The document summarizes the results of market research on eHealth education. It finds that: 1) Canada lags in electronic health record adoption and eHealth is an emerging field with job growth potential. 2) There is student interest in eHealth education but also uncertainties about career prospects and types of programs. 3) Employers see a growing need for professionals with eHealth skills across clinical, IT and business domains to help health systems adopt new technologies. 4) UBC currently offers some undergraduate and postgraduate eHealth courses but could expand offerings based on job market needs and student demand.

1. eHIPP Rounds
eHealth Market Research
Liz Heathcote
Lana Newton

2. Contents
• Introduction
• Current reporting on eHealth field
• Results of our market research
• Existing and planned UBC Courses
• Questions and Discussion

3. Introduction and Background
eHealth
education at
UBC

4. eHealth Landscape
• Review of literature, particularly:
– eHealth landscape and future
– job prospects for graduates
– HI competencies
– existing programs

5. eHealth landscape
Since 2001, Canadian focus primarily on electronic health records.
$1.6-billion has been spent from federal funds, to build
nationally compatible systems and platforms
In a study of electronic health record adoption
among 11 wealthy nations, Canada ranked last in
physician utilization at 37%.
Canada Health Infoway: http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/lang-
en/about-infoway/news/media-room
Canadian public health care sector is
worth more than $150 billion per year

6. eHealth landscape
BC health system faces “cost pressures from changing demographics;
shortages in health human resources; growing costs of managing
chronic diseases…”
Leitch et al. “Leveraging Information Technologies…”
B.C. has invested approximately $146 million in eHealth
projects to “bring lab results, diagnostic scans,
medication histories, and electronic Rx online ...”
Gov’t News Release at http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-
2009/2008HSERV0101-001697.htm
President Obama has allocated $2 billion for
HIT infrastructure:
• $36-40B - electronic health record adoption
• $118M - workforce development.

7. Job market pros
• “Ahead of the curve career”*
• Current Canadian workforce of 32,540 needs to
increase by 6,320 - 12,330 by 2014^
• eHealth is becoming central to health services, thus
need:
o healthcare workers who know why/ when/ how eHealth tools;
o healthcare IT specialists;
o health administrators & consultants with IT & clinical workflow skills and
knowledge;
o researchers in ehealth, human factor or technology-based research.
*U.S. News & World Report, Dec 2008
^ Health Informatics and Health Information Management — Human Resources Report (Nov 2009)

8. Job market cons
• Temporary, project-based positions
• Lag in prediction to realization of job
availability
• Difficulty finding positions
• Difficulty locating reliable salary information

9. Job descriptions
• COACH’s HI professions matrix from
‘emerging professional’ to ‘master’ at
http://coachorg.com/career_development/professio
nalism/core_competencies.htm
• UK Health Informatics Career Framework
(HICF) (http://www.hicf.org.uk/).

10. Existing Programs
Clinical

11. Potential Student Survey
• Not sure of longevity and “mainstream”ness
of eHealth
• Not sure of value
• Peripheral understanding
• More interested in certificates or
specializations

12. Potential Student Survey

13. Potential Student Survey

14. Student Survey - motivations

15. Student Survey - barriers

16. Student Survey - Topics
Topic Areas for Postgraduate eHealth/ HI Study
14m. Legal, security, privacy issues
14l: Change Management
14k. Project Management
14j: Future Trends
14i: Genomics and bioinformatics
14h: Clinical robotics
14g. Clinical Support Systems
14f: Health Care Systems
14e. Role and benefits of ICT in health
14d: Telehealth
14c. Health care sector
14b: History & development
14a: Data and databases
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Very important (4) Important (3) Somewhat Important (2) Not at all important (1)

17. Potential Employers
Who did we interview?
• Average years in career: 12 +
• Range: less than 5 years to 25 years

18. If you could create an eHealth Masters Grad, who would it
be?

19. Potential Employer Interviews: Preliminary
Conclusions
• eHealth has increasingly large impact on
healthcare
• There is a lag in uptake of eHealth because
the field needs more professionally trained:

20. So??
• Still defining structures, the field itself
• eHealth & HI suffering from a low profile
• Existing health science/ medical graduates
• applied eHealth skills
• program evaluation skills
• Clinical vs IT vs business
• How does this match with your experience/ needs?

21. eHealth education at UBC
• Undergraduate – IHHS302, medical program
redesign
• Postgraduate – Research Methods in eHealth
• High School – summer camps
• Web 2.0 in eHealth likely from September
• Professional Development – eHIPPs, short
courses specific to health profession/ cultural
context

22. Questions?
Liz liz.h@ubc.ca
Lana lana.n@ubc.ca