This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

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LEC # TOPICS OBJECTIVES LECTURERS
Module I: Setting the Stage for eHealth
1 Health care in the developing world and the determinants of health and disease

Overview of the medical illnesses, the status of health care, and common human resource limitations in developing countries

Understand health inequities and the social determinants of health

 Joia Mukherjee (Partners in Health)
2 Health information systems in resource-poor environments Background on health information systems that have been implemented in developing countries and the evidence on their impact Hamish Fraser (Partners in Health, Harvard Medical School)
3 Overview of quality improvement Understand the nature and extent of medical errors and how healthcare organizations should respond when adverse events occur Leo Celi (MIT, Sana)
Module II: Designing Health Information Systems
4 Operations management at the front lines Evaluate the performance of operating units, understand why they perform as they do, and design new or improved operating procedures and systems Martin Were (Indiana University)
5 Process improvement theory and application Understand the methods used for improving process quality Brandon Bennett (Institute for Healthcare Improvement)
6 Goal directed research for effective health information systems

Learn to frame the research problems; learn where good ideas come from; and how to synthesize solutions

Project: Proposal due at start of class

 Evan Pankey (Beacon 16 Software)
Module III: Creating a Culture of Quality in Health Care
7 Innovation and adoption of new practices Examine principles of innovation and the adoption of new practices that can guide the design of successful quality improvement projects Jonathan Jackson (Dimagi)
8 Checklists: Quality improvement in developing countries Understand how checklists improve safety and how they are used; recognize some of the similarities and differences in improving quality of care in different settings Priya Agrawal and Alvin Kwok (World Health Organization / Harvard School of Public Health)
9 Evaluating process and outcome metrics in the context of quality

Learn how to design a measurement approach to systematically measure dimensions of quality in clinical care systems

Project: Interim outline and pitches

 Lisa Hirschhorn, MD MPH (Harvard Medical School / JSI)
10 Evaluating process and outcome metrics: Patient safety

Learn how to design an evaluation study with appropriate clinical and economic outcomes

Project: Interim outline and pitches

 Pedro Delgado (Institute for Healthcare Improvement)
11 Organizational change: Positive deviance Understand how to design and lead systems changes to achieve quality improvement within a heath-care organization Jessica Haberer, MD, MS (Massachusetts General Hospital)
12 Value-chain analysis in healthcare Learn how to perform value chain analysis in health care and discuss ways it has been applied in developing countries Anjali Sastry (MIT Sloan School)
13 Organizational change: Lean sigma Discuss the application of management models drawn from production industries to health-care delivery Andrew Kanter (Millenium Villages Project)
14 Collaborative change & wrap-Up Discuss the model of inter-organizational learning as an approach to quality improvement Chaitali Sinha (IDRC)
15 Student final project presentations Each team gives a 10-12 minute presentation, followed by short Q&A Students