Foundations of Public Health Informatics & Technology

Program Guide
Introduction to the Program
The Foundations of Public Health Informatics & Technology (“Foundations”) program is a first step to an
entry-level career in public health data analytics. It has five separate, completely on-line courses and
two guided projects offered through Coursera. The courses were created by elite universities and
organizations including Imperial College London, Rutgers University, Johns Hopkins University and the
IBM Skills network. Futuro Health brought these courses together in a way to best prepare you for that
next step to a career in public health data analytics.

The Courses in the Foundations Program:

Foundations of Public Health Practice: The Public Health Approach - Imperial College London.
(CI)
Health Care Organizations and the Health System - Rutgers the State University of New Jersey.
(C2)
The Social and Technical Context of Health Informatics – Johns Hopkins University. (C3)
Introduction to Data Analytics – IBM Skills Network. (C4)
The Data Science of Health Informatics – Johns Hopkins University. (C5)
Introduction to Microsoft Excel – Coursera Guided Project. (GP1)
Data Visualization using Microsoft Excel – Coursera Guided Project. (GP2)
Terminology:
A. The terms “Program”, “Foundations” or “Foundations Program” refer to all the courses and
projects together.
B. The Program has five “Courses” and two “Guided Projects”.
C. Courses are divided into Weeks or Modules. They mean the same thing. But remember, pace
your work by the separate 12-week schedule.
D. Some Courses divide the Weeks or Modules into “Lessons”.
E. I may use shortcuts for easy reference. For example, C1-W2 means the second week of the first
course.
Coursera suggests how many weeks each Course will take to complete. DO NOT USE THE WEEKLY
DIVISIONS IN COURSERA TO PACE YOUR WORK; IGNORE THEM. They add up to 21 weeks. Your
schedule to complete the program is 12 weeks; follow that schedule.

What is in the Courses.

A. Each course was created by a different organization, so they do not all look the same.
B. The courses have videos, readings, links to information on other websites, discussion prompts,
projects to be reviewed by your peers, and quizzes.
1. Videos: You can watch videos online, download them, or download transcripts. You can
also download the slides used in the videos.

Program Guide
Futuro Health Foundations of Public Health Informatics & Technology Page 1 of 2
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 2. Readings: The readings might be embedded in Coursera, available for download from
Coursera, or linked to other websites.
3. Resources: Near the end of some courses are “Resources” which have more materials,
like slides used in a video.
NOTE: Some of the links in the Courses are “broken”. Ignore them and go on.

Completing the Program.

1. Quizzes: You must take and pass all the Practice Quizzes, Graded Quizzes, and Peer
Reviewed Projects to successfully complete the program. You can retake a quiz
repeatedly until you pass. You get three chances every 8 hours.
2. Discussion Prompts: The discussions are all marked as optional, but taking part in them
will enhance your learning experience. People from all over the world take these
courses so you have a chance to have a real global discussion!
This is a Self-Paced Program.
This is a self-paced, work-on-your-own program. This means that you are in control of managing your
time so that you finish in 12 weeks.

In my experience, it is too easy to put off working on this kind of course “until later” (which somehow
never gets here). We all have many demands on our time: work, family, friends, relaxing. So, from time
to time I will send you little ‘nudges’ to help you stay on track. I will also be scheduling open drop-in
(Zoom) office hours and am happy to schedule private Zoom meetings for individual help.

Contacting the Instructor

I am here to help you throughout the program. Please contact me any time if you have any questions or
need help.

Gary G. Williams, JD CCE

Instructor, Customer Service Professional Pathways & Foundations of Public Health Informatics & Technology

gwilliams@futurohealth.org

Program Guide
Futuro Health Foundations of Public Health Informatics & Technology Page 2 of 2
rev. 2/27/24 ggw