Professor Susan Hahn Reizner
Textbook: No textbook. Research in the primary literature.
A capstone project in two parts completes the Masters Degree program in medical informatics. The first part consists of this ePortfolio which serves multiple purposes. It allows the students to show concrete evidence of new skills they have developed. More important it gives us the opportunity to analyze, synthesize and reflect on our new knowledge, looking for hidden connections and deeper meanings. How do concepts and information from different areas of study interrelate, and how can they be arranged in new frameworks that yield original and useful insights? How can the contradictory data, competing priorities, and functional paradoxes that invariably arise as we apply our new knowledge to real life challenges be integrated and resolved to successfully solve problems? What would we like to accomplish with our new skills, and how can that add value to a healthcare organization and to society at large? Can we think beyond knowledge and reason and begin the pursuit of those most elusive but invaluable human qualities, wisdom and vision?
The second part of the capstone project consists of a research paper, written and structured from a business consulting rather than an academic point of view, and utilizing all the skills and knowledge developed throughout the program. My project teammates, Naveen Gidwani, Dr. Louis Fernandez, and I, accepted the role of Medical Information Technology Consultants (MedInfoTech), a firm hired to advise the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the hypothetical Academic Health Center on the selection of software programs and vendors to use in setting up a program of asynchronous online clinic visits (e-Visits) to be offered through the department's secure Web Portal as an alternative to face to face clinic visits for their patients with common low acuity medical problems. The consultants' White Paper addresses a wide ranging set of issues related to e-visits including historical development, quality and effectiveness, patient utilization and satisfaction, provider utilization and satisfaction, barriers to implementation, cost and sustainability, technical requirements of the system components, and training and change management. A copy of the paper is attached in the next subpage.