almost 2/3 done

The course is almost 2/3 done...modules 3 and 4 are due on Tuesday. Most of you are working on, or done with, the decision support module. Decision support is one of my interest areas - it's how I came into the realm of informatics. And ultimately one of the major goals of informatics as a specialty - to support decision making in all areas. Some decisions require minimal support - things like data organization and simple alerts, for example, help clinicians wade through the tsunami of information we face in healthcare, and avoid those errors of omission that can occur when people simply "miss" something in the chart. Another form of simple decision support is literature, especially things like info buttons that provide context sensitive access to evidence. Other forms of decision support are more complex, attempting to make the knowledge that experts have, available to novices. These complex decision support systems ("expert systems") are the type we asked you to evaluate in module 4 and are the type of system I most often work with. I can imagine a time when electronic records incorporate complex CDS that repesent "best practices" in a given area.

The final two modules are coming up. Module 5 looks at policy and ethical issues. The question about blogging (why would anyone do this) really hit home for me this week. One of my young acquaintences (one of my kids' friends) died this week. He chronicled his journey with cancer through a blog; with entries up to two weeks before his death.

Module 6 will come full circle back to the beginning; as we re-examine systems and devices and wrap up the course. The part where you use a public health database is in anticipation of your evidence based practice course - that course has in the past had assignments that require you to access IBIS-PH (the database) and we wanted to provide an introduction to it early on.

This has been a good course so far. Although I haven't left many individual responses, (not wanting to prejudice people who have not yet done a module)... I have been reading your blogs and discussions, and remain impressed with the quality and thoughtfulness with which you've all approached the modules.

Hang in there.

Kathy