Educating the educators: Incorporating bioinformatics into biological science education in Malaysia

Bioinformatics can be defined as a fusion of computational and biological sciences. The urgency to process and analyse the deluge of data created by proteomics and genomics studies has caused bioinformatics to gain prominence and importance. However, its multidisciplinary nature has created a unique demand for specialist trained in both biology and computing. In this review, we described the components that constitute the bioinformatics field and distinctive education criteria that are required to produce individuals with bioinformatics training. This paper will also provide an introduction and overview of bioinformatics in Malaysia. The existing bioinformatics scenario in Malaysia was surveyed to gauge its advancement and to plan for future bioinformatics education strategies. For comparison, we surveyed methods and strategies used in education by other countries so that lessons can be learnt to further improve the implementation of bioinformatics in Malaysia. It is believed that accurate and sufficient steerage from the academia and industry will enable Malaysia to produce quality bioinformaticians in the future

Educating Students in Healthcare Information Technology: IS Community Barriers, Challenges, and Paths Forward

Healthcare information technology (HIT) is an exciting field to which information systems (IS) scholars have much to contribute. As the IS community continues to tackle enrollment and growth issues across the nation, HIT becomes an attractive topic for the IS educators to embrace. Careful consideration and domain understanding are needed to ensure a suitable depth and balance in curricula. The intent of this article is to provide guidance to the IS community to support and promote successful HIT educational courses and programs by investigating three important questions: (1) Does IS have a role in HIT? (2) Where does an IS educator look to begin with HIT education? (3) How do IS educators frame their vision for HIT curricula leveraging the discipline’s strengths? Our hope is that this article will illuminate HIT curriculum matters for the general IS faculty and generate purposeful debate regarding how best to position HIT education within the IS discipline if IS faculty want to join in the quest to successfully educate and place graduates in the growing health technology sector

Librarians as Members of Integrated Institutional Information Programs: Management and Organizational Issues

published or submitted for publicatio

Participatory Approach to Program Evaluation: Learning from Students and Faculty to Improve Training in Biomedical Informatics

Participatory evaluation tools have shown to be effective for program development in various settings, including in higher education. Taking student perspectives into consideration is key for graduate program development, particularly in interdisciplinary programs.The current study utilizes Group Level Assessment (GLA),a participatory program evaluation tool, to evaluate the Biomedical Informatics (BMI) PhD Program at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). The study was conducted two years after the program was established, an appropriate timing to gauge the opinions of current doctoral students as the program grows and develops. The findings show the strengths and identify areas of improvement of the doctoral program, providing an evidence base for administrators and faculty to work collaboratively with students to capitalize on assets and address potential issues

Say Good-Bye to the Silos and Hello to Collaboration: A New Curriculum Approach

In sharp contrast with the customary traditions of educational silos in the delivery of knowledge and understanding, this paper presents a true interdisciplinary curriculum that is designed to supply the community with graduates who are prepared to take on diverse roles in health care and information management. The complexity of our modern communities and their anticipated futuristic needs suggest that graduates in health care must be able to apply more than a traditional singular knowledge domain to articulate problems and provide solutions to those problems in meaningful ways. The curriculum approach presented will facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge learning from existing classes, foster faculty collaboration, and enhance the resource sharing and integration. In essence, this new curriculum collapses the boundaries of education silos

The Development of an Undergraduate Data Curriculum: A Model for Maximizing Curricular Partnerships and Opportunities

The article provides the motivations and foundations for creating an interdisciplinary program between a Library and Information Science department and a Human-Centered Computing department. The program focuses on data studies and data science concepts, issues, and skill sets. In the paper, we analyze trends in Library and Information Science curricula, the emergence of data-related Library and Information Science curricula, and interdisciplinary data-related curricula. Then, we describe the development of the undergraduate data curriculum and provide the institutional context; discuss collaboration and resource optimization; provide justifications and workforce alignment; and detail the minor, major, and graduate opportunities. Finally, we argue that the proposed program holds the potential to model interdisciplinary, holistic data-centered curriculum development by complimenting Library and Information Science traditions (e.g., information organization, access, and ethics) with scholarly work in data science, specifically data visualization and analytics. There is a significant opportunity for Library and Information Science to add value to data science and analytics curricula, and vice versa

Creating a Health Informatics Program: Is It Good For What Ails Us?

The state of information technology in healthcare, which for years has greatly lagged behind other industries, is currently evolving at a rapid pace. Unfortunately, very few educational programs are producing graduates with the technical and clinical skills to meet these needs. To remedy this problem, researchers and faculty at a large southern university developed and implemented a new Health Informatics (HI) bachelor’s degree program. This paper evaluates the program\u27s performance at one year after implementation to determine if the hypotheses that led to its creation are supported. Critical success factors for creating a successful HI program at other institutions are identified and discussed

Managing Knowledge and Technology to Foster Innovation at The Ohio State University Medical Center

Biomedical knowledge is expanding at an unprecedented rate—one that is unlikely to slow anytime in the future. While the volume and scope of this new knowledge poses significant organizational challenges, it creates tremendous opportunities to release and direct its power to the service of significant goals. The authors explain how the Center for Knowledge Management at The Ohio State University Medical Center, created during the academic year 2003–04, is doing just that by integrating numerous resource-intensive, technology-based initiatives— including personnel, services and infrastructure, digital repositories, data sets, mobile computing devices, high-tech patient simulators, computerized testing, and interactive multimedia—in a way that enables the center to provide information tailored to the needs of students, faculty and staff on the medical center campus and its surrounding health sciences colleges. The authors discuss how discovering, applying, and sharing new knowledge, information assets, and technologies in this way is a collaborative process. This process creates open-ended opportunities for innovation and a roadmap for working toward seamless integration, synergy, and substantial enhancement of the academic medical center’s research, educational, and clinical mission areas