Accreditation of health informatics programs: How to accomplish? A.Hasman VP Special Affairs IMIA

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1 Accreditation of health informatics programs: How to accomplish? A.Hasman VP Special Affairs IMIA

2 Introduction There are many institutions throughout the world that provide one or more programs in (bio)medical informatics Most of them are accredited locally Local accreditation committees may not have enough expertise in biomedical informatics to judge the program in depth or to judge whether the program is of a comparable level as international programs. There is a need for accreditation with a global view

3 Educational institutions want To attract the best students of their country Therefore they want to show to potential students that the education they offer is of an international level To attract students from abroad Convince these students of the quality of their programs Both

4 Solution Accreditation by an international professional organization in addition to the traditional local accreditation Accreditation means a competitive advantage to the program and gives students insight into the quality of the program.

5 Problem with accreditation Different institutions offer different types of programs either of a vocational or an academic orientation How to judge such different programs with different specializations?

6 Solution Use the description of the qualifications of the graduates of the program: Description indicates the knowledge, skills and attitutes that the graduates have obtained and what they are not

7 Questions answerable on the basis of the program description Is the job market in need of graduates with the described qualifications? What is the orientation of the program, vocational or academic? Are the objectives of the program comparable to internationally accepted programs Does the curriculum content indeed lead to the described qualifications?

8 Procedure Accreditation carried out by a panel of 3 experts usually during a site visit Institutions submit a self-assessment report with information about: Objectives of the program Curriculum contents Faculty Facilities and administration Internal quality control Goals reached?

9 Site visit Two or three days Judgement guided by the self-assesment report Individual assessment with a discussion between site visit committee members at the end of the visit Preliminary results will be presented to the institution at the end of the visit

10 Evaluation procedure Each of the six subjects is assessed by a number of criteria that should be satisfied Institutions write a self-assesment report following these subjects and providing the information needed for criteria evaluation After receipt of the self-assesment report but before the site visit the committee writes a report that serves as a reference framework for the judgments of this particular program Panel evaluates the subjects using the reference framework

11 Example 1 Intended end qualifications Criterion The intended end qualifications of the program with respect to content, level (e.g. bachelor, master) and orientation (vocational or academic) are made concrete and meet international requirements. Elucidation The end qualifications comply with current international requirements as laid down by the profession and the discipline.

12 Example 2 Program Criteria The orientation of the program warrants the development of skills for carrying out scientific research and/or professional activities. Elucidation The program has demonstrable links with current developments in the professional field and the scientific discipline.

13 Evaluation form 6 Subjects 15 criteria Space for evaluation results Space for explaining the judgement

14 Judgment All the subjects are judged as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. The reasons for the judgments have to be provided. Each subject is judged satisfactory or unsatisfactory by weighing the judgments of the individual criteria. In principle a criterion could be judged as unsatisfactory while the final judgment for the subject is still positive. The experts will in their report provide insight in how the judgment of the various criteria has led to the judgment of the corresponding subject. Evaluation is positive if all subjects are judged positive

15 Organization Accreditation Committee Communicates with the institution to be accredited Appoints members of the site visit committee Sends the report of the site visit committee to institution for comments After possible amendments makes decision and informs the program

16 Organization -2 If decision is positive, program can use: Accredited by the International Medical Informatics Association Institution can appeal against a negative decision Duration of accreditation: five years Cost of accreditation: IMIA 2000 dollar Institutions pay site visit committee members travel and accommodation costs

17 Accreditation by IMIA IMIA is the international organization that is most fit to the job because it covers all continents IMIA has the Recommendations for Education that will be used by the site visit committee members

18 Decision General Assembly Start a trial with 3 to 5 programs 4 programs have already consented to cooperate Duration of trial about 1.5 years Report about the process Decision about continuing with Accreditation

19 Thank you very much for your attention

20 Example: Master Medical Informatics, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

21 General description -1 A medical informatics specialist is familiar with all basic medical subjects, the way in which a doctor reasons and acts, the methodology of medical-scientific research and the organisation of health care. The medical informatics specialist distinguishes himself from other information specialists and information scientists through his knowledge of medical processes, care organization processes and his insight into the specific role and meaning of information in the healthcare sector.

22 General description -2 The medical informatics specialist is an expert in the field of information analysis, information representation, system design, and implementation and evaluation of information systems, and not so much in the field of the development of advanced technologies on which information systems are based. A medical informatics specialist is a skilled consultative partner of information and communication technologists as well as of doctors and nurses, and thus acts as an essential bridge between the two divergent fields of medicine and informatics

23 Bachelor profile A Bachelor can identify problems in the provision of information and can use medical informatics techniques to solve these problems A Bachelor is familiar with the processes that exist in healthcare and can determine which information is needed for the implementation of these processes A bachelor can model and record these processes in a computer system. He/she has the skills to design systems that contribute to diagnosis and therapy by means of decision support, error recognition and patient logistics

24 Master profile -1 Compared to a Bachelor a Master has more knowledge of the three fields of Medical Informatics (medical, care information and informatics). A Master is aware of the most important recent developments A Master not only possesses more knowledge but also more insight into the three fields of medical informatics. Therefore a Master can be deployed better for more complex issues and problems in healthcare

25 Master profile -2 A Master can develop new methods for the evaluation of existing information systems and the development of new information systems, records, coding systems and standard vocabularies

26 Master Medical Informatics Internship II Information & process modeling in health care Health care logistics & information systems Organizational settings of health care Biomedical research & evaluation methodology Internship I Biomedical information systems engineering Advanced data analysis in medice Knowledge representation & reasoning in medice Current issues in Medical informatics YEAR 1 YEAR 2 Elective Course I Elective Course II Scientific Research Project & Master Thesis 1 st Semester 2 nd Semester

27 Summary of judgments Subject Judgment Facet Judgment 1. Objectives of program Sufficient 1. Domain specific requirements Sufficient 2. Level Sufficient 3. Orientation Good 2. Program Good 4. Satisfies requirements of the scientific community Good 5. Relation between Objectives and Program Good