Using Open Structure Database for Teaching Designing Health Information System

摘要

It is very important for the modern worker of healthcare to make good decisions in time. A good decision support system can help us to achieve this objective. However, it requires not only the use of locally stored data, but also integration with global data, as global trends may influence the local situation. While the systems used in the healthcare are getting more intelligent and their interfaces - more user friendly, such integration still requires high level understanding of IT and mathematics. In this paper we recommend the use of real structure of health information system database to facilitate the understanding of IT. However, fictional data should be used for privacy reasons. The structure of the health information system database should be accessible for the students. That can be achieved using MS Access to connect to the main database via ODBC. Then it becomes possible to add the data from WHO, EUROSTAT or the regional databases (as LSIC) to the MS Access database. The data selected by the relevant queries can be further exported to MS Excel or SPSS for more complex analysis. Such studies help the students to understand health information systems and data analysis deeper. These principles are used in Health information systems module in Public health faculty of Kaunas University of Medicine.