health System and Health Policy: Part 1 (P. Williams)
This course critically analyzes key issues and trends in Canada’s health care system using an analytic “tool kit” derived from the fields of health policy analysis and public administration.
HAD5728H Performance Measurements in Healthcare: Theory and Application (P. Lindsay)
The course will provide an overview of different models for performance measurement, indicator development strategies and a discussion of issues specific to several stakeholder groups in health care delivery.
MHI2006H Advanced Topics in e-Health Innovation (Health & Clinical Information Systems) (K. Leonard)
This will be a weekly seminar course that will explore the basics as well as the advanced nuances of a broad spectrum of topics in the eHealth Innovation and Information Management. Students will be responsible to work on their own as well as within a group analyzing eHealth development. The course is comprised of the following: (1) a comprehensive review of the key concepts and theories from information theory which have been applied, or have viable application potential, to management in the health services industry, (2) identify and critically analyze the strengths and weakness of varying “traditions” in eHealth and information management, (3) critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of varying methodologies used to study issues in health services, and (4) prepare the student to formulate and clearly articulate relevant, topical questions and to develop viable strategies by which to address them.
MHI3000H Evaluation for Health Informatics (S. Urowitz & D. Wiljer)
Elective 1 half-course credit

Total Course Load for Year 2 - 5 half-course credits