EdX.svg

Title: Healthcare Analytics and Decision Making

Author for citation: Jody Woodworth

License for content: Unknown

Publication date: 2024

This is a Doane University-created course that is released on the edX platform. The self-paced eight-week course is designed to help learners "[g]ain an understanding of how healthcare informatics is deployed in diverse healthcare systems around the world." The course is free to take, with a Verified Certificate of completion available for $369. (The course is also part of a Healthcare Administration MicroMasters program.) The course requires on average five to ten hours a week of effort. The course began January 2, 2024 and ends June 27. The free audit track expires on February 27.

The edX course description:

Health Informatics Technology (HIT) deals with the acquisition, storage and retrieval of data and is central in addressing the challenges of safety, quality, effectiveness and efficiency in a healthcare system. Proper management of dynamic data, such as electronic healthcare records, can enable a new approach for clinical workflow, evidence-based decision making and team-based care to improve overall public health. Gain an understanding of how healthcare informatics is deployed in diverse healthcare systems around the world.

In addition, leaders and administrators in the healthcare industry must have a basic understanding of healthcare finance, risk, legal and regulatory issues in order to navigate and change the system. Managing risk is one of the primary responsibilities of a leader. This requires a basic understanding of the financial health and regulatory constraints one operates within to anticipate and address changing dynamics.

This course will focus on a combination of technology management and and finance to help you articulate innovative approaches to managing costs and improving access, quality and safety. In the end, you will learn how to assess the fiscal status of a healthcare organization through sophisticated technology."

"What you'll learn:

  • Understand the concepts around Health Informatics and how it affects Public and Population Health.
  • Compare how Health Informatics is being used around the world in healthcare systems .
  • Use informatics to evaluate current healthcare practices.
  • Discuss emerging trends in health informatics.
  • How to evaluate the relevance of economics in all aspects of healthcare.
  • How to analyze economic concepts and models as they apply to healthcare.
  • How to identify the diverse aspects of healthcare financing.
  • How to assess economic problems in order to develop and implement economic policy.
  • How to evaluate the economic advantages and policy options of healthcare market reform."


About the authors

The edX instructor is Jody Woodworth of Doane University. "She worked for nine years as a Lead Nuclear Cardiac Technologist. She continued her education with a new career focus and earned a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and worked as a Project Analysts applying her knowledge in economics and management. She graduated with her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2009 in Higher Education Administration. For the past 18 years she works in higher education as a professor and administrator."


General layout and contents of the course

A pre-enrollment syllabus is not available, and the general course layout is not clear without enrolling.

The course

PDF.png: The course can be found on the edX site, under the Economics & Finance category. The course began January 2, 2024 and ends June 27. The free audit track expires on February 27.