Content

1. Brief Introduction to the vista of HI – what we are going to address.
   1. The breadth of HI and its areas of focus.
   2. The depth of each sub-specialty of HI.

2. Why are HI and its eHealth applications so challenging?
   1. The nature of complexity and complex systems like humans, health and health care.
   2. The dynamicity of health and health care and the need for adaptive informatics.
   3. The sheer size, cost and distribution of the health system.
   4. The nature and organization of health data.
   5. The failure of classical methods and the need for new ones.
   6. The nature of humans, bias, satisfaction and human work.
   7. The continuous, rapid and sometimes unpredictable evolution of technology.
   8. The challenge of constraints (e.g., budgets, law and regulations, human limitations, massiveness of information, etc.) and visibility.
   9. The measurement and evaluation challenge.
   10. The limits of quantitative methods and the need for qualitative assessment.
   11. The achievement of credible competence and multi-peer-type acceptance.
   12. Many others…

3. The ‘laws’ of HI – things that happen or that need to be done no matter what.
   1. Variety and uniqueness reigns – when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen one.
   2. Need does not equal want, and actual requirements are, at best, approximated by stated requirements.
   3. Translational symmetry is broken: what worked here may not work there.
   4. The human element is unstable; radioactive even.
   5. Bigger equals ‘worser’.
   6. The healthcare space is curved: the shortest distance between points is often not a straight line.
   7. Healthcare is a fluid; systems are solids.
   8. Databases are error stores.
   9. Inertia and resistance increase with increasing force and decreasing time.
   10. All systems and other interventions have unintended consequences.
   11. Vendors have a non-infinite half-life.
   12. Actual big project costs are approximately equal to a constant (often ≥2) times estimated costs.
   13. Major project goalposts are mobile.
   14. IT strategic plans are not strategic.
   15. Post hoc user feedback is not equal to real-time user feedback.
   16. Others…

4. Major issues in the practice of HI.
   1. The human element and its unpredictability.
   2. The (inappropriate) focus on technology rather than on workflow, people and impacts.
   3. The underestimation of difficulty, effort and costs.
   4. Doing evaluations and using the results of previous evaluations.
   5. Keeping up with the literature and other information sources.
   6. The nature of classic project management and the need for ‘agile everything’.
   7. Vision without limit, constraints without relief, and the ‘bum’s rush’.
   8. Political visibility and interference at all levels.
   9. The competency gap, becoming and remaining competent, and the impact of amateurism.
   10. Developing and maintaining key HI attitudes and values.
   11. The lack of knowledge regarding HI of the politicians, public, students and parents.
   12. The need many organizations seem to have to develop systems – however unwise.
   13. The challenge of using consultants effectively.

5. Practical guidance – things we have found that generally work.
   1. Rethinking even when you’ve done it before.
   2. Wearing your ‘complexity glasses’.
   3. Chunking big projects.
   4. Creating ‘co-opetive’ teams.
   5. Having ‘good enough’ vision.
   6. Researching before action…it’s likely already been done – often many times.
   7. Questioning estimates and defining credible budgets that stand scrutiny.
   8. Contacting genuine experts and getting guidance.
   9. Reading, reading and reading.
   10. Doing a situational IT audit.
   11. Assume nothing: if you assume, it “makes an ass out of you and me”.
   12. Become a member of organizations like AMIA and HIMSS.

6. Useful insights – providing a framework for practice and success.
   1. We will look at and discuss a number of crucial insights (both mine and others’) and how they can help participants.

7. Discussions and Networking:
   1. Questions, answers and group discussions – both during and after the day we meet - are an important part of the program, as is networking with other participants.

Learning Objectives

After participating in this program, you will be able to:

• Approach further learning about HI with a ‘roadmap’ that clarifies what you needs to learn and why.
• Put into practice the lessons that HI researchers and practitioners have already learned.
• Appreciate what you know and don’t yet know and must learn that is crucial to your success.
• Formulate your own guidance for how you will practice.
• Approach projects on a more realistic basis.