Workforce Development Programs

Health IT Curriculum Resources for Educators

The Workforce Components includes an updated and expanded set of health IT instructional materials, funded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), to help healthcare workers and others stay current in the changing healthcare environment and deliver care more effectively.

The new instructional materials are in five areas relevant to improved care delivery: population health, care coordination and interoperable health IT systems, value-based care, healthcare data analytics and patient-centered care. These areas reflect changes in the U.S. healthcare system spurred by health reform to achieve better care, smarter spending and healthier people.

In addition, 20 existing instructional modules developed under ONC’s Curriculum Development Centers program were updated. These materials are relevant to physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers who utilize health IT in care delivery, and others in the broader healthcare system.

The existing instructional modules, which have been used by more than 10,000 educators around the world to date, include History of Health IT, Maintenance of Health IT Systems, Management and Leadership for Health IT, The Culture of Healthcare and more.

Many of these components are over 1 GB in size. Downloading may take up to 10 minutes depending on your connection.

Component # Component Name Unit Titles
1 Introduction to Health Care and Public Health in the U.S.
  1. Introduction to and History of Modern Healthcare in the US
  2. Delivering Healthcare (Part 1)
  3. Delivering Healthcare (Part 2)
  4. Financing Healthcare (Part 1)
  5. Financing Healthcare (Part 2)
  6. Regulating Healthcare
  7. Public Healthcare (Part 1)
  8. Public Healthcare (Part 2)
  9. Evolution of and Trends in Health Care
  10. Meaningful Use
2 The Culture of Health Care
  1. An Overview of the Culture of Health Care
  2. Health Professionals – the People in Health Care
  3. Health Care Settings – The Places Where Care is Delivered
  4. Health Care Processes and Decision Making
  5. Evidence-Based Practice
  6. Nursing Care Processes
  7. Quality Measurement and Improvement
  8. Ethics & Professionalism
  9. Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security
  10. Sociotechnical Aspects: Clinicians and Technology
3 Terminology in Health Care and Public Health Settings
  1. Understanding Medical Words
  2. Integumentary System
  3. Musculoskeletal System
  4. Blood, Lymphatic and Immune System
  5. Cardiovascular System
  6. Digestive System
  7. Endocrine System
  8. Ears, Nose, Throat, Eye and Vision
  9. Nervous System
  10. Reproductive System
  11. Respiratory System
  12. Urinary System
  13. What is Health Information Management and Technology?
  14. Standards to Promote Health Information Exchange
4 Introduction to Information and Computer Science
  1. Basic Computing Concepts, Including History
  2. Computer Hardware
  3. Computer Software
  4. Computer Programming
  5. Databases and SQL
  6. Networks
  7. Security & Privacy
  8. Information Systems
5 History of Health Information Technology in the U.S.
  1. Evolution of Health IT: The Early Years
  2. Evolution of Health IT: The Modern Era
  3. Evolution of Health IT: The HITECH Act
  4. Evolution of Public Health Informatics
  5. Evolution of Nursing Informatics and HIT Tools Used By Nursing
  6. History of Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
  7. History of Clinical Decision Support Systems
  8. History of CPOE and E-Prescribing
  9. History of Health Information Exchange
  10. History of Privacy and Security Legislation
  11. Software Certification and Regulation
  12. History of Mobile Computing
  13. History of Telemedicine
  14. History of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
  15. History of Health IT Organizations
6 Health Management Information System
  1. What is Health Informatics?
  2. sHealth Information Systems Overview
  3. Electronic Health Records
  4. Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE)
  5. Clinical Decision Support Systems
  6. Patient Monitoring Systems
  7. Medical Imaging Systems
  8. Consumer Health Informatics
  9. Administrative, Billing, and Financial Systems
7 Working with Health IT Systems
  1. Introduction & Overview: Components of HIT Systems
  2. Under the Hood
  3. Understanding Information Exchange in HIT Systems
  4. The Effective IT System
  5. HIT Facilitated Error—Cause and Effect
  6. Protecting Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality in HIT Systems
  7. Medical Imaging Systems
  8. HIT System Planning, Acquisition, Installation, &Training: Practices to Support & Pitfalls to Avoid
  9. Potential Issues with Adoption and Installation of an HIT system
  10. HIT and Aspects of Patient-Centered Care
  11. Health IT in the Future
8 Installation and Maintenance of Health IT Systems
  1. Elements of a Typical EHR System
  2. System Selection – Software and Certification
  3. System Selection – Functional and Technical Requirements
  4. Structured Systems Analysis and Design
  5. Software Development Life Cycle
  6. System Security Procedures and Standards
  7. System Interfaces and Integration
  8. Troubleshooting, Maintenance and Upgrades, and Interaction with Vendors, Developers, and Users
  9. Creating Fault Tolerant Systems, Backups, and Decommissioning
  10. Developing a Test Strategy and a Test Plan
  11. Pilot Testing and Full-Scale Deployment
9 Networking and Health Information Exchange
  1. ISO Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)
  2. Network Media and Hardware Communication Devices
  3. National and International Standards Developing Organizations
  4. Basic Health Data Standards
  5. Health Data Interchange Standards
  6. EHR Functional Model Standards
  7. Supporting Standards for EHR Applications
  8. Enterprise Architecture Models
  9. Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security Issues and Standards
  10. Health Information Exchange
10 Health Care Workflow Process Improvement
  1. Concepts of Workflow Process Improvement
  2. Process Mapping Theory and Rationale
  3. Interpreting and Creating Process Diagrams
  4. Acquiring Clinical Process Knowledge
  5. Process Analysis
  6. Process Re-design
  7. Quality Improvement Methods
  8. Leading and Facilitating Change
  9. Process Change Implementation and Evaluation
  10. Maintaining and Enhancing Improvements
11 Configuring EHRs
  1. Migration to an Electronic Health Record System
  2. Patient Care Clinical Workflow; Multiple Perspectives of Patient Care (VistA Demo)
  3. Implementing Clinical Decision Support (VistA Demo)
  4. Building Order Sets (VistA Demo)
  5. Creating Data Entry Templates (VistA Demo)
  6. Health Summary and Clinical Reminder Reports (VistA Demo)
  7. Meaningful Use and Implementation
12 Quality Improvement
  1. Introduction to Quality Improvement and Health Information Technology
  2. Principles of Quality and Safety for HIT
  3. Introduction to Reliability
  4. Reliability and Culture of Safety
  5. Decision Support for Quality Improvement
  6. Quality Improvement Methods
  7. HIT’s Impact on a Patient Safety Culture
  8. HIT Implementation Planning for Quality and Safety
  9. Assessing Data Quality
  10. Measuring Quality of Care with Electronic Quality Measures (eCQM)
  11. Learning from Mistakes: Error Reporting and Analysis and HIT
13 Public Health IT
  1. Overview & Contribution to Public Health Through Electronic Health Record Use
  2. Privacy, Confidentiality and Security of Public Health Information
  3. Data Standards in Public Health Information Technology
  4. Public Health Enabled Electronic Health Records and the Role of Public Health in Health Information Exchange
  5. Epidemiology Databases and Registries-Public Health Information Tools
  6. Bio-survelliance, Situational Awareness and Disaster Response
  7. Public Health Reporting, Alerts and Decision Support
  8. The potential of public health IT for health promotion and chronic disease prevention
  9. Quality Reporting
14 Special Topics Course on Vendor-Specific Systems
  1. Common Commercial Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems Used in Ambulatory and Inpatient Care Settings
  2. Electronic Health Record (EHR) Functionality
15 Usability and Human Factors
  1. People and Technology, Studies of Technology
  2. Requirements Engineering
  3. Cognition and Human Performance
  4. Human Factors and Healthcare
  5. Usability evaluation methods
  6. Electronic Health Records and Usability
  7. Clinical Decision Support and Usability
  8. Approaches to Design
  9. Ubiquitous Computing
  10. Design for safety
  11. Input and selection
  12. Information Visualization
16 Professionalism/Customer Service in the Health Environment
  1. Customer Service in Health Care IT
  2. Professional Behavior in the Health Care Environment
  3. Overview of Communication Relevant to Health IT
  4. Key Elements of Effective Communication
  5. Regulatory Issues: Standard Precautions and HIPAA
  6. Conflict Resolution
  7. Ethical and Cultural Issues Related to Communication and Customer Service
  8. Communications and Professionalism
17 Working in Teams
  1. Health IT Teams: Examples and Characteristics
  2. Forming and Developing a Team for HIT
  3. Initial Tools for Teaming: Ground Rules & Action Plans for HIT Teams
  4. Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety: TeamSTEPPS
  5. Leveraging Integration Techniques: Power of HIT Team Dynamics
  6. Articulating Feedback and Feedforward: Tracking Success and Change
  7. Leadership: All Members as Leaders—Leaderful Teams
  8. Sharing Resources and Information: Tools to Optimize Performance of HIT Teams
  9. Positioning for High Performance Teaming: Challenges and Opportunities in the HIT Environment
  10. Barriers to Success: Reading Early Warning Signs of HIT Team Failure
  11. TeamSTEPPS
18 Planning, Management and Leadership for Health IT
  1. Introduction to Leadership
  2. The Management and Leadership Distinction
  3. Key Concepts Associated with Leadership
  4. Effective and Ineffective Leaders
  5. Overview of the IT Strategic Planning Process
  6. Achieving External Alignment
  7. Team and Small Group Communication
  8. Conflict Resolution
  9. Purchasing and Contracting
  10. Change Management
19 Introduction to Project Management
  1. An Overview of Health IT Projects
  2. Project Life Cycles
  3. Project Selection and Initiation
  4. Project Planning Overview
  5. Managing Project Scope
  6. Managing Project Time, Cost, and Procurements
  7. Managing Project Risk
  8. Team Management and Communications
  9. Project Monitoring and Control
  10. Quality ManagementProject Closure and Transition
  11. Project Closure and Transition
20 Training and Instructional Design
  1. Introduction to Training and Adult Learning
  2. Needs Analysis
  3. Creating a Lesson Plan
  4. Selecting and Working with Media
  5. Building & Delivering Effective PowerPoint Presentation
  6. Assessments
  7. Learning Management Systems
  8. Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools
21 Population Health
  1. Population Health and the Application of Health IT
  2. Applying Health IT to Improve Population Health at Community Level
  3. Structural "Accountable" Care Approaches for Target Population
  4. Implications of Policy, Finance, and Business on Population Health
  5. Population Health IT and Data Systems
  6. Identifying Risk and Segmenting Populations: Predictive Analytics for Population Health
  7. Population Health Management Interventions
  8. Engaging Consumer, Providers and Community in Population Health Programs
  9. Big Data, Interoperability and Analytics for Population Health
  10. Research Evaluation and Evidence Generation in Population Health
22 Care Coordination and Interoperable Health IT Systems
  1. Overview of Care Coordination
  2. Team-based approach to Patient Care
  3. Overview of Interoperable Health IT
  4. Principles and Technology of Health Interoperability
  5. Standards for Interoperable Health IT
  6. Implementing Health Interoperability
  7. Policy and Interoperable Health IT
  8. Health Information Exchange
  9. Expanding Access with Technology
  10. Ensuring the Security and Privacy of Information Shared
  11. Supporting Patient-Driven Care Coordination
  12. Care Coordination Analytics
23 Value-Based Care
  1. Introduction to Value-Based Care
  2. Regulatory Environment
  3. Healthcare Delivery
  4. Care Management
  5. Value-Based Quality and Safety
  6. Volume to Value
  7. Outcomes and Reimbursement
24 Health Care Data Analytics
  1. Introduction to Health Care Data Analytics
  2. Working with Data
  3. Secondary Use of Clinical Data
  4. Communicating Data Analysis Results
  5. Patient Identification
  6. Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing
  7. Data Analytics in Clinical Settings
  8. Learning Health Systems
  9. Usability
  10. Risk Adjustment and Predictive Modeling
25 Patient-Centered Care
  1. Patient Engagement and the ePatient
  2. Behavior Change Strategies
  3. Activated Patients
  4. Supporting Patient-Driven Care Coordination
  5. Patient-Provider Communication
  6. Communicating Health Risk
  7. Shared Decision Making (SDM)
  8. Precision Medicine
  9. Patient-Oriented Data Analytics