Health Informatics Certificate

Instructors: Dr. Deborah Dayus and Kim Ramirez

• Demonstrate an understanding of the role of health/clinical informatics in Ontario healthcare delivery.
• Describe the healthcare system in Canada and Ontario, related organizations, service models and key factors affecting healthcare.
• Identify opportunities and strategies for influencing the future direction of informatics locally, nationally and internationally as it pertains to consumers, inter-professional practice and the roles and responsibilities of all involved.
• Plan and facilitate effective meetings with teams and individuals.
• Describe basic project management principles including project charter, scope, lifecycle, budgets, resourcing, timelines, milestones, monitoring, status reports. 
• Apply effective project management and communication principles and strategies for successful implementation of new processes. 

Instructor: Dustin Reeves

• Communicate/demonstrate basic understanding of computer networks.
• Communicate/demonstrate basic understanding of cybersecurity.
• Communicate basic understanding of electronic health records (EHR).
• Demonstrate basic understanding of Excel (tables, graphs, pivot tables, dashboards).

Instructor: Lesley Janisse

• Identify and define data types, codes, classifications
• Explain the need for standards and describe the general pattern for developing standands
• Become familiar with and utilize basic medical terminology
• Determine data requirements for various stakeholders
• Acquire quality, valid and relevant sources of data

Instructors: Dr. Saeed Samet

• Communicate/demonstrate understanding of data visualization techniques, result reporting and provide recommendations. 

• Communicate a basic understanding of health data analytics. 

• Evaluate data for quality for healthcare delivery and systems management standards  

Instructor: Barbara Colaizzi

• Understand privacy and security requirements related to legal and professional standards in the management of health care information (and Digital Health Canada). 

• Identify quality assurance and risk mitigation methods for patient safety. 

Instructors: Kim Ramirez & Dr. Debbie Dayus

• Utilize effective training techniques to support clinicians in the use of electronic records
• Group presentations and final evaluation

 

Prerequisites: It will be expected that learners in this program will have:

• Basic computer skills or course completion in fundamental computer applications such Word

• Experience working with word processing, email and web browsing

• Knowledge in statistics and mathematical literacy equivalent to grade 12

• Post-secondary education in a health-related or business field is strongly recommended

• English language proficiency

Deborah Dayus

Deborah Dayus, RN, BA, BScN, MSc (Nursing), PhD, recently retired from the Faculty of Nursing after 38 years of teaching where she taught in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. She was the Faculty of Nursing lead for the Evolve project in Windsor/Essex. She was also the nursing lead in the development of this informatics course, collaboratively with continuing education, and computer science to meet the needs of our health care system as it embarks on digitizing communications. She has developed an online testing program of ‘Math for Medication Administration’ through Digitaled and an online evaluation tool for students, both of which are utilized by the over 1000 undergraduate students in Nursing who work in a variety of health care settings across Windsor/Essex, Leamington, Chatham, and Lambton counties. She continues to work with graduate students and serves as a faculty mentor to new faculty at the University of Windsor. She is also the Chair of the Victorian Order of Nursing Endowment Board and the administrator of Building Blocks for Better Babies in our community of Windsor/Essex, supported by a grant from the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program. When she is not busy, she enjoys golfing, curling, sailing, traveling and of course…her grandchildren! 

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Lesley Janisse

Lesley Janisse is a 4th generation registered nurse and respiratory therapist with over 28 years of health care experience went from the bedside to informatics hoping to transform healthcare from a new angle. Having had the opportunity to work with over 18 different health care systems and organizations Lesley has been able to work in every aspect of a Health Information System (HIS) implementation from the design and build, training, implementation as well as supporting the system post go-live. Although no longer practicing at the bedside it has been imperative to ensure we include best practice as well as provincial standards, guidelines and practices. Currently working at Community Health System (CHS) as a senior application specialist for the Solution Design and Architecture (SDA) team. Previously her role at the Hotel Dieu Grace healthcare (HDGH) as the Clinical Transformation Site Lead was part of the Regional HIS Cerner implementation team supporting HDGH’s organizational transformation and this project will touch almost every staff member in some way. The goal is to help align our organization with the best practices using Cerner EHR. In her role at CHS she is responsible for supporting 109 hospitals that are part of the CHS’s health care system working in concert with other clinicians and business partners specifically w/diagnostic imaging solutions, surgical services, and therapies. When she is not working you can find her sitting in the stands cheering on her three children, playing with their two dogs or quietly enjoying time with her husband.

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Kim Ramirez

Kim Ramirez is a seasoned healthcare leader with a strong clinical foundation and over a decade of experience driving digital health transformation. As the Chief Informatics and Data Officer (CIDO) for TransForm Shared Service Organization, Kim plays a pivotal role in advancing health system innovation and efficiency for five hospitals in Southwestern Ontario.

With her extensive background as a registered nurse and her expertise in health informatics, Kim has led several transformative projects, including the successful implementation of the Oracle Health Millennium Hospital Information System (HIS) across the Erie St. Clair region. This ambitious initiative created a unified digital infrastructure, enhancing care delivery and operational effectiveness across all partner hospitals.

Kim holds a degree in Health Informatics from McMaster University, is HITS-certified, and is an accomplished graduate of the Dorothy Wylie Health Leaders Institute. Her dedication to advancing digital health earned her the prestigious title of Digital Health Canada’s 2021 Digital Health Leader of the Year.

A passionate advocate for fostering the next generation of digital health leaders, Kim shares her knowledge and expertise as an instructor for the University of Windsor’s Health Informatics Certificate Program. Through her work, Kim remains committed to improving healthcare delivery and empowering clinicians with innovative digital tools to provide better patient care.

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Dustin Reeves

Dustin Reeves, RN, BScN, MSHI is a Clinical Consultant, Baxter Corporation for their Connected Care, Medication Delivery and Device Integration teams. With a background in nursing and informatics, Dustin worked as an informaticist at Transform Shared Service Organization, and contributed to the e-VOLVE project, a regionalized instance of the Cerner Millennium Electronic Health Record (EHR). He holds a Master of Science degree in Health Informatics from the University of Illinois in Chicago and a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Windsor. Dustin worked as a registered nurse in his early career in the areas of critical care and surgery (perioperative), at multiple institutions including LHSC University Hospital, WRH Metropolitan Campus, Henry Ford Hospital Main Campus, University of California San Diego Medical Center, Scripps Mercy San Diego, St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, Henry Ford Hospital Macomb Campus, Cedars Sinai Los Angeles and Mott’s Children’s Hospital University of Michigan. 

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Saeed Samet

Dr. Samet is a faculty member at the School of Computer Science, University of Windsor, and an adjunct professor at the e-Health Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, where he was an assistant professor from 2012 to 2017.His research interests and activities are in privacy-preserving and security aspects of various applications, especially in health sector, health informatics, Big Data privacy, and Blockchain.Prior to that, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the e-Health Information Laboratory at the Children Hospital of EasternOntario Research Institute from 2010 to 2012. During his post-doc fellowship, he designed and developed several secure protocols for various health applications. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Ottawa in 2010 and his thesis title was "Privacy-Preserving Data Mining", in which he proposed and designed protocols on privacy-preserving methods for standard data mining and machine learning techniques.

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Barbara Colaizzi, CHIM

Barbara has recently retired from Erie Shores HealthCare after 31 years of service in various leadership roles with the organization.

As a Health information management (HIM) professional her expertise is in the legal aspects of health information management, including privacy; the use of technology in healthcare and the integration of clinical and financial information to improve the safety, quality and consistency of patient care. Previously in her role with ESHC she was the site lead and HIM lead for the Regional HIS Cerner implementation. She is an experienced and accomplished leader with a passion for healthcare and her community.   Barb enjoys spending time with family and friends, cooking, travelling, going on road trips, reading, and supporting community events.