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Placement Report

Page history last edited by Barry Corrigan 15 years, 10 months ago

1.0 Introduction


Barry was employed as a Multimedia designer to assist with the design, interaction and usability of learning material for a new post-graduate certificate in health informatics at the Jordanstown campus. Some of his responsibilities included creating interactive learning materials for the course as well as managing the design and development of one of the modules "Analysing and presenting data and information" through the use of an online application called WebCT used throughout the University.

 

Health Informatics (HI) lies at the intersection of informatics and the health and social care disciplines. It equips healthcare professionals with better information handling and interpretation skills. It may be defined as:

 

"The knowledge, skills and tools which enable information to be collected, managed, used and shared to support the delivery of healthcare and to promote health"

 

1.1 History and Development


The course committee believed that there was a need for enhanced education opportunities to address the academic aspirations of Health Informatics professionals in Northern Ireland, which refines the knowledge from the Computing Science domain to specific health domain issues. So the course team proposed a postgraduate certificate in Health Informatics to address this need. By setting up this course it extends learning initiatives such as ECDL "European computer driving license" Health modules and the Microsoft NHS skills academy, which focus on digital literacy in healthcare, by providing relevant specialist computing knowledge.

 

The postgraduate certificate is the first dedicated Health Informatics course in Northern Ireland. It has been planned in close collaboration with the Health and Social Care Services (HSC) ICT Training Group, which has responsibility for ICT training in the health service in Northern Ireland. The course receives support from Campus One, the University of Ulster's virtual campus, which currently provides distance-learning programmes for more than 10,000 students, including over 1,500 fully online postgraduate level students.

 

1.2 An organisational chart of the people in the company


 

 The course committee consists off:

 

•    Professor Richard Millar - Dean, Faculty of Computing and Engineering

 

•    Professor Gerry McAllister - Head of School, Computing and Mathematics

 

•    Mr Pat Sweeney -Associate Head of School, Computing and Mathematics

 

•    Mr William Blackburn - Lecturer

 

•    Dr Dewar Finlay - Lecturer

 

•    Professor Roy Harper - Visiting Professor

 

•    Dr Gaye Lightbody - Lecturer

 

•    Dr Paul McCullagh - Senior Lecturer

 

•    Mr Maurice Mulvenna - Senior Lecturer

 

•    Dr Chris Nugent - Reader

 

•    Dr Giuseppe Trombino - Research Associate

 

•    Mr Jonathan Wallace - Senior Lecturer

 

•    Mr Ian Young - Lecturer

 

•    Dr Huiru Zheng - Lecturer

 

 1.3 An understanding of the company management and department structures


 

The course consists of 7 modules, 3 core modules and 4 optional modules. The three core modules are:

 

Electronic Healthcare - This module is taken by Dr Paul McCullagh the module will enable students to appraise their role as an integral part of structure intended to meet the health & social care needs of patients and to understand the contribution of data and information towards meeting these requirements. Students will develop a knowledge and understanding of ways in which IM&T can support a model of best practice in the delivery of patient care. They will understand the development of the eHealth paradigm and explore examples relevant to their workplace.

 

Information management in health and social care - The module co-ordinator for this module is Mr Jonathan Wallace and teaching staff responsible for module delivery is Mr Maurice Mulvenna. Information and its management can support the delivery of health and social care. This module describes the fundamental components of information management in the context of health and social care and illustrates how information management supports key functions in social and health care organisations. The role of he knowledge base is introduced. Usability of information is explored. Appropriate management techniques are discussed.

 

Emerging healthcare technologies - This module is run by Dr Dewar Finlay and Dr Chris Nugent. This module provides an understanding of the use of technology in healthcare. Particular emphasis is placed on new and emerging applications of technology in this domain. This shall be realised through analysis of technologies, which are currently pervasive in healthcare provision, and through the investigation of new and emerging technologies. This module shall provide a framework to facilitate the development and understanding of technology and service provision for healthcare using a range of technologies new and old from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

 

The 4 optional modules for this course are:

 

Analysing and presenting data and information - This module is run by Dr Giuseppe Trombino. This module provides the opportunity to understand and be able to demonstrate how information, and its analysis and presentation utilizing information technology, can benefit the organization to support the delivery of effective health and social care.

 

Decision support systems - This module is taken by Mr William Blackburn and Ms Huiru Zheng. Making decisions about the delivery of appropriate and effective care, to patients and service users, requires all health and social care professionals to appreciate the value of using information in practice. IM&T specialists and health and social care professionals share a need to be able to understand the principles behind using data and information to aid decision-making about appropriate treatment and care, if they are to facilitate the process. This module aims to introduce students in a practical way to data gathering, processing, analysis and presentation in this context.

 

Electronic communications in health and social care - The module co-ordinator for this module is Dr Gaye Lightbody and the teaching staff responsible for module delivery is Gaye and Dr Giuseppe Trombino. The purpose of this module is to provide the students with the knowledge and confidence to use a range of electronic communication technologies efficiently and securely. By gaining practical background knowledge within this module this will equip students with the capabilities and interest to keep abreast of changes in modern technology.

 

Electronic care records - Mr Ian Young is responsible for this module. Students will be able to understand data, structuring and database management systems. Also they will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the critical significance of electronic care records to individual patient/client care. The students will gain an understanding of the use, value and benefits of clinical coding in support of health care services.

 

2.0 Your role within the company


 

Barry was employed as a Multimedia Designer to assist on the design, interaction and usability of a new postgraduate certificate in health informatics. Working under the course director Dr Paul McCullagh and Dr Giuseppe Trombino module co-ordinator of Analysing and presenting data and information. Barry's duties are:

 

•    Convert content given in word documents to XHTML an upload it to WebCT so students can access the information

 

•    Produce graphics and illustrations for the module Analysing and presenting data and information on a regular basis

 

•    Create video tutorials for this module some of the videos created were tutorials on how to use Microsoft Excel

 

•    Use Adobe Flash to create small interactive learning activities for the same module.

 

•    On occasion produce logos, flyers and PowerPoint presentations for either Paul or Giuseppe.

 

•    Design and manage a number of websites. I created an external website for the health informatics course http://www.infj.ulst.ac.uk/~ccjg23/hi/index.html so students can access further information about the course just like the IMD website. Another website was inconjuction with the British Computer Society to create a Northern  Ireland Health Informatics Forum.

 

2.1 – Technical skills needed to do the job


When this job was advertised there were some technical skills that were needed in order to be shortlisted. 

 

•    An extensive knowledge of HTML/XHTML

 

•    Experience in using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

 

•    Some knowledge in using Adobe Flash but not essential

 

•    To be able to work in a team but also to be able to work individually

 

•    Also good communication skills would be an advantage as you will be required to  give presentations on occasion. 

 

2.2 - Skills that I have learnt while on placement


While on placement there has been quite a few skills that I have learnt that will help me next year for my final year of study and my future career as a multimedia designer.

 

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a computer scripting language, originally designed for producing dynamic web pages, It is for server-side scripting, but can be used from a command line interface or in standalone graphical applications.

--Reference from wikipedia--


 

WordPress is an excellent open-source and free blogging software written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database

--Reference from wikipedia-- 

 

 

This language is what I have learnt the most this year. It started off when I was asked to design a website for the health informatics professionals of Northern Ireland. My brief was to create a dynamic website so it can be regularly updated. I decided that the best solution for this was to use an open source application called WordPress. Also I was asked to design a web accessible database to record the Health Informatics achievements for their professional awards.

 

ActionScript is the programming language that is used in Adobe Flash. There is a set of rules and syntax just like other programming languages. ActionScript mainly deals with controlling Movie Clips, Buttons, Text, Sounds and Video within Flash

--Reference from http://www.webwasp.co.uk/--

 

As I was working within the University of Ulster I was able to take part in events that will benefit me and others. I took part in the Science Shop event "A day in the life of a student at the University of Ulster". I was asked by my placement tutor Karen Fraser she needed a group of three people and we had to a demonstration of a number of activites which were:

 

  • Develop a game
  • Photoshop challenge
  • Design a CD front cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (5)

Karen said

at 7:12 pm on Apr 6, 2008

That would be now then Barry!

Danny said

at 3:21 pm on Apr 8, 2008

About time Baz!!! I'll start working on it soon as I can flat out here meeting after meeting...

Karen said

at 7:35 pm on Apr 27, 2008

Barry, this reads really well. k

Joanne said

at 2:42 pm on Apr 29, 2008

Looking good Barry.

Danny said

at 3:50 pm on May 12, 2008

so who did get the high score in that game of urs? lol

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