Required in stage
Optional in stage
Second term
Both terms
Not organised
This year
Next year
Alternating years
External
Prerequisites
Identical coursesMedical Information Systems (B-KUL-H0O27A)
Bellon Erwin (coordinator) | N. | Van den Bosch Bart (substitute) | Bellon Erwin (substitute) Aims
The student gets an understanding about:
- The way IT systems are used in healthcare with emphasis on the daily practice of a hospital, especially in the context of the electronic medical record for supporting the clinical workflow and the cooperation between healthcare actors.
- Points to consider when setting up such systems, in particular connecting or integrating systems.
- Concepts of databases and data modelling, of data security in the medical setting, and of systems for medical coding and classification.
- Terms such as medical ontologies, evidence-based medicine, clinical pathways, and physician order entry.
- The way (diagnostic) images are used, and the systems for managing and exchanging them (PACS – Image Management and Communication Systems), with emphasis on integrating such systems into overall IT.
- Requirements for diagnostic (primarily radiological) image viewing, and factors that determine the quality of display systems, including the concepts for calibration of such display systems.
- Standards such as HL7, DICOM, IHE profiles, and FHIR.
- Applications of telematics in healthcare, focusing on what is operational today for sharing medical information beyond individual healthcare institutions or healthcare workers, and concepts for setting up such systems.
- eHealth systems that became operational in Belgium over the past years, including the system of the ‘eHealth hubs and vaults’ for sharing medical results nationally.
The student understands limitations of current systems and difficulties faced in real-live environments and how the management structures in the hospital influence the approach to IT and determine the architectural options.
The lecturers try to not only teach concepts but also to pass on experience gained from their activities in a hospital.
Previous knowledge
No specific prior knowledge about medicine or IT is required. Students must have basic knowledge of information technology and the possibilities of computers and networks.
Identical courses
This course is identical to the following courses:
H03K5A : Medical Information Systems
Is included in these courses of study
Activities
3 ects. Medical Information Systems: Lecture (B-KUL-H0O27a)
EnglishFormat: Lecture
23 
First termN. | Van den Bosch Bart (substitute) | Bellon Erwin (substitute) Content
This course is about how physicians and other healthcare actors deal with different kinds of information, and how we can support them for those tasks through IT. Diagnostic images are discussed in more detail because they impose specific requirements on technology and user interfaces. The emphasis is on global aspects of data management and (tele)communication, in contrast to the ‘internal’ aspects of the data. For example, for imaging data, properties such as resolution or bit depth are mentioned, but the course does not discuss image processing methods to extract information from the images (which is a topic of other courses). The course also focuses more on how technology is used rather than on the technology itself. Experimental methods to extract information out of text or images are only mentioned in passing.
The teachers are part of the team that is responsible for realizing and maintaining the medical information system of the University Hospitals Leuven. The course therefore starts from the requirements and challenges met in daily clinical routine, especially in a hospital setting. Rather than presenting cookbook recipes with IT solutions, the emphasis in this course is on pointing out the restrictions imposed by this particular context with, from an IT perspective, usually difficult users, highly flexible processes, and an often unfavourable management structure.
The concepts presented in the lectures are illustrated using actual systems used in daily practice, often in the University Hospitals Leuven. Differentiation is made between what is (currently) realistic in practice and what could be achieved theoretically but for which practical application is still in the future.
Course material
Slides, text for specific topics, papers.