IMIA accreditation of Health Informatics Educational programs A. Hasman
Quality of education Due to the growing internationalization of education the quality of a higher education program affects its international status and therefore its attractiveness for students External quality assessment Quality can be defined as fitness for purpose: Is the curriculum an adequate realization of the intended end qualifications?
Are programs easily comparable? Different programs (vocational, bachelor, master) can have different specializations and therefore are not easily comparable Characterize a program by the student workload required to achieve the objectives of a programme Objectives should preferably be specified in terms of learning outcomes and competences to be acquired The workload refers to the amount of time a student needs to complete the learning activities, such as selfstudy, seminars, projects or exams, to achieve the course outcomes
Which questions should be answered to determine the quality of a program? Is the curriculum an adequate realization of the intended end qualifications? Are graduates with the intended end qualifications needed in the job market? Does the program comply to the IMIA Recommendations?
Options for Quality control Accreditation Does program meet a certain minimum standard? All aspects of a program are assessed Assessment More graded assessment of program s output Audit Emphasis on quality procedures
Accreditation Many countries have their own accreditation body International accreditation is only useful for showing that the program is of an international quality
IMIA Accreditation IMIA has developed an accreditation procedure for evaluating programs in health informatics (vocational, bachelor, master, PhD) If evaluation is positive the program can use: Accredited by the International Medical Informatics Association Institution can appeal against a negative decision Duration of accreditation: five years
Accreditation Procedure Program writes a self assessment report Site visit Site visit committee writes the Accreditation report IMIA s Accreditation Committee marginally checks the contents of the accreditation report
Self Assessment report answers the following six questions: What is the intended purpose of the institute? With which programs offered? With which staff? With what facilities? Does the institute guarantee the quality of the program? Are the goals routinely reached?
Site visit Three experts (the panel) visit the institution during two or three days Judgement guided by the self-assesment report Panel consults textbooks and other learning material used by the program Panel consults with management, staff, students, employers and alumni Panel visits the teaching facilities
Judgment Each subject (related to one of the six questions) comprises a number of facets that should be judged Each facet is judged on a scale ranging from insufficient via sufficient and good to excellent Each subject is judged sufficient or insufficient by weighing the judgments of the individual facets. Total evaluation is sufficient if all subjects are judged as sufficient, otherwise insufficient
Example 2 Educational Program Criteria The orientation of the program warrants the development of skills for carrying out scientific research and/or professional activities. Academic requirements Elucidation The program has demonstrable links with current developments in the professional field and the scientific discipline.
Judgment scale Insufficient The facet does not meet the minimum requirements. Sufficient The facet meets the basic requirements. Good The quality of the facet rises above the basic requirements. Excellent Best practice, can serve (internationally)as an example for other programs.
Checklist for site visit committee members Subject 1: Goals of the program Facet 1: Domain specific requirements Score facet E/G/S/IS Score subject S/IS Subject 2: Educational program Facet 2: Academic requirements E/G/S/IS S/IS Facet 3: Relation between goal and content E/G/S/IS Facet 4: Rapport between form and content E/G/S/IS Facet 5: Study load E/G/S/IS Facet 6: Relation between intake and program Facet 7: Legal requirements E/G/S/IS E/G/S/IS Facet 8: Judgement and examinations E/G/S/IS
IMIA s results regarding accreditation Trial with 6 programs of a vocational or an academic orientation spread over the world to check whether the accreditation protocol is appropriate everywhere Five programs have been assessed (one program could not be assessed) and only minor changes in the protocol had to be made IMIA now decided to make accreditation a regular part of their services
Accreditation Committee (IMIA) new situation Responsible for training of chairmen of site visit committees Determine the accreditation fee for institutions, dependent on IMIA academic institutional membership of the institution Start the normal accreditation process as soon as possible
SIMKES, Congratulations with your 10 years anniversary and with your IMIA accreditation