IN4MATX 172 / PUBHLTH 106 Project in Health Informatics

Winter 2017
Tuesday & Thursday 11:00 a.m. 12:20 p.m.
118 MSTB

INSTRUCTOR
Kai Zheng
Office: 6095 DBH
Email: kai.zheng@uci.edu
Office hours: Thursday 9:3011 a.m.
TEACHING ASSISTANT
Tera Reynolds
Office: 5231 DBH
Email: tlreynol@uci.edu
Office hours: Wednesday 12:302 p.m.

A. Course Overview
To practice modern medicine and manage modern healthcare systems, it requires
substantial technological infrastructures and a significant body of trained
professionals. As the nationwide effort to adopt health information technology (IT)
grows, there have been increasing interests in studying the use of health IT systems
and in creating innovations to address unmet needs. This project course gives
student an opportunity to gain relevant hands-on experience in health informatics.
It focuses on getting students involved in various in-class activities and a quarterlong group project. It is designed as a second course in the Health/Medical
Informatics series, and is intended to let students apply the knowledge they have
learned in Introduction to Medical Informatics to a practical project. This is also the
capstone course for the Undergraduate Minor Program in Health Informatics.
Through this course, you will conduct a group project to work on either a selfinitiated topic or a topic provided by an external client. You will learn how to study
current health IT systems, analyze healthcare data, and/or develop new solutions to
address emerging problems. If applicable, the principles of Contextual Design
should be used as the guiding method in your project, for which you will need to
acquire skills related to using interviews, observations, and surveys to assess
technologies in use, and analyzing and presenting data via multiple representations
such as a Communication Diagram, a Task Flow Diagram, and a Physical model. You
will also assess the practices, contexts, cultures, and resources of relevant health or
healthcare practices; and organize your findings using an Affinity Diagram. You will
write multiple project reports and create a project website for disseminating your

results. Your project will be presented to the rest of the class and your client at the
end of the quarter.
At the conclusion of this course, you will gain in-depth experience with regard to a
particular health or healthcare topic, understand the gaps, and design and develop
a technological solution to address the gaps. The class objectives are:

To help students gain a deep understanding about health or healthcare

practices;
To provide students an opportunity to design and develop health informatics
innovations;
To engage students with various healthcare organizations, faculty, and research
teams.

B. Course Format
Most classes will be in the form of short lectures, in-class activities, and designated
project time for team members to work together. We will also create a peer-learning
environment to let different teams learn from each other.

C. Readings
Excerpts from Rapid Contextual Design and Contextual Design, as well as other
reading materials, will be made available on the EEE course website.

D. Class Schedule
Note: Class schedule may be subject to minor adjustments based on class progress
and availability of guest lecturers.
Week

Dat
e

Topic

Notes

Week 1

1/1
0

Class overview

Expertise Survey available.

1/1
2

(Re)introduction to health
Informatics

Turn in a one page cheatsheet outlining major class

milestones and deadlines,
due by 11:59 p.m., 1/12.

The cheat-sheet can be

prepared in any form that you
are comfortable with.

No feedback will be provided to

the cheat-sheet, and it will not
be graded.

Week 2

1/1
7

1/1
9

Week 3

1/2
4

1/2
6

Student self-introduction

Project idea pitching

Expertise Survey due by

11:59 p.m., 1/16. Note that
the responses you provide will
be shared in class.

Be prepared to describe briefly,

in no more than 2 minutes,
your (1) major and year, (2)
areas of interest related to
health informatics, (3) skills,
strengths, and relevant
experience, (4) and potential
project topics (if any), which
you should have already filled
out through the Expertise
Survey.

If a project idea does not

instantly come into mind,
explore the directory of
healthcare startups, and what
they do, for inspirations:
https://angel.co/health-care.

Student self-introduction
(cont.)

Project idea pitching

(cont.)

Project topic presentation

Group exercise: Identifying

student competitions,
hackathons, etc., for
health informatics
innovations.

External clients will be invited

to the classroom to present
their project topics.

11 a.m., Maxwell Jen MD and

Andrew Wong MD, Department
of Emergency Medicine,
Mining ER Data.

11:30 a.m., Jeseok Lee, PhD

Student, Department of
Informatics, Developing an
Assistive Technology to Help
the Visually Impaired.

11:00 a.m, Jeseok Lee, cont.

11:15 a.m., Xinning Gui, PhD

Candidate, Department of
Informatics, Managing
Uncertainty: Decision Making
during a Disease-Induced
Public Health Crisis.

11:45 a.m., Yu Chen PhD,

Project topic presentation

(cont.)

Group exercise: Identifying

local startups and relevant
expertise

Postdoctoral Fellow,
Department of Informatics, (1)
Learning Health Informatics
from Instagram; and (2)
Mobile Application Design for
Recovery and Rehabilitation.

Week 4

1/3
1

2/2

Team formation

Project framing

Project framing (cont.)

Rescheduled to 11 a.m., 1/31,

Clara Caldeira, PhD Student,
Department of Informatics,
Evaluating the Current Use of
Mediation Apps by Analyzing
User Reviews.

Given a total of 63 students

currently enrolled, each team
should have minimum 6 and
maximum 7 members.

In principle, each team should

have no more than 3 members
from the same academic unit
(major).

Each team should elect an

overall team lead (CEO of your
startup, kind of), a
communication lead (CCO),
and a technology lead (CTO). It
is possible, but not advisable,
for the same person to serve
multiple leading roles.

If you are unable to find a team

to join by this date, you will be
randomly assigned to one that
has not been filled up.

Written Assignment #1,

Project Synopsis, due by
11:59 p.m., 2/2.

One page high-level summary

to describe the nature of the
project.

You can choose to include

anything in the Project
Synopsis, but it should serve as
a script for you to do a killer
elevator pitch about your
project.

Feedback will be provided to

this assignment, but it will not

be graded.
Week 5

2/7

2/9

Week 6

2/1
4

2/1
6

Contextual Design 1: Data

Gathering (Lecture)

User/client needs
assessment

If you work on a client-initiated

project, make sure you meet
the client this week, before 2/9.

If you do not work with an

external client, make sure you
gather adequate feedback from
prospective users of your
project deliverable(s), that
includes at least: (1)
usefulness, and (2) design
recommendations. These
prospective users could be
your friends, classmates,
family members, etc.

Project framing oral report

Project framing oral report

should cover the following: (1)
Problem Statement, (2)
Significance, (3) Existing
Solutions and Gap Analysis,
and (4) Proposed Innovation.

Each team has 5 minutes to

present, ideally with slides.

Address: 5141 California Ave.,

Irvine, CA 92697.

We will meet in front of the

building at 11 a.m.

Written Assignment #2,

Project Proposal, due by
11:59 p.m., 2/16.

The Project Proposal should

cover the following: (1)
Problem Statement, (2)
Significance, (3) Existing
Solutions and Gap Analysis, (4)
Relevant Academic Research,
(5) Proposed Innovation, (6)
Novelty of the Proposed
Innovation, and (7) References.

The Project Proposal should

also add a new section,
Approach, that describes in
detail how the project will be
executed.

In addition, the Project Proposal

Tour the COVE.

No class. Team time.

should provide a Timeline that

details the expected
completion time of each
project milestone; and a
Management Plan that details
each team members
responsibilities.

Week 7

Week 8

2/2
1

Contextual Design 2:
Interpreting the Data
(Lecture)

2/2
3

Project Management
(Lecture)

User/client feedback

2/2
8

3/2

No class. Team time.

Project progress oral

report

If you work on a client-initiated

project, share the Project
Proposal, after submission, with
the client to seek feedback.

If you work on a client-initiated

project, make sure you meet
with the client to obtain
feedback before 2/23.

Make modifications to the

Project Proposal, as needed,
based on the feedback you
receive.

Preliminary Project Website

due by 11:59 p.m., 2/28.

Through the website, you

should pitch your project as if
you were doing a healthcare
startup, or funded research.

Example (startup):
http://www.mydermportal.com/
.

Example (research
dissemination):
http://hdexplore.calit2.net/.

Each team has 5 minutes to

present, ideally with slides.

Focus on key achievements

and key milestones in the
works.

Briefly demonstrate your

Preliminary Project Website as
well.

Written Assignment #3,

Project Progress Report,

due by 11:59 p.m., 3/2.

Week 9

Week
10

3/7

No class. Team time.

3/9

Preparation for final

presentation and Q&A

3/1
4

Final presentations, Team

1 to 5

3/1
6
Week
11

Final presentations, Team

6 to 10

No class. Final project

week.

Feedback will be provided to

the project progress oral report
and the Project Progress
Report, but they will not be
graded.

Each team has 10 minutes to

present.

Dress code: business formal.

Final Project Website due

by 11:59 p.m., 3/24.

Final Project Report due by

11:59 p.m., 3/24.

The Final Project Report should

include all elements from the
Project Proposal, in addition to:
(1) Results of Project
Implementation, (2) Lessons
Learned, and (3) Limitations
and Future Plans.

Peer Evaluation Survey due

by 11:59 p.m., 3/26.

E. Formatting Requirement of Written Assignments

Paper Size, Margins, and Font

Paper size no larger than standard letter paper size (8 " x 11).
1 inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right) for all pages
Font size must be 11 points or larger
Single space

Page Limits

Project Synopsis: 1 page

Project Proposal: 6 pages (excluding references)
Project Progress Report: 2 pages
Final Project Report: 10 pages (excluding references)

F. Grading

30%,
20%,
20%,
10%,
10%,
10%,

Project Proposal
Final Presentation
Final Project Website
Final Project Report
Class attendance and participation
Peer evaluation

G. Class Policies
Plagiarism and Cheating
Absolutely no cheating or plagiarism will be tolerated. This includes copying
material off the web (this will be checked), copying from past reports, and so on.
You are responsible for ensuring that anything you turn in is not plagiarized.
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory in lectures. You need to attend the lectures in order to
better understand the articles and prepare for your assignments. You are also to
attend discussion sections. Sometimes there will be activities in the discussion;
some times the time will be spent working in your team. Plan for those times.
Laptops
You can bring laptops to lectures but they are to be used solely for class related
work. Doing your email, going on Facebook, watching TV programs on Hulu, or any
other non-class-related activity is disrespectful of the instructors and your
classmates.
Writing Resources
UCI has resources on campus available to help students with their writing needs.
Students are encouraged to contact these services throughout the course. Services
are free of charge to UCI students. The following resources are offered to students
on an appointment basis:

General information for writing resources

http://www.writing.uci.edu/stures.html

Sue Cross, Peer tutor coordinator

http://www.writing.uci.edu/peertutors.html

Learning and Academic Resource Center (LARC)

http://www.larc.uci.edu/

Academic English
https://eee.uci.edu/programs/esl/

Grammar for writing (created by UCI humanities students)

https://eee.uci.edu/programs/esl/studentgrammar.html