Module: IS4250 IT-enabled Healthcare Solutioning
Semester taken: SEM2 AY2019/2020
Lecturer / Tutor: Lim Shi Ying
Module synopsis (taken from nusmods.com)
This module provides students with hands-on, problem-based experience in Information Technology (IT) design to tackle real-world healthcare challenges. Healthcare systems worldwide are in the midst of changing their core strategies, financing and operational care processes. For instance, reactive sick care is replaced by proactive efforts to keep people healthy and out of the hospital. Large-scale healthcare systems are also being redesigned to promote continuity of care. In this module, students can learn how to provide workable IT solutions to address contemporary healthcare issues and challenges.
Main Learning Objectives
- Understand the healthcare ecosystem & workflows — processes, challenges, opportunities
- Understand role of IT in healthcare delivery
- Understand and implement elements behind introducing new IT processes or systems
Course deliverables / Graded Components
- Group project: 40%
- Midterm exam: 30%
- Case study (1 individual, 1 group): 10%
- Class participation, in-class quizzes & exercises (Individual): 20%
Personal review
I decided to take this module because I was interested in healthcare and was keen to work in the healthtech industry. It was a great decision because this module served as a good foundation for learning about the (general) healthcare ecosystem. Students were exposed to some existing systems (e.g., Computer-on-Wheels used in hospitals) and the concept of continuous improvement (kaizen) of processes to improve workflow efficiency. With this perspective in mind, we were challenged to think critically and propose IT solutions to a modern pressing healthcare issue via the group project.
The group project had the highest weightage among all the graded components, and for good reason. It was a great hands-on learning experience as my group did idea brainstorming, market research through interviews with nurses and social workers, designing of our solution and finally, addressing adoption challenges. While students were not required to do any code development for their proposed solution, a proof-of-concept prototype was still required. For my group, we used tools such as Figma and PowerPoint.
Although the module content was quite focused on a specific industry, which is healthcare, I think that the skills learnt are applicable in many other places too. For instance, we learnt how to create personas, map out customer journeys, draw business model canvas and do high-fidelity prototyping. And if you’ve mainly only done programming up to this point, then add report writing to the list as well. Most of these skills are useful, especially when starting a new project or introducing a new process!
Moving onto lesson format, class was conducted in lecture style, but students were highly encouraged to contribute to class discussions. Prof Lim did a great job in going into greater depth for certain topic areas and opening up the floor for inputs! As such, I would highly recommend you to do your readings diligently so that you can better engage in class discussions, which would in turn greatly help your learning. Not forgetting, one perk of this module was that external speakers from different healthcare institutions were invited regularly (e.g., every fortnight) to give a talk during lesson time, which allowed me to gain real industry insights!
Ending Note
I encourage you to take this module if you are interested in the healthcare industry 😀
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Thank you for reading!