eHIPP RoundseHealth Market Research

Liz Heathcote

Lana Newton

Contents

• Introduction

• Current reporting on eHealth field

• Results of our market research

• Existing and planned UBC Courses

• Questions and Discussion

Introduction and Background

eHealth education at

UBC

eHealth Landscape

• Review of literature, particularly:

– eHealth landscape and future

– job prospects for graduates

– HI competencies

– existing programs

eHealth landscape

Canadian public health care sector is worth more than $150 billion per year

Since 2001, Canadian focus primarily on electronic health records.

$1.6-billion has been spent from federal funds, to build nationally compatible systems and platforms

In a study of electronic health record adoption among 11 wealthy nations, Canada ranked last in physician utilization at 37%. Canada Health Infoway: http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/lang-en/about-infoway/news/media-room

eHealth landscape

B.C. has invested approximately $146 million in eHealth projects to “bring lab results, diagnostic scans, medication histories, and electronic Rx online ...”Gov’t News Release at http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2008HSERV0101-001697.htm

BC health system faces “cost pressures from changing demographics; shortages in health human resources; growing costs of managing chronic diseases…” Leitch et al. “Leveraging Information Technologies…”

President Obama has allocated $2 billion for HIT infrastructure: • $36-40B - electronic health record adoption• $118M - workforce development.

Job market pros

• “Ahead of the curve career”*

•Current Canadian workforce of 32,540 needs to increase by 6,320 - 12,330 by 2014^

•eHealth is becoming central to health services, thus need:

o healthcare workers who know why/ when/ how eHealth tools;

o healthcare IT specialists;

o health administrators & consultants with IT & clinical workflow skills and knowledge;

o researchers in ehealth, human factor or technology-based research.

*U.S. News & World Report, Dec 2008^ Health Informatics and Health Information Management — Human Resources Report (Nov 2009)

• Temporary, project-based positions

• Lag in prediction to realization of job availability

• Difficulty finding positions

• Difficulty locating reliable salary information

Job market cons

Job descriptions

• COACH’s HI professions matrix from ‘emerging professional’ to ‘master’ at http://coachorg.com/career_development/professionalism/core_competencies.htm

• UK Health Informatics Career Framework (HICF) (http://www.hicf.org.uk/).

Existing Programs

Clinical

Potential Student Survey

• Not sure of longevity and “mainstream”nessof eHealth

• Not sure of value

• Peripheral understanding

• More interested in certificates or specializations

Potential Student Survey

Potential Student Survey

Student Survey - motivations

Student Survey - barriers

Student Survey - Topics

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

14a: Data and databases

14b: History & development

14c. Health care sector

14d: Telehealth

14e. Role and benefits of ICT in health

14f: Health Care Systems

14g. Clinical Support Systems

14h: Clinical robotics

14i: Genomics and bioinformatics

14j: Future Trends

14k. Project Management

14l: Change Management

14m. Legal, security, privacy issues

Topic Areas for Postgraduate eHealth/ HI Study

Very important (4) Important (3) Somewhat Important (2) Not at all important (1)

Potential Employers

Who did we interview?

• Average years in career: 12 +

• Range: less than 5 years to 25 years

If you could create an eHealth Masters Grad, who would it

be?

Potential Employer Interviews: Preliminary Conclusions

• eHealth has increasingly large impact on healthcare

• There is a lag in uptake of eHealth because the field needs more professionally trained:

So??

• Still defining structures, the field itself

• eHealth & HI suffering from a low profile

• Existing health science/ medical graduates

• applied eHealth skills

• program evaluation skills

• Clinical vs IT vs business

• How does this match with your experience/ needs?

eHealth education at UBC

• Undergraduate – IHHS302, medical program redesign

• Postgraduate – Research Methods in eHealth

• High School – summer camps

• Web 2.0 in eHealth likely from September

• Professional Development – eHIPPs, short courses specific to health profession/ cultural context

Questions?

Liz liz.h@ubc.ca

Lana lana.n@ubc.ca