Information in the Healthcare Setting - an overview of the role of information in the healthcare process considering where, why and how it is generated, moved, abstracted, processed, shared, used and re-used. Once information is held in electronic forms, it can be accessed and manipulated in ways that are too onerous to undertake with paper-based information, and can therefore serve many functions that were in a paper-based environment quite simply impracticable. This unit addresses these fundamental issues of the similarities and differences between electronic and paper-based information. It also addresses the vital issue of trust, and whether data on the web (or elsewhere) can be trusted. This course has no pre-requisite requirements.

Learning Objectives - on completion of this study module, including all the associated eLinks, the student should be able to demonstrate Knowledge and Understanding of the following topics and issues:

  1. The origins and nature of data, information, knowledge, understanding and wisdom
  2. The practical steps involved in gathering, recording, storing, managing, retrieving, disclosing and destroying
  3. The historical perspective on how knowledge and information has been recorded and disseminated through history
  4. Creation and management of paper-based medical records
  5. Reporting and re-using data stored in paper-based medical records
  6. Access to information resources in the public domain, including text and multimedia, printed and electronic, and particular relating to biomedicine and health
  7. Information and trust; identifying information resources on the Internet that are reliable.