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The Seminar: Reflection

Mojdeh Amini
Healthcare Informatics, University of San Diego
HCIN-548-02-SP21 - HCI Seminar
Professor. Dorothy O'Hagan
May 13, 2021
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Seminar May 6, 2021, The Final with the Capstone Presentations

Today was our last seminar with all the great and interesting presentations from our

classmates. It was an excellent learning opportunity for us and other healthcare informatics

students who graduated later this year or the following year. The variety of the presentations

represented how broad and fascinating healthcare informatics is, which opened many potential

projects to work on in the future: the faculty members, especially Dr. Boone, Prof. O'Hagan, and

Drs. Berkovich, Mack, and Klimple were very supportive throughout the seminar. I did

appreciate and proud of our classmates' capstone projects—for all the work they did and seemed

in different ways to be rewarding.

Since we started our healthcare informatics program, we all have been experiencing many

challenges individually, nationally, and internationally, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That resulted in becoming online students and out of campus. However, that did not stop us from

supporting each other like a family to get through this unprecedented situation successfully. I

was very grateful for the opportunity given to me by our seminar team to work with a great

group of healthcare providers for my practicum, which led to my capstone project. However, at

the same time felt hard to say goodbye to some of our classmates and faculty members, although

we promise to keep in touch. When I look back, I can say it was such a fantastic journey and

made me stronger to looking forward to the near future with many opportunities to work and

serve the country and the communities, particularly when some jobs are in great need of help.
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Seminar 04/08/2020: A reflection

After the meeting introduction by Prof. O'Hagan and Dr. Mack, Dr. Boone reminded us

of some paperwork and assignment deadlines. The significance of this week's seminar was for

two reasons. First, we had an interesting article discussing race correction's impact on outcomes

when healthcare informaticists or clinicians assess and treat patients or health care issues. The

second reason was that we had a special guest speaker, Mr. Elliot Jones, who is currently the

chief information security officer for the University of Southern California's Keck Health

System. At the seminar, the article discussion helped me understand the race-related

controversies in healthcare with two different biological and socially constructed concepts from

other students' perspectives in such a diverse gathering.

As the debate continued, I did learn more about it by listening to other students'

experiences and stories from different backgrounds and workplaces. For example, one of the

students mentioned that black people get much less pain relief than others races when it comes to

pain assessment. The other student said we should have an ethical approach when we verbalize

or address diseases based on race; for instance, instead of telling black people are getting or

having this or that disease, we can say the prevalence of that disease is higher in black people.

Mr. Jones, via a PowerPoint presentation, explained his professional work and

experiences, as well as his role as a chief information security officer. He highlighted a few

incidences that lead to health and personal information breaches and emphasized how vigilant

we need to be in cybersecurity issues and how costly those breaches have been. For example,

when we receive emails. He explained the responsibilities, skills, and knowledge required for a

cybersecurity role when answering students' questions.

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The Zoom Seminar: March 4, 2021

The March 4 zoom meeting was included a few highly important pieces of information

by the seminar team Dr. Boone and Prof. O'Hagan, as follows:

-Reminding us about some deadlines related to the paper works such as Social Justice and

Capstone

-Dr. Boone flagged up to read an article about race correction for the next meeting on April 8. In

my experience, there are different regime treatments based on race for diseases like heart failure

(H.F.), which are well documented in the H.F. guidelines; thank you, Dr. Boone, for the further

awareness and obtaining more insight into that.

- The Epic Analyst training program by Scripps

The month's guests were from the Scripps health organization: Amanda Schena, Brenna Duncan,

Lauren Gann, Catherine Abalos.

With 15 years of experience, Amanda is the director of the ambulatory applications team and

Community connect program at scripts. She talked more about the analytics and Epic program.

-Lauren works with five years of experience at Scripps, works with the application portfolio

management team, and former epic analyst. She talked about the skills that are required, and they

are looking for the role.

Catherine is the director of clinical informatics and from the Epic training team. She

spoke with us about the current Scripps health opportunities and informatics program. About 17

out of 55 people are informatics assist nurses in her team, and no nurses and about 40 of them are

within the epic training team. She spoke about clinical informatics roles for both informatics
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analysts and informatics nurses. Catherine said clinical informatics understand the other

technology for better support and advocate for new technology and better collaboration with the

key operational stakeholders and partnerships with Epic training team to support the end-users.

They aim to identify the knowledge gaps in a new implementation or a new process to

incorporate it into training teams across their organization. Scripps required 2 years of

operational experience for the analytics position and other skills like effective team

communication and obtaining certification within 6months after starting day.

Brenna is the senior director of the access revenue cycle and health plan applications. She

spoke with us about health informatics roles and career paths.

-Amanda mentioned understanding the end-user workflows building team to help the physicians

and the patients. She explained about two different roles, the application analyst and the

informatics analyst.

Professor O'Hagan talked about the changes in system implementation and the possibility

of vendors moving from Cerner to epic and vice versa and the importance of the constant

technology changes, and we should remain updated to meet the needs of the new technology.

Amanda said they had had a two-year roadmap to roll out Telehealth within scripts and video

visits within a three-week time frame. She tried to give you an idea of being flexible and open to

new ideas and workflows. At the end of the meeting, we had an excellent opportunity to ask

questions from the Scripps team. Dr. Boone emailed us the necessary information for being

connected to the team via email.

I am looking forward to our next meeting in April.

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First Spring Zoom Meeting February 2, 2021

Dr. Mack spoke with us about COVID-19 and addressed some questions about the

current COVID vaccination and its side effects, such as fever. He encouraged vaccination and

doing volunteer work such as I.T., EHR with U.C. San Diego. Dr. Boone reminded us about the

petition application to do 3 artifacts and 3 reflections each month, besides be updated with our e-

complio. Professor O'Hagan and Dr. Klimpel, Professor O'Hagan asked and Dr. Berkovich to

email them if we have any questions about our practicum or capstone program. On May 13, the

deadline for all paper works includes capstone, poster, and reflection.

Dr. Jud Simonds from the U.S. San Diego was the guest speaker and invited us to review

the UCSD websites for clinical and nonclinical volunteering works like epic support, mainly

related to the COVID-19. Also, he introduced us to a few health informatics jobs and roles, for

example, via HIMSS, and reassured the nonclinical students that many job opportunities require

their skills and experiences. He encouraged us to pledge and take the risk when it comes to the

new working opportunities. It was such an honor to meet Dr. Simonds and add him to my

LinkedIn network.

Dr. Kimpel emailed us a hyperlink to volunteer jobs at the U.C. San Diego, like the

COVID-19. https://health.ucsd.edu/coronavirus/Pages/default.aspx After reviewing the website, I

signed up for online volunteer jobs. I believe the stories from our guests' speakers highlight their

life and working journey and how making the balance can help us succeed.
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The Zoom Seminar: Dec 2020

Dr. Mack started the zoom seminar by congratulating students who will graduate in

January. The information was very timely and important, as it helped us know what to expect to

happen, especially about our classes in the next semester, as we remain online. Dr. Mack updated

us with the latest news about the different stages of COVID-19 vaccination in California. I knew

that the first UK COVID-19 vaccine was approved by Pfizer and BioNTech and will be used as

early as the next week and will be two injections within 21 days apart. That is a kind of vaccine

that prevents getting infected by the virus but reduces the mortality rate. However, it seems the

other European countries are not rushing to follow that but may cause pressure on the FDA. In

the U.S., Moderna's seems to be better and does not require massive refrigeration. Regarding

efficacy, we may say Johnson and Johnson's vaccine because it is on an older platform and only

requires one injection. Dr. Mack also mentioned that some individuals might show reluctance in

getting the vaccine.

Then Dr. Klimpel added that students who will work in the clinical area need COVID-19

testing. Jared Vogt was the guest speaker with a master's degree in health information. Jared

shared that working out of his comfort zone was a vital opportunity to learn and grow. For

example, when he traveled to China based on an internship program for a few weeks, he could

experience a different healthcare system out of the U.S. In 2015, he also went to Afghanistan to

re-establish a hospital with a new method using electronic health records for documentation by

doing a work analysis. Jared quoted that you can design it in EPIC if you can flow out your

diagram on the paper. When Prof. O'Hagan asked him about the flow chart, Jered emphasized

that a flow chart can help to know a system more for building a new design with better
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functionality. He added lessons and skills from the university that helped him throughout his

working career

The Zoom Seminar on November 2020: Information Flows

Today, Dr. Boone explained the different aspects of the checklist of e-portfolio for

helping us map up our program pathway throughout our classes; because of that, it can be a

reason, as a requirement for our graduation. Dr. Klimpel spoke about Practicum and Complio

and, we can contact Angelica if it is required. Dr. Berkovich was our special guest today. She

started with a few interesting pool questions and chatbox discussions, resulting in a more

engaging atmosphere. Dr. Berkovich continued by talking about her professional journey and

experience in different fields, such as engineering, education, and informatics. She explained

how studying while working might help us achieving many skills, as it did help her throughout

her successful career and her current position at the University of San Diego.

Introducing the https://medicalfuturist.com/ website became more interesting as she

walked us through it. However, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning have been relevant

and important subjects for me. Dr. Berkovich suggested that having a vision about our future and

dream job can be a helpful tool to achieve our goal. We can start using social media, networking,

and attending online seminars/conferences such as AMIA and HIMSS at any time and point of

our program. In addition to that. it can have a meaningful impact on being selected for our future

and dream job. She gave some examples and hints when applying for jobs, such as writing

keywords relevant to the job application because those words can trigger the Machine for

shortlisting us as a potential employee.

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The Zoom Seminar on October, 20

Dr. Boone started the meeting by welcoming all the attendees and introducing Karen

O'Grady, our new librarian. Karen demonstrated how to operate a database search engine for

accessing academic resources such as CINHAL Plus for evidence-based articles and journals. It

was very timely information for our research papers and literature review for the capstone,

particularly with Why safety questions, in addition to PubMed Central (PMC), which has a

medical focus and review new policies. Literature review for capstone with Why safety

Dr. Klimpel explained some opportunities for online practicum, which is required a

weekly reflection. Tracy Elmer, a chief innovation officer, and a 2019 graduate student, was the

second guest speaker. Tracy spoke about her career journey, from Germany, QUADRAMED,

SHARP, and Rady Children to True Care, which was fascinating. Her passion for health

informatics came through when she mentioned her current position as a chief innovation officer

and how research turns clinical data into practice-based evidence. That was very encouraging for

many of us with lower health informatics experiences; Dr. Boone put more shine on some of

Tracy's learning points during her six-sigma presentation. We enjoyed listening to Tracy's story

by obtaining many practical lessons. She gave some insight into her role in innovation,

information technology, and healthcare with its complexity. We are looking forward to the next

seminar in November with another career journey.

Takeaways: Lowering down our research articles to 20 before starting writing.

-Keeping up our initiatives and creativities in our projects and papers.

-Saying yes to opportunities and Taking risks.

Why do we need to understand a problem and solve it with delegation and care?
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Seminar Reflection 9/3/20

The first Fall20 seminar started via a zoom meeting. It included comprehensive information

about the seminar requirements, work, and project opportunities for social justice, capstone,

practicum by Drs. Boone, Mack, Klimpel, and Prof. O'Hagan.

The meeting highlighted the milestones and deadlines of the course. It also encouraged us to utilize

our creativity, initiatives, and innovations when planning and implementing our projects,

particularly in this uncertain time of COVId-19, and in response to the projected high demand for

healthcare informatics to improve healthcare outcomes.

More importantly, the meeting agenda provided us a more in-depth insight into the seminar's goals

and visions to remain focused and updated. All our instructors demonstrated their commitments to

helping and supporting us throughout the program.

Seminar April 2020

Drs. Klimpel, Boone, and Mack attended the first online seminar.

Dr. Kilmpel started addressed a few key takeaways:

if anyone has issues regarding the COVID-19. She offers her and faculty helps if students have

any concerns regarding the current situation.

She asked the class to update their e-compolio.

The capstone presentations by 2nd -year students and elevator speech were recorded on April 16,

0430pm via zoom. Dr. Boone said the meeting would be recorded too.

About the outlines of the e-portfolio on the blackboard

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We need to do seven reflections, as we started in Fall 2019.

Reflections and Artifacts why you choose that one

Regarding social justice and community activism, we need to submit a proposal before starting.

Dr. Boone explained the proposal about 1-2 pages about the activity problem, what you did, and

the outcome.

Dr. Mack added that there are opportunities for social justice activities in the current

COVID-19 crisis to feed San Diego and homeless people. He mentioned wearing masks and the

value of using other countries' experiences like South Korea.

Drs, Klimpel, and Boone explained artifacts/reflections and suggested that we write them down

the closest time possible to the actual time of our programs.

Currently, the practicum is on hold; and may start in the summer or the Fall.

Seminar March 2020

Today March 12, was our second and last on-campus seminar for the Spring 2020 semester

before going to online classes due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Dr. Mack started the

session by updating COVID-19 precautions and the USD's concerns/regulations to go online

courses. Then, Dr. Klimpel carried on the session with the agenda and explained as follows:

About COVID-19 and the set up/use of Zoom,

The requirements for e-compolio that need to be updated throughout the program

We need to have a 1:1 meeting with our instructor about the practicum requirements and discuss

our goals and interests in potential sites.

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We should write a reflection after each class and practical activity, including the

takeaways based on our readings/activities and various instructor's contents. Then, we should ask

ourselves that those learning and works will change our goals and career strategy approach or

not; and what are the next steps? Dr. Boone added that it could be done through the required

course and field works regarding the Social Justice and Community activism competency. She

emphasized that both course works must meet the USD's mission, values, and approval by the

assigned faculty advisor. Working as a volunteer student for Feeding San Diego/ Food Bank

organization could be one of the ideas and activities for the competency. The session finished

with questions and answers.

Seminar Feb 2020

Today, it was the first seminar in Spring 2020. Dr. Boone and Dr. Klimpel attended the

seminar. Josh Wymer was the guest speaker. He did talk about his career pathway, experiences,

and responsibilities as a chief nurse informaticist in the U.S. navy. Dr. Klimpel explained about

Complio (working progress) and practicum (200 hours) requirements. After the seminar, most

students attended a meeting from HIMSS, the Southern California Chapter at the USD. It was a

career Roundtable for early career professionals and students. The meeting was an opportunity

for networking and learning from Healthcare I.T., clinical, or nonclinical disciplines panel.

Seminar Dec 2019

In December 2019, our seminar was a combination of both first and second-year students

in Healthcare Informatics (HCI) with Dr. Klimpel. The meeting started with a special treat by Dr.

Boone with different foods and drinks because of the upcoming X-mas and New Year 2020. Dr.

Boone explained about e-portfolio, writing artifact, and reflection for each seminar and remind
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us to complete all the requirements by the end of 2019. Then, Saad, a second-year student,

presented his youtube video about e-portfolio via google sites. After the seminar, we had a

mixed group photoshoot.

The key takeaway:

Keep the hard work and creativity up

Learn and work as a team

Keep our e-portfolio updated

Seminar November 2019

Today, Dr. Boone emphasized that after creating the e-portfolio, email the link to her.

Regarding the next seminar in December, she mentioned that we (first year) and second-year

students would have a joined meeting.

The Key takeaway:

About Practicum and COMPLIO, we can contact Dr. Atim

Seminar Oct 2019

Today's outlines were as following: In more detail, we learned about creating a Weebly account

for our e-portfolio and writing a reflection for each seminar. We can keep our professional

networking via LinkedIn and attending conferences. If there are any questions about the

completion, we can ask Dr. Atim we join the HCI organization such as HIMSS and ANIA. Also,

we had an excellent opportunity to do a short presentation and followed by Dr.Boone's feedback.

The Key takeaway: To keep up with our program competencies

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Seminars Sep 2019

Today, after all the students introduced themselves in the class, we noted we are coming

from different professionals regarding education and work experiences, for instance, health and

computer sciences. Then, we all may have something new to share or to learn from each other.

The seminar continued with more information about the team faculty, the program's

competencies, the expectations from students, and the outcomes. The other highlights of the

seminar were about e-portfolio via Weebly or Google site, COMPLIO, social justice, joining

relevant organizations such as HIMSS, and professional networking via Linkedin and attending

conferences. Dr. Atim talked about her experiences in Health Care Informatics (HCI), especially

with medical devices, as a pharmacist.

The Key takeaway: We are a team and should learn together and support each other, as well as

having our unique creativity and contribution to the team