Digital Health and Informatics Methods (INFO90001)

This subject offers an overview of major health informatics research areas and methods that contribute to quality improvement, scientific research, and technological innovation in healthcare and biomedicine. The subject sets out the scientific foundations of digital health, and disciplined approaches to understanding the implications of digital health for health system performance.

The subject is arranged in blocks of study that examine methods for: (a) Undertaking digital health research and innovation projects, including: justifying a project in pragmatic and conceptual terms; drawing on existing practice and knowledge; specifying and staging work packages; meeting needs for partnerships and resources; assuring socially and ethically responsible conduct; reporting on progress rigorously and communicating for impact; (b) Managing exponential growth in health and biomedical knowledge, including: increasing openness in research data life cycle management; automating processes of generating, synthesising, and translating evidence; assuring the quality of electronic decision support systems for clinicians and patients; producing sophisticated forecasts and scenarios of the future of health; (c) Analysing structured and unstructured health data, including: wrangling phenome, exposome and other omics data; scaling up clinical, translational and population health research on platforms; approaching artificial intelligence in medicine through data analytics techniques and machine learning; (d) Modelling and simulating the dynamics of health conditions and health services, including: building personalised and population-level models of health and disease; mapping patient journeys, clinical workflows, and health supply chains; creating immersive environments for healthcare system learning and research.