Combining both technological and scientific expertise to transform research and clinical data into innovative solutions that directly impact patient outcomes is a very specific yet important part of a healthcare system. From May 29 to 31, 2023, the OMI was pleased to host the OMI MEX CHOP Seminar in Medical Informatics in Mexico City. We are honored that faculty from the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics Team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia led the course.
The seminar focused on applied health informatics and was geared towards both novice and experienced health care professionals with leadership roles in health information systems. The objectives of the course were to gain knowledge and skills in health informatics and to apply principles and techniques to design safe, effective, equitable, and robust solutions to support the health of patients and populations.
Dr. Sansanee Craig, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Dr. Bimal Desai, Chief Health Informatics Officer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, served as the course directors. Additional CHOP faculty included Dr. Robert W. Grundmeier and Dr. Eli Lourie, and Dr. Jorge E. Valdez-García served as local Mexican faculty for the seminar. The medical informatics experts provided 12 informative and dynamic lectures to the attendees, including topics such as Introduction to Health Informatics, Ethics, Privacy, Security, Clinical Decision Support, Informatics Education and Workforce Development, Quality Improvement, and more.
Two fellows’ case presentation sessions were held, in which six participants presented about the successes, challenges/problems to solve, and questions that that they face in their role as a clinician or administrator involving medical informatics in their home countries. This proved to be an excellent opportunity to see how medical informatics is applied in real life situations, in various settings around the world, and to informally learn and share experiences between the faculty and fellows.
By the end of the seminar, participants should have been able to characterize the state of health IT in their local environment and advocate for necessary workforce training and development, gain leadership knowledge and skills to actively contribute to health IT projects and improve the likelihood of success, apply informatics principles and techniques to design safe, effective, equitable, and robust solutions to support the health of patients and populations, as well as understand emerging trends in health IT and their future application to health care.
By the end of the three-day seminar, fellows and faculty were well acquainted and enjoyed their lunch together during the award ceremony. Fellows were acknowledged with their certificates of participation and spent the afternoon networking, discussing, and reminiscing on all they learned throughout the seminar. What an informative and fruitful experience!
