Engaging Technology

Technology is becoming increasingly important in healthcare environments. This course is unique because it focuses on the healthcare professionals using the technology, rather than those developing it.

Our healthcare technology course will provide you with a solid understanding of existing, emerging and future healthcare technology. You’ll learn how to make evidence-based decisions around introducing new technology to your patients and practice.

You’ll also explore the barriers to implementing new technology in healthcare and what you can do to minimise these for your patients.

You’ll gain practical experience of using the latest healthcare technology, as well as learning how to encourage behavioural change to implement technology as a tool for better patient-centred care.

Who is it for?

This course is for anyone working in health and social care who has to introduce or use technology in their roles, particularly to deliver patient care.

Benefits

Learn how to successfully introduce technology in general care and clinical practice. You’ll explore the barriers to adoption for both service users, carers and health professionals, as well as how to overcome them. This course will enable you to deliver patient-centred care using technology as a tool.

This short course module is designed to be flexible in allowing you to study and reach your goals at your own pace. Our health CPD courses are credit-bearing modules that contribute to a University degree or award.

Transfer course credits towards postgraduate taught degree

As a health care professional, once you've completed this course you could offset 15 credits as part of a postgraduate programme, continuing your study with further modules to make up a Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) 60 credits, Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) 120 credits or Master of Science (MSc) 180 credits qualification (all credits must be awarded within five years of study commencing).

What will I learn?

This course focuses on helping allied health professionals develop their knowledge of existing and emerging healthcare technology, as well as looking at techniques to encourage behaviour change and successfully introduce technology to your patients and colleagues.

You’ll be encouraged to use research to support your decisions around technology selection and introduction. You’ll also learn why technology doesn’t always work as expected in general practice and how you can overcome barriers to its adoption.

The course content includes:

• Different forms of healthcare technology available, including telehealth, telecare, telemedicine, mobile apps, telerehab, social robotics, artifical inteligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR)
• Methods to introduce appropriate technology for individuals with various long-term conditions and/or social care needs
• How to think critically about the introduction of technology, using available theory and evidence to develop programmes for patient care and self-management that can change health behaviours and outcomes
• Practical implications of introducing different kinds of healthcare technology in contemporary health and social care
• Potential benefits and challenges of healthcare technology for care professionals and service users
• Evidence around service user and carer experiences of healthcare technology
• Future perspectives on healthcare technology.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Use and explain how a range of healthcare technology works, as well as understand when to introduce it and what specific solutions it provides
• Identify and analyse the theory and research behind new healthcare technology, using this to form an evidence base for its introduction to your practice
• Identify barriers to the use of new healthcare technologies and find solutions that overcome them
• Explain the benefits of healthcare technology for patients, particularly in relation to self-managing long-term health conditions
• Understand how to introduce new technology to both service users and colleagues to ensure high levels of adoption.

Teaching

This course is taught over one academic term, lasting for ten weeks. You’ll attend 25 to 30 hours of lectures and carry out self-directed study during this time.

Dr Shashi Hirani, the course lead, has a background in health psychology and a keen interest in healthcare technology.

He’s supported by experts in emerging technology, such as VR, as well as behaviour change experts who can help you understand some of the barriers to introducing new technology to service users.

As well as attending lectures, you will spend time in our technology suite (CityTECs), which has been kitted out by Tunstall and Philips, two of the world’s leading healthcare technology companies. This gives you chance to use some of the latest technology that’s available to healthcare professionals.

You’ll also be given a wearable piece of technology to use during the course, allowing you to gain an insight into how patients experience and use technology.

Assessment

There is just one assessment for this course.

• A 2,500-word written essay, with a pass mark of 50%. This will cover the introduction of a piece of technology in a specific setting, exploring the theory and using the available evidence base to support your choices around how and why you choose to introduce this technology.

Award

This course will give you 15 academic credits, which count towards your CPD.

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

You do not need any specific qualifications for this course, but you should be working in health and social care in a role where you are using or introducing new technology.

Non EEA students can only apply as part of a programme, not as a stand-alone course.

• A current professional registration with a relevant professional/statutory body or equivalent
• At least one years' relevant clinical experience as a health or social care practitioner
• A satisfactory academic reference and a satisfactory clinical reference.

English requirements

If your first language is not English, one of the following is required:

• A first degree from a UK university
• A first degree from an overseas institution recognised by City, University of London as providing adequate evidence of proficiency in the English language, for example, from institutions from Australia, Canada or the United States of America.
• International English Language Test Service (IELTS) a score of 7.0 is required with no subtest below 7.0
• Pearson Test of English (Academic) score 72 required
• TOEFL 100 overall with 24 in Writing, 20 in Listening, 19 Reading and 20 Speaking
• Other evidence of proficiency in the English language, which satisfies the board of studies concerned, including registration with your professional regulator.

Books / Articles:

• Car J (2012). Telehealth for long term conditions. BMJ ; 344 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e4201
• Charness N, Demiris G & Krupinski E (2012). Designing Telehealth for an Aging Population: A Human Factors Perspective. Taylor& Francis.
• DelliFraine JL & Dansky KH (2008). Home-based telehealth: a review and meta- analysis. J Telemed Telecare, 14(2): 62-66.
• Fong B, Fong ACM & Li CK (2011). Telemedicine Technologies: Information Technologies in Medicine and Telehealth.Wiley: Chichester.
• Norris AC (2001). Essentials of Telemedicine and telecare. Wiley: Chichester.
• Wootton R (2006). An Introduction to Telemedicine. 2nd Ed., Royal Society of Medicine Press Ltd, London.

Websites:

• The Kings Fund - Our work on health IT, digital health, patient data and information governance
• 3 Million Lives
• Innovate UK - dallas
• The Kings Fund -The impact of telehealth: a review of the evidence