8/30/07
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
INLS 748 (216): Health Sciences Environment
Thursdays 2:00 - 4:30 p.m.
214 Manning Hall
Instructor: Joanne Gard Marshall
301 Manning Hall
marshall@ils.unc.edu
(919) 843-9668 or 843-7883
Office hours: After class or by appointment
Class Blackboard site: http://blackboard.unc.edu/
Course Description
Prerequisites: INLS 501, INLS 585 or permission of instructor. Trends in health care
policy, biomedical research, health sciences education and health services with an
emphasis on the impact and use of information. This course provides a useful
background for those interested in health informatics, health sciences libraries and
information services and other applications of LIS skills in the health domain. We will
look at the health sciences environment at the state, national and international levels
through the lenses of health care policy, evidence-based practice and information
access and use. We will use a seminar style in which students and the instructor will
take turns presenting and leading discussions using key readings and other resources.
Learning Objectives
1. To gain an understanding of the complex array of factors influencing the health
and health care environment locally and globally.
2. To appreciate the role of public policy in shaping health and health care at the
individual, community and population health levels.
3. To become familiar with major trends in health care services.
4. To become familiar with major trends in health sciences education.
5. To become familiar with major trends in health sciences research.
6. To become familiar with the international trend towards evidence-based health
care and its implications for information access.
7. To examine the activities of major government health organizations including :
World Health Organization, U.K. National Health Service, Health Canada, U.S.
National Institutes of Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine, US Center for
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Disease Control, US National Science Foundation, US Agency for Healthcare
Research Quality.
8. To explore the roles of health information professionals such as informaticians,
librarians, informationists, and medical records professionals.
9. To explore roles of major health information professional associations including:
the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA); the Medical Library
Association (MLANET); American Society for Information Science and
Technology (ASIST) SIG/MED, American Health Information Management
Association (AHIMA) and the Healthcare Information and Management Society
(HIMSS).
10. To understand the roles of major information providers in the health field such as:
the World Health Organization (WHO), the US National Institutes of Health (NIH),
the US National Library of Medicine (NLM); the US Center for Disease Control
(CDC); and the US Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ).
Grading (see Schedule of classes for due dates)

15% Overall class participation, including discussion of readings

30% Review and presentation of two chapters in the key text for the course:
Shortliffe, E.H., Cimino, J.J., eds. Biomedical Informatics: Computer
Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine 3d ed. New York: Springer
Verlag, 2006. Available full text online at UNC Libraries.
Each written chapter review should be about 5 pages double-spaced.
Students will give a 15 to 20 minute presentation on the selected chapter
and lead a discussion. Provide a one-page summary handout for the class.
Powerpoint is optional. Each chapter assignment will account for 15% of
the grade. Chapter titles may be viewed at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0387289860/ref=sib_dp_pt/1035693031-7075052#reader-link
Selection of the chapters should be negotiated with the instructor. Students
will be required select different chapters so that we can cover as many
chapters as possible in some depth in class. We will select chapters for
discussion at the August 30 class.

55% Major paper on topic to be negotiated with the instructor. The paper
should be about 20 pages double-spaced with a substantial bibliography in
Vancouver style. Students will present an overview of their paper at the
final class and distribute a one-page summary handout. Powerpoint is
optional. If students prefer a different approach, e.g. a paper/project or
something else this may be negotiated with the instructor.
All written assignments should be sent electronically to marshall@ils.unc.edu.
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Students are referred to the Graduate School website for explanation of the grading
system used for graduate students at UNC.
Students are expected to follow the practices described in the UNC Honor Code.
Document Form and Style
Students should use the bibliographic style most often used in health sciences
environments, namely the Vancouver Style. Guidelines may be found at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
Key Web Resource
We will make extensive use of the resources found at www.kaiseredu.org, an online
health policy resource for faculty and students.
Key Text.
Shortliffe, E.H., Cimino, J.J., eds. Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in
Health Care and Biomedicine 3d ed. New York: Springer Verlag, 2006. Available full
text online at UNC Libraries.
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Carol Perryman for her assistance with the course bibliography.
Schedule of classes
(Note that key readings and Web resources should be reviewed prior to the
scheduled class)
Aug 23 - Introductions, class overview.
Please see the movie Sicko this coming week if you have not already done so.
Cary: Galaxy – Daily at 1:20, 7:10
Durham: Carolina – Nightly at 7:10, 9:30; weekend matinees at 2:15, 4:30
Aug 30 - Health Policy – US
Decide on chapters for assignments.
Sicko discussion.
Key Readings and Web Resources:
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Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. Healthy People 2010.
http://www.healthypeople.gov/Healthy People 2010. http://www.healthypeople.gov/
Healthy Carolinians website. http://www.healthycarolinians.org/
Institute of Medicine, Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance. Insuring
America's Health: Principles and Recommendations. Washington, DC, USA:
National Academies Press, 2004. http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3809/4660/17632.aspx
e-book: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10874#toc
Sep 6 - Health Policy – US (continued)
Key Readings and Web resources:
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Value-driven Health Care.
http://www.hhs.gov/valuedriven/
We will also listen to and discuss the Kaiser tutorial on the Role of States in Health Care
Policy which may be found at: http://www.kaiseredu.org/tutorials/StateHealth/player.html
Note that the Kaiser tutorials may take a few minutes to load.
Sep 13 - Health Policy – Global
Key Readings and Web Resources:
Frenk, J., Sepulveda J., McGuiness, & Knaul, F. (1997). The future of world health: The
new world order and international health. BMJ, 314(7091):1404-12.
World Health Organization website. http://www.who.int/about/en/
UK National Health Service website. http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/homepage.aspx
UK National Health Service Health Direct website. http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/
Health Canada website: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/index_e.html
Sep 20 - First Chapter review assignment due.
Class presentations and discussion of Chapters in Shortliffe and Cimino.
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Sep 27 – Biomedical and Health Research
Key Readings and Web Resources:
Department of Health and Human Services / Centers for Disease Control. Advancing
the Nation’s Health: A Guide to Public Health Research Needs, 2006 - 2015
http://www.cdc.gov/od/science/PHResearch/cdcra/AdvancingTheNationsHealth.pdf
National Institutes of Health. NIH Roadmap for Medical Research.
Translational Research initiative. http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/overviewtranslational.asp
NIH Public Access Policy. See Pubmed database at: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/
NLM Long Range Plan. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/plan/lrpdocs.html
US Center for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov/
Agency for Healthcare Research Quality http://www.ahrq.gov/
National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/
Oct 4 - Health Sciences Education
Key Readings and Web Resources:
American Association of Health Sciences Libraries. Building on success: Knowledge
management within the academic health center.
http://www.aahsl.org/document/CTFprint.pdf
American Association of Medical Colleges website. http://www.aamc.org/
Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada website:
http://www.afmc.ca/pages/about.html
American Nurses Association website at: http://www.nursingworld.org/
Allied health professional associations list at:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/3584.html
Oct 11 – No class.
Health Services
View/read the following resources on health issues at www.kaiseredu.org
A short film about how nurses save lives listed under the heading Videos.
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Read the information about medical malpractice policy at
http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics_im.asp?id=226&parentID=59&imID=1
Read the information about prescription drug costs at
http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics_im.asp?id=352&parentID=68&imID=1
Listen to least one of the tutorials on the Kaiser site except Medical 101 and Medicaid
101 which will be covered later.
Oct 18 – No class – Fall break.
Oct 25 – Second Chapter review assignment due. Class presentations and discussion of
chapters in Shortliffe and Cimino. Discussion of Kaiser tutorials chosen as key readings
for Oct 11 class.
Nov 1 – No class.
Health Services
View/read the following resources on health issues on the http://www.kaiseredu.org/
website:
Read the information about minority health at
http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics.asp?id=67&tuID=27&refID=51&sidenav=246&newid=30
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Read the information about quality of care at
http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics.asp?id=70&isID=30&refID=31&sidenav=249&smart=59
Listen to the Medicare 101 tutorial at
http://www.kaiseredu.org/tutorials/Medicare101_2006/player.html
Listen to the Medicaid 101 tutorial at
http://www.kaiseredu.org/tutorials/medicaidbasics/medicaid.html
Nov 8 – Evidence-based health care
Key readings/Web Resources
Review the websites for Centers of Evidence-based Practice in Health listed at the end
of the course bibliography. Be prepared to discuss the content and approach taken by
two of the centers during the class. We will decide ahead of time which centers people
will focus on.
Nov 15 – Key information-related issues in the health care environment
We will use the topics covered in the text edited by Shortliffe and Cimino as a guide for
our discussion and relate the information issues to the content that we have covered in
the course on health policy, research, education and services.
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Key readings/ Web Resources:
Shortliffe, E.H., Cimino, J.J., eds. Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in
Health Care and Biomedicine 3d ed. New York: Springer Verlag, 2006. Available full
text online at UNC Libraries.
Websites of the following organizations:
American Medical Informatics Association
(AMIA) http://www.amia.org/
Medical Library Association (MLA)
http://www.mlanet.org/
American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) SIG/MED
http://www.asis.org/SIG/SIGMED/
American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)
http://www.ahima.org/
Healthcare Information and Management Society (HIMSS)
http://www.himss.org/ASP/index.asp
Nov 22 - No class – Thanksgiving
Nov 29 – Last class – Final assignment presentation with one-page summary
handouts. Written final assignment due Dec 5.
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