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Archived News
2011-03-23 - Spanish Pilot Program Underway
HITS is beingintroduced to a group of health professionals in Catalonia in Spain. With the recent translation of the HITS program into both Catalan and Spanish, we were able to roll the program out in Spain. The pilot program will introduce HITS to the healthcare community and provide a reference base for new users. For more information, contact Glen Brannen at 905 338-3206. 2010-06-16 - Technology for Doctors Article about HITS
Education
Healthcare informatics training for beginners
OAKVILLE, Ont. – One of the key barriers to the uptake of technology in the healthcare industry is that many doctors, nurses and other frontline staff lack an understanding of basic computer concepts that are taken for granted in other sectors.
“Most doctors and nurses don’t use administrative tools like Word or Outlook in the delivery of care,” says Glen Brannen (pictured), president of Frontline Informatics, an Oakville-based company that provides online training in the basics of healthcare informatics.
“They’re not necessarily at the table when an EMR implementation is planned. It’s often left to the IT department, and they assume everyone knows all the fundamental concepts, for example, of how a database works.”
To rectify this, Frontline offers an eight-part series of one-hour online modules that step healthcare staff through the fundamentals. Called HITS (Health Informatics Training System), the training is promoted in the United States and around the world by HIMSS (Health information Management Systems Society) and is endorsed by the Canadian Nurses Association and COACH, Canada’s Health Informatics Association.
“HITS is designed for people with little or no experience with healthcare technology. It gives them the basic knowledge and terminology they need to be part of IT discussions and to understand the language spoken by vendors,” says Brannen.
The training doesn’t address the specifics of any particular EMR system, but is good preparation for this type of training, says Brannen. “When vendors say they’ll provide training with their system implementation, what they agree to do is teach your people how to use their software. But what the purchaser is really saying is, ‘Will you take my people from being non-IT users and help them realize the benefits the system is supposed to deliver.’”
For example, most EMR vendors say there are security features in their systems. “But if people don’t understand concepts like privacy, security and confidentiality and how this impacts the way you use the system, they won’t be prepared for the vendor’s software training. It’s like teaching calculus to someone who hasn’t learned algebra.”
Many family health teams make the HITS training available to their entire organizations, he says. “The lead physicians want to ensure everyone’s reached a common level of understanding before they implement an EMR. To facilitate that, HITS offers certification to people who’ve completed all the modules and tests.”
A HITS package costs $150, which covers all the materials: online modules, quizzes, glossaries, final exam, and certificate. For organizations that buy large volumes, the cost per unit can be as low as $75, says Brannen.
Organizations that have made HITS training available to their staff include Trillium Health Centre, Capital Health, and Telus Health Solutions.
The HITS program covers these areas:
UNIT 1: IT BASICS IN HEALTHCARE
Module 1: Computer Hardware and Software in Healthcare
Module 2: Networks and Health Informatics
UNIT 2: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE
Module 3: Understanding Data, Information and Knowledge
Module 4: Protecting Information - Security, Privacy and Confidentiality
Module 5: Electronic Record Keeping in Healthcare
UNIT 3: IT SYSTEMS IN HEALTHCARE
Module 6: Administrative Information Systems
Module 7: Clinical Information Systems
Module 8: Decision Support Systems
Posted June 10, 2010 2009-11-10 - Saskatchewan Nurse Peer to Peer Program Uses HITS
A new Nurse Peer-to-Peer network has been created to assist health professionals who are learning to use E-Health technology. One of the purposes of the Nurse Peer Network is to build an understanding of e-health initiatives and identify barriers to adoption of the electronic health record among nursing providers in Saskatchewan. One of the tools the Nurse Peers will be using is HITS (Health Informatics Training System). This program introduces front line health workers to the technologies involved in e-health. It provides a great start to understanding the necessary terminology and concepts.
The Nurse Peer to Peer network may introduce their colleagues to HITS as one of the educational tools to assist nurses in the uptake of electronic health records.
For information on HITS, please go to www.coachorg.com or www.nurseONE.ca or www.frontlineinformatics.ca or contact Glen Brannen at 905 338-3206. 2009-09-21 - HITS recommended by TIGER Summit
The Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Informatics Competency Collaborative was formed to develop informatics recommendations for all practicing nurses and graduating nursing students. Following an extensive review of the literature and survey of nursing informatics education, research, and practice groups, the TIGER Nursing Informatics Competencies Model consists of three parts, detailed in the final report: basic computer competencies, information literacy and information management.
The Health Informatics Training System (HITS) program of e-learning, testing, and certification was identified as a recommendation of a first and significant step towards basic computer competency, and for achieving clinical information management competencies.
The following is a link to the report..
http://tigercompetencies.pbworks.com/f/TICC_Final.pdf
HITS is available in Canada from COACH (www.coachorg.com) and is endorsed by the Canadian Nurses Association. Nurses can register for HITS on NurseONE (www.nurseone.ca). For group registrations, please contact Frontline Informatics at 905 338-3206 or support@frontlineinformatics.ca.
About TIGER:
The Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform (TIGER) Initiative aims to enable practicing nurses and nursing students to fully engage in the unfolding digital electronic era in healthcare. The purpose of the initiative is to identify information/knowledge management best practices and effective technology capabilities for nurses. TIGER\\\'s goal is to create and disseminate action plans that can be duplicated within nursing and other multidisciplinary healthcare training and workplace settings. 2009-05-26 - see HITS at e-Health 2009
HITS will be represented at e-Health 2009 by both COACH and Frontline Informatics Inc. If you are attending the conference, please stop by either booth.
Something to think about:
The promise of the utilization of information technology in healthcare is improved safety, quality and cost savings. The realization of these benefits relies on the enthusiastic adoption of new information technologies by front line healthcare professionals. A common barrier to enthusiastic adoption is the front line professionals’ limited view of themselves as care givers rather than care givers and information managers. Addressing this issue should be fundamental to any adoption strategy. 2009-04-13 - HITS is Introduced at HIMSS 2009 Conference
HITS (Health Informatics Training System) is distributed in the United States by HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society). As the first content available in the new HIMSS eLearning Academy, HITS was the focus of the presentations at the HIMSS 2009 Conference in Chicago. There was considerable interest in HITS. As organizations look to prepare their staff for impending IT implementations, HITS is an excellent way to ensure that front-line staff are adequately prepared.
The promise of the utilization of information technology in health care is improved safety, quality and cost savings. The realization of these benefits relies on the enthusiastic adoption of new information technologies by front-line health care professionals. A common barrier to enthusiastic adoption is the front line professional’s limited view of themselves as care givers rather than care givers and information managers. Addressing this issue should be fundamental to any adoption strategy. Please consider HITS as a part of your adoption strategy.
2008-09-23 - HITS Sales Agent Announced for Spain
HITS is now being sold in Spain. Miguel Cabrer was recently announced as the sales agent for Spain. Miguel\'s credentials are listed below.
Miguel Cabrer was born in Barcelona and has a Computer Science degree from Balearic Islands University (1996). From the beginning of his professional career he showed a particular interest in Health IT.
In 1995, he obtained a Research and Development grant for the evaluation of Telemedicine projects in the U.S.A., developed at Stanford Medical University Center (Palo Alto) and Emory University (Atlanta).
He started his career in the Institute BIT of the Balearic Government as Telemedicine researcher in 1996 and then went to the University of the Balearic Islands as a Computer Science Technician until 2001. In parallel, he developed eHealth projects at Manacor Hospital, Son Dureta Hospital, Red Cross as well as private clinics as a consultant.
From August of 2001 until June 2006, Miguel Cabrer was the CIO for Hospital Son Llatzer. Miguel was responsible for the design and implementation of the first european Digital Hospital project. Son Llàtzer has received numerous recognitions including eEurope for Awards eHealth 2004.
From September 2003 until June 2006, Miguel was the eHealth Coordinator of Balearic Islands Health Service.
Miguel Cabrer is an independent eHealth Advisor working in worldwide initiatives and eHealth projects as well as a partner and consultant for Leader Health.
Member of the HIMSS EMEA Governing Council and participated in the Advisor Board of World of Health IT 2006 (October 2006, in Geneva).
Member of IMIA (International Medical Informatics Association) Web 2.0 taskforce workgroup defining a Strategic Plan view to 2015.Main areas of interest and specialisation of Miguel Cabrer are: Digital Hospital, EHR – RHIO Initiatives, Integration Competence Centres and Health 2.0 (web 2.0 and healthcare).
In Health 2.0 Miguel Cabrer is actually running several innitiatives like Medting, Health2.info and Hospital Digital. 2008-07-08 - Organizations Adpoting HITS
HITS (Health Informatics Training System) is recognized by many organizations as an ideal tool to help front line healthcare workers understand the basics of health informatics. Here are some of the organizations that have adopted HITS for this purpose.
· Calgary Health Region
· Nova Scotia Health Promotion and Protection
· Chinook Health Region
· Fraser Health
· Cancer Care Ontario
· Healthlines Services BC
· Alberta Cancer Care
· Burntwood Regional Health Authority
To learn more about HITS or to register your group, contact COACH(Canada’s Health Informatics Association) at www.coachorg.com or Frontline Informatics at www.frontlineinformatics.ca.
2008-06-11 - Follow Up to eHealth 2008
As an attendee at eHealth 2008, I hope you had an opportunity to visit the HITS (Health Informatics Training System) booth. HITS is an online, self-paced training program for introduction to health informatics. It has been designed for frontline health care workers. HITS is provided by COACH (Canada’s Health Informatics Association) and is endorsed by the Canadian Nurses Association and NurseONE (Canada’s nursing web portal). HITS is distributed in the US and several international jurisdictions by HIMSS (Healthcare Information Management Systems Society). HITS is the international standard for introduction to health informatics. Please visit www.frontlineinformatics.ca for more information about the HITS program. You can register online for HITS or, for larger group registrations; you can contact the COACH office at https://secure.coachorg.com/default.asp?ID=877 or email me at gbrannen@frontlineinformatics.ca.
Glen Brannen
Frontline Informatics Inc.
905 338-3206
2008-05-17 - HITS a HIT at e-Health 2008
HITS was prominently featured at the e-Health Conference in Vancouver. COACH, Canada\'s Health Informatics Association, announced that HITS is now provided by COACH. The HITS certificate is recognition that participants have completed the basic course in Health Informatics.
Many organizations visited the booth and expressed interest in introducing the HITS program to their frontline staff. 2008-05-14 - New website for Frontline Informatics Training
Frontline Informatics is pleased to launch its new website. The new website has many features to make your visit more informative and exciting.
Users are now able to sign-up for the HITS program in the traditional manner of downloading and filling out a pdf, as well as on-line payments. The Fronline payment gateway is a 256Bit Encrytion Key ensuring your privacy.
Thank you and enjoy, and if you have any questions or require any assistance please call or email.
Glen Brannen |
