Contents

1. International Perspectives on Program Accreditation for Professional Education in Informatics, Medinfo 2013 Health and Human Services InformaticsMaster's degree programme Kaija Saranto, Professor, PhD, RN, FACMISirpa Kuusisto-Niemi, Ms.Soc.Sc.,Lecturer Department of Health and Social Management

2. Contents • Health and Human Services Informatics master’s degree programme • Experiences of the accreditation process • Impact of the accreditation on education, research and society

3. Health and Human Services Informatics education in Finland • Only Master's programme of its kind in Finland • Established in 2000 as major; permanent programme since 2005 • The aim is to produce professionals and researchers in information management for the needs of health and social care • Based on IMIA Recommendations on Education in Health and Medical Informatics from the very beginning • Master´s degree program 2007, 120 ECTS points • BA degree or corresponding studies as a background • Supplementary studies max 60 ECTS points • Personal study plan for each student • Multifaceted teaching with web studies, email • Assessment and feedback system

4. Definition Health and Human Services Informatics (HHSI) is understood as the management of information resources of an entity, e.g. an organisation, covering the activities, actors and methods in the production of health and welfare services for the public and private sectors and organisations. Resources are understood as data warehouses, programs, devices, communications arrangements and people as sources and utilizers of information.

5. Health Informatics and related fields Context: health and social sciences Mod. Mantas 2011

6. Students The students represent the whole country: Eastern Finland 40% Metropolitan area (Southern Finland) 30 % Middle Finland 10% Western Finland 10% Northern Finland 10% Graduated 119 (8/2013) Rovaniemi Oulu Kajaani Vaasa Kuopio Joensuu Jyväskylä Varkaus Tampere Mikkeli Lahti Kouvola Turku Helsinki

7. THE PARADIGM FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES INFORMATICS Main concepts: Actors mean users or producers of social and health services Data is the hierarchical continuum from data to knowledge Intervention means the planning, implementation, evaluation or use of services Technology means social and technical procedures used in processing, analysing, storing or retrieving data related to actions

8. THE PARADIGM FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES INFORMATICSMain concepts and research focus http:// Body of Knowledge in Informatics Steering and organizing of information management in work processes Conext: Health and Social Care Intervention Data Use of ICT Data models, structures Technology Actors Knowledge management and informatics competences

9. Knowledge and skills areas in HHSI 2013-2014

10. IMIA GA, Beijing 23.10.2012

11. Experiences • The evaluation process itself was familiar due to various evaluations at the university • The focus on informatics was very rewarding • The expertice of the panel members was high quality • Instructions for self-assessment were clear and guided the analysis of the programme in a comprehensive way • The data collection was challenging due to fragmented databases • The timeframe of the process was optimal for us • The site-visit was highly valued by the university staff

12. Impact of the accreditation Education & Research: The guidance to improve both structure and content of the curriculawasveryrewarding and ithelpedus: • To focus on student’s optimum time to graduate • To improveprocedures in integratingteaching and research moreintensively • To stress the importance of quantitative research methods • To focus more thoroughly on outcomes of the education, especially on significance of students’ thesis

13. Impact of the accreditation Society: • The programme is now an established brand • Contacts with alumnis have been intensified eg. annual seminars • Number of applicants was slightly higher this spring • Co-operation with research units having convergent research interests has increased

14. Thank you!