AHI Curriculum

Offering a 36-credit Master's Degree or a 16-credit Advanced Certificate

Online. In Person. Limited Term Residencies.

Core courses (offered in Fall)
Concepts in Health Informatics (4 credits) This course provides an overview of the academic discipline of Health Informatics, which itself is the confluence of the disciplines of healthcare, information science, computer science, and engineering. It provides students with their first hands-on experience with the open-source software tools which underpin this Applied Health Informatics program. The first lecture provides a general overview of Health Informatics, in alignment with the general structure of course topics in this program. Subsequent lectures provide an overview of each topic that is covered in more detail in the other eight courses.
Models for Clinical Information (4 credits) This course provides a broad perspective on the key concepts, requirements, and standards for modeling clinical information. Creating and managing clinical information using structured models is an essential prerequisite for many informatics services, including detailed analysis and reporting, decision support, big data analysis, and artificial intelligence. The two key international standards – ISO 13606 and Health Level 7 (HL7) – provide flexible frameworks for representing structured clinical information; an understanding of their scope and capabilities is essential for any student of health informatics.
Electronic Health Records (4 credits) The Electronic Health Record can provide a full cradle-to-grave (longitudinal) record for a patient that is a vital tool to assist the provision of care in any setting; primary, secondary, or tertiary. In addition, a properly structured and coded record can act as a rich source of information for clinical studies and trials. This course provides students with hands-on experience of the requirements and functionality of Electronic Health Records systems. The emphasis is on the use of patient-centered record systems that manage structured clinical information. Students learn the importance of the EHR as a repository for clinical information, that has been integrated from many different sources, and the key functional requirements for working with the patient record: clinical data entry, viewing of the full longitudinal record, clinical correspondence, scheduling, ordering, and prescribing.

Elective Courses (offered in the Spring)
The Business of Health Informatics (4 credits) This course aims to equip students with the knowledge needed to apply health informatics for success in allied business environments – whether that environment is a public health service, a care provider organization, hospital, clinic, ancillary service provider, supplier business or entrepreneurial start-up.
Engineering Clinical Information Systems (4 credits) TThis course covers the technology and techniques required to design and implement effective health informatics systems. Starting from the general architecture of clinical information systems and Telemedicine systems, students learn how to use relational and 'no-SQL' databases to manage structured clinical data and how to design safe and usable clinical user interfaces.
Healthcare Integration (4 credits) Integration of clinical information that originates from many different sources is a vital requirement for the provision of patient-centered care. With the emphasis placed on the patient, rather than the care provider, clinical information systems users must have access to all relevant patient data, from primary, secondary, or tertiary care. Integration is enabled through the use of open standards, for both information and functional interfaces. This course covers the most important open standards and standards profiles for integration and provides hands-on experience with the key technologies.

Elective Courses (offered in the Summer)
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (4 credits) Since the advent of Artificial Intelligence in the 1950s, many researchers have recognized its potential for application in healthcare. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of the earliest operational rules-based systems were for clinical decision making and there was a second wave of interest in the 1980s with healthcare applications in the emerging technologies of Bayesian Belief Networks and Artificial Neural Networks. Whilst general advances in AI continued into the 21st century, in such fields as natural language processing, image analysis, and reasoning engines, it was not until the second decade of this century that mainstream interest in AI in medicine was renewed. This has been fueled by advances in general AI techniques and the growing availability of structured, coded clinical information. This course covers the background 18 and AI techniques for mining linked data, clinical decision support, natural language processing, and decision-making using different types of reasoning engines.
Analysis and Reporting in Healthcare (4 credits) This course provides an overview and practical experience in the key tools and techniques for analyzing and reporting healthcare information. This includes the full longitudinal record for a single patient as well as the combined information set for a cohort of many patients. Those patient cohorts may first be assembled through query of the EHR, to satisfy requirements for reporting of clinical outcomes or measuring the effectiveness of clinical services. The cohorts may have been selected as part of clinical studies or trials, which have specific standards and requirements for analysis and reporting. Students learn about statistical techniques that have a long history of use in health informatics, together with newer techniques for analyzing 'big data' generated from large-scale, structured health records systems.

Elective Courses (offered in the Summer)

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (4 credits) Since the advent of Artificial Intelligence in the 1950s, many researchers have recognized its potential for application in healthcare. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of the earliest operational rules-based systems were for clinical decision making and there was a second wave of interest in the 1980s with healthcare applications in the emerging technologies of Bayesian Belief Networks and Artificial Neural Networks. Whilst general advances in AI continued into the 21st century, in such fields as natural language processing, image analysis, and reasoning engines, it was not until the second decade of this century that mainstream interest in AI in medicine was renewed. This has been fueled by advances in general AI techniques and the growing availability of structured, coded clinical information. This course covers the background 18 and AI techniques for mining linked data, clinical decision support, natural language processing, and decision-making using different types of reasoning engines.

Analysis and Reporting in Healthcare (4 credits) This course provides an overview and practical experience in the key tools and techniques for analyzing and reporting healthcare information. This includes the full longitudinal record for a single patient as well as the combined information set for a cohort of many patients. Those patient cohorts may first be assembled through query of the EHR, to satisfy requirements for reporting of clinical outcomes or measuring the effectiveness of clinical services. The cohorts may have been selected as part of clinical studies or trials, which have specific standards and requirements for analysis and reporting. Students learn about statistical techniques that have a long history of use in health informatics, together with newer techniques for analyzing 'big data' generated from large-scale, structured health records systems.

Capstone Options (one or both)
Research Project/Thesis The following method should by used for an Investigative Study: 1. Select one or more topics of interest, directly related to topics covered in classes for the course - you should be able to identify which topics these are. 2. Frame a Research Question for the Investigative Study. This should be relevant to the scope of material covered in this course and be focused on something that is of particular interest to yourself. It may be a question that seems to have been answered in the class materials; or it may be a related question; or a question that spans several topics. 3. The Research Question could be a broad question (e.g. How effective are the different XML formats used for representing clinical data in PHRs in the US healthcare system?) or a more specific question related to the system (e.g. What are the issues around the use of HL7 CDA in Maternity Systems? or What is the coverage of published systems of clinical coding for patient data gathered in Hepatology?) 4. Conduct a literature search / review to investigate previous work, and current state-of-the-art related to the Research Question. 5. Provide an analysis of the Research Question, using the literature review as back-up for any assertions where relevant, but also including original analytical thought not covered by the literature review (but remember that any assertions should be backed by evidence). 6. Conclude with a summary of how the Research Question has been addressed and areas of further work that would expand or enhance the study. You may express your own opinions in the conclusion, but these should be traceable back through the analysis and the literature review to the Research Question itself.
Applied Project The following method should by used for a Practical Investigation: 1. Select one or more topics of interest, directly related to topics covered in classes for the course - you should be able to identify which topics these are. 2. Frame a Research Objective for the Practical Investigation. This should be relevant to the scope of material covered in this course and be focused on something that is of particular interest to yourself. It may be an objective that seems to have been addressed in the class materials; or it may be a related objective; or an objective that spans several topics. 3. The Research Objective could be to produce a model (e.g. Create a UML model of the Admissions, Discharge, Transfer process), an executable configuration (e.g. Demonstrate an ISO 13606 based model for Medications History, implemented in the cityEHR) or executable code (e.g. Develop a mobile app for input and tracking of blood glucose level / or / An XSLT stylesheet for transformation of HL7 CDA to HTML). 4. Undertake a brief literature review of the Research Objective and make reference to any relevant work you find in the Introduction to your Thesis. This is optional, but you may find it easier to undertake your own practical work if you can find literature describing similar work). 5. Undertake some practical work that involves manipulating or processing data, as driven by the Research Objective. 6. Describe the methods you used in the practical work, including any problems that you encountered. 7. Provide an analysis of the final product of the practical work. It is important to note that it is not necessary to produce a successful working product or functioning code in the practical work (although it is usually more satisfying if you can do this). The Capstone Project is assessed on the basis of the Thesis you submit, not the outcome of the practical work itself; this is to recognise that you may want to explore an ambitious objective within the limited time available for the Capstone Project. 8. Conclude with a summary of how the Research Objective has been met (or not) in your practical work and areas of further work that would expand or enhance the investigation. You may express your own opinions in the conclusion, but these should be traceable back through the methods, analysis and any literature review to the Research Objective itself.

Capstone Options (one or both)

Research Project/Thesis

The following method should by used for an Investigative Study:

1. Select one or more topics of interest, directly related to topics covered in classes for the course - you should be able to identify which topics these are.

2. Frame a Research Question for the Investigative Study. This should be relevant to the scope of material covered in this course and be focused on something that is of particular interest to yourself. It may be a question that seems to have been answered in the class materials; or it may be a related question; or a question that spans several topics.

3. The Research Question could be a broad question (e.g. How effective are the different XML formats used for representing clinical data in PHRs in the US healthcare system?) or a more specific question related to the system (e.g. What are the issues around the use of HL7 CDA in Maternity Systems? or What is the coverage of published systems of clinical coding for patient data gathered in Hepatology?)

4. Conduct a literature search / review to investigate previous work, and current state-of-the-art related to the Research Question.

5. Provide an analysis of the Research Question, using the literature review as back-up for any assertions where relevant, but also including original analytical thought not covered by the literature review (but remember that any assertions should be backed by evidence).

6. Conclude with a summary of how the Research Question has been addressed and areas of further work that would expand or enhance the study. You may express your own opinions in the conclusion, but these should be traceable back through the analysis and the literature review to the Research Question itself.

Applied Project

The following method should by used for a Practical Investigation:

1. Select one or more topics of interest, directly related to topics covered in classes for the course - you should be able to identify which topics these are.

2. Frame a Research Objective for the Practical Investigation. This should be relevant to the scope of material covered in this course and be focused on something that is of particular interest to yourself. It may be an objective that seems to have been addressed in the class materials; or it may be a related objective; or an objective that spans several topics.

3. The Research Objective could be to produce a model (e.g. Create a UML model of the
Admissions, Discharge, Transfer process), an executable configuration (e.g. Demonstrate an ISO 13606 based model for Medications History, implemented in the cityEHR) or executable code (e.g. Develop a mobile app for input and tracking of blood glucose level / or / An XSLT stylesheet for transformation of HL7 CDA to HTML).

4. Undertake a brief literature review of the Research Objective and make reference to any
relevant work you find in the Introduction to your Thesis. This is optional, but you may find
it easier to undertake your own practical work if you can find literature describing similar
work).

5. Undertake some practical work that involves manipulating or processing data, as driven by the Research Objective.

6. Describe the methods you used in the practical work, including any problems that you encountered.

7. Provide an analysis of the final product of the practical work. It is important to note that it is not necessary to produce a successful working product or functioning code in the practical work (although it is usually more satisfying if you can do this). The Capstone Project is assessed on the basis of the Thesis you submit, not the outcome of the practical work itself; this is to recognise that you may want to explore an ambitious objective within the limited time available for the Capstone Project.

8. Conclude with a summary of how the Research Objective has been met (or not) in your practical work and areas of further work that would expand or enhance the investigation. You may express your own opinions in the conclusion, but these should be traceable back through the methods, analysis and any literature review to the Research Objective itself.

Core courses (offered in Fall)
Concepts in Health Informatics (4 credits) This course provides an overview of the academic discipline of Health Informatics, which itself is the confluence of the disciplines of healthcare, information science, computer science, and engineering. It provides students with their first hands-on experience with the open-source software tools which underpin this Applied Health Informatics program. The first lecture provides a general overview of Health Informatics, in alignment with the general structure of course topics in this program. Subsequent lectures provide an overview of each topic that is covered in more detail in the other eight courses.
Models for Clinical Information (4 credits) This course provides a broad perspective on the key concepts, requirements, and standards for modeling clinical information. Creating and managing clinical information using structured models is an essential prerequisite for many informatics services, including detailed analysis and reporting, decision support, big data analysis, and artificial intelligence. The two key international standards – ISO 13606 and Health Level 7 (HL7) – provide flexible frameworks for representing structured clinical information; an understanding of their scope and capabilities is essential for any student of health informatics.
Electronic Health Records (4 credits) The Electronic Health Record can provide a full cradle-to-grave (longitudinal) record for a patient that is a vital tool to assist the provision of care in any setting; primary, secondary, or tertiary. In addition, a properly structured and coded record can act as a rich source of information for clinical studies and trials. This course provides students with hands-on experience of the requirements and functionality of Electronic Health Records systems. The emphasis is on the use of patient-centered record systems that manage structured clinical information. Students learn the importance of the EHR as a repository for clinical information, that has been integrated from many different sources, and the key functional requirements for working with the patient record: clinical data entry, viewing of the full longitudinal record, clinical correspondence, scheduling, ordering, and prescribing.

Capstone Options (one or both)
Research Project/Thesis The following method should by used for an Investigative Study: 1. Select one or more topics of interest, directly related to topics covered in classes for the course - you should be able to identify which topics these are. 2. Frame a Research Question for the Investigative Study. This should be relevant to the scope of material covered in this course and be focused on something that is of particular interest to yourself. It may be a question that seems to have been answered in the class materials; or it may be a related question; or a question that spans several topics. 3. The Research Question could be a broad question (e.g. How effective are the different XML formats used for representing clinical data in PHRs in the US healthcare system?) or a more specific question related to the system (e.g. What are the issues around the use of HL7 CDA in Maternity Systems? or What is the coverage of published systems of clinical coding for patient data gathered in Hepatology?) 4. Conduct a literature search / review to investigate previous work, and current state-of-the-art related to the Research Question. 5. Provide an analysis of the Research Question, using the literature review as back-up for any assertions where relevant, but also including original analytical thought not covered by the literature review (but remember that any assertions should be backed by evidence). 6. Conclude with a summary of how the Research Question has been addressed and areas of further work that would expand or enhance the study. You may express your own opinions in the conclusion, but these should be traceable back through the analysis and the literature review to the Research Question itself.
Applied Project The following method should by used for a Practical Investigation: 1. Select one or more topics of interest, directly related to topics covered in classes for the course - you should be able to identify which topics these are. 2. Frame a Research Objective for the Practical Investigation. This should be relevant to the scope of material covered in this course and be focused on something that is of particular interest to yourself. It may be an objective that seems to have been addressed in the class materials; or it may be a related objective; or an objective that spans several topics. 3. The Research Objective could be to produce a model (e.g. Create a UML model of the Admissions, Discharge, Transfer process), an executable configuration (e.g. Demonstrate an ISO 13606 based model for Medications History, implemented in the cityEHR) or executable code (e.g. Develop a mobile app for input and tracking of blood glucose level / or / An XSLT stylesheet for transformation of HL7 CDA to HTML). 4. Undertake a brief literature review of the Research Objective and make reference to any relevant work you find in the Introduction to your Thesis. This is optional, but you may find it easier to undertake your own practical work if you can find literature describing similar work). 5. Undertake some practical work that involves manipulating or processing data, as driven by the Research Objective. 6. Describe the methods you used in the practical work, including any problems that you encountered. 7. Provide an analysis of the final product of the practical work. It is important to note that it is not necessary to produce a successful working product or functioning code in the practical work (although it is usually more satisfying if you can do this). The Capstone Project is assessed on the basis of the Thesis you submit, not the outcome of the practical work itself; this is to recognise that you may want to explore an ambitious objective within the limited time available for the Capstone Project. 8. Conclude with a summary of how the Research Objective has been met (or not) in your practical work and areas of further work that would expand or enhance the investigation. You may express your own opinions in the conclusion, but these should be traceable back through the methods, analysis and any literature review to the Research Objective itself.

Capstone Options (one or both)

Research Project/Thesis

The following method should by used for an Investigative Study:

1. Select one or more topics of interest, directly related to topics covered in classes for the course - you should be able to identify which topics these are.

4. Conduct a literature search / review to investigate previous work, and current state-of-the-art related to the Research Question.

Applied Project

The following method should by used for a Practical Investigation:

1. Select one or more topics of interest, directly related to topics covered in classes for the course - you should be able to identify which topics these are.

5. Undertake some practical work that involves manipulating or processing data, as driven by the Research Objective.

6. Describe the methods you used in the practical work, including any problems that you encountered.

Limited Term Residencies are 1-2 week learning intensives where our students and industry partners from all over the world get together to work on contemporary challenges in Health Informatics. At these residencies, student listen to lectures from experts, complete team-based data challenges, and participate in evening recreation and fellowship. We currently offer our students two residency opportunities a year, both held in St. Edmunds Hall in Oxford, United Kingdom. The courses held during these residencies are as follows:

Fall Residency Courses
XML in Healthcare (4 credits) This course provides a hands-on introduction to the use of XML in healthcare. It starts from the basics of the XML syntax, builds through the introduction of related XML standards and then takes a look at how XML is used for structured messages, information storage, semantic technologies and ontologies. The final topics of the course look at the use of XML for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and for Electronic Health Records. Each class consists of a lecture, followed by a hands-on exercise that students complete using the machines and software provided, with the assistance of the course tutors.
Health Data Analytics Leadership (4 credits) This is a course in Leadership Development. It is geared for both purchasers & sellers of analytics. The goal is to continuously improve the demonstrable value of healthcare. Each topic covers a vital step in the process to achieve that goal, including population health analytics, precision medicine, organizational analytics and needs analysis, application, assessment, and analytics-enabled continuous learning organizations/systems.

Fall Residency Courses

XML in Healthcare (4 credits) This course provides a hands-on introduction to the use of XML in healthcare. It starts from the basics of the XML syntax, builds through the introduction of related XML standards and then takes a look at how XML is used for structured messages, information storage, semantic technologies and ontologies. The final topics of the course look at the use of XML for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and for Electronic Health Records. Each class consists of a lecture, followed by a hands-on exercise that students complete using the machines and software provided, with the assistance of the course tutors.

Health Data Analytics Leadership (4 credits) This is a course in Leadership Development. It is geared for both purchasers & sellers of analytics. The goal is to continuously improve the demonstrable value of healthcare. Each topic covers a vital step in the process to achieve that goal, including population health analytics, precision medicine, organizational analytics and needs analysis, application, assessment, and analytics-enabled continuous learning organizations/systems.

Spring Residency Courses
State of the Art in Health Informatics (4 credits) This course covers special topics in Health Informatics which reflect the current state-of-the-art or lie outside the scope of the other courses offered. As with all the courses, the emphasis is on hands-on experience and applied knowledge of technology. The syllabus for this course is reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that it reflects current trends in the ever-changing field. Reflecting this, guest lecturers are engaged for many of the classes, to bring practical expertise, relevant expertise and an insight into current practices.
Deploying Open-Source Electronic Health Records (workshop) An international workshop on the deployment of model-driven, ontology-based, open-source Electronic Health Records, using cityEHR. This one-week residential workshop will bring together participants from around the world, to learn how to configure and deploy an open source, model-driven, health electronic records system. We will use the open source cityEHR system, with an example ontology model for Fracture Liaison Services, which has been created by students at the University of Oxford and the University of Victoria, Canada. The workshop is organised as part of a collaborative research project involving participants from Fordham University (New York), the University of Victoria (Canada) and the University of Oxford. Workshop participants will set up their own installation of the cityEHR and review its main features, using the default clinical information model which ships with the base system. They will then create a Fracture Liaison records system as a new application and import the ontology model previously developed for that.The Fracture Liaison system will serve as a test bed to explore the approaches and tools for creating ontology models that drive the operational health records system, before participants move on to create and deploy an EHR for a clinical domain of their choice.

Spring Residency Courses

State of the Art in Health Informatics (4 credits) This course covers special topics in Health Informatics which reflect the current state-of-the-art or lie outside the scope of the other courses offered. As with all the courses, the emphasis is on hands-on experience and applied knowledge of technology. The syllabus for this course is reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that it reflects current trends in the ever-changing field. Reflecting this, guest lecturers are engaged for many of the classes, to bring practical expertise, relevant expertise and an insight into current practices.

Deploying Open-Source Electronic Health Records (workshop) An international workshop on the deployment of model-driven, ontology-based, open-source Electronic Health Records, using cityEHR. This one-week residential workshop will bring together participants from around the world, to learn how to configure and deploy an open source, model-driven, health electronic records system. We will use the open source cityEHR system, with an example ontology model for Fracture Liaison Services, which has been created by students at the University of Oxford and the University of Victoria, Canada. The workshop is organised as part of a collaborative research project involving participants from Fordham University (New York), the University of Victoria (Canada) and the University of Oxford. Workshop participants will set up their own installation of the cityEHR and review its main features, using the default clinical information model which ships with the base system. They will then create a Fracture Liaison records system as a new application and import the ontology model previously developed for that.The Fracture Liaison system will serve as a test bed to explore the approaches and tools for creating ontology models that drive the operational health records system, before participants move on to create and deploy an EHR for a clinical domain of their choice.

Next Residency: Fordham @ Oxford, March 15th - 23rd, 2024

To give prospective students a better sense of what its like to attend a residency, a sample daily routine and evening activity schedule are presented here:

Daily Routine

Time	Activity	Duration
8:00	Breakfast	60 minutes
9:30	Class	90 minutes
11:00	Coffee Break	30 minutes
11:30	Class	90 minutes
13:00	Lunch	60 minutes
14:00	Class	90 minutes
15:30	Afternoon Tea	30 minutes
16:00	Class	90 minutes
17:30	Evening Activity	TBD
19:00	Dinner	60 minutes
20:00	Evening Activity	TBD

Evening Activity Schedule

Most evenings people get together in the college bar, either before or after dinner. The bar may be open from 6 pm until 11 pm, serving both soft drinks and traditional beers, wines and spirits. If its open, it's a good place to meet and discuss the day's events.

Day	Activity
Sunday	A welcome reception in the Pontigny Room, from 6-30pm, followed by a buffet dinner in the Wolfson Hall starting from 7pm.
Monday	Punting down the River Cherwell, followed by dinner in college. Meet at the Porter's Lodge from 5-30pm onwards and we will walk down to the river in groups to join our punts for a trip down the river Cherwell. If you are feeling energetic then this is your opportunity to have a go at the ancient art of punting; if not, just sit back, relax and amuse yourself watching someone else propel you up and down the river. Dinner served in the Wolfson Hall at 7pm.
Tuesday	College dinner (at 7pm) followed by a tour of some historic sites and a number of Oxford’s historic public houses (a.k.a. a pub crawl). The pubs serve soft drinks as well as beer so are suitable for everyone to enjoy.
Wednesday	Dinner is served in the Wolfson Hall from 7pm. After dinner we will host an evening of informal presentations in the Pontigny Room. All students are welcome to make a presentation (its voluntary) including presentation of academic work (completed or planned) or your workplace activities. An informal 'honour bar' with beer, wine and soft drinks will be available.
Thursday	Dress up for a more formal dinner in the Wolfson Hall. At 6-15pm there will be a performance from the St Giles Choir in the college chapel, followed by a group photograph, before dinner at 7pm. After dinner there is another opportunity to enjoy informal presentations in the Pontigny Room.
Friday	Dinner is served in the Wolfson Hall from 7pm.
Saturday	Open-Source Electronic Health Records Summit