A review by CHARLES DOCHERTY, Senior Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Global health informatics education
Edited by EJS Hovenga and J Mantas (2004)
IOS Press, Amsterdam: £86 (available electronically)
ISBN: 978-1-58603-454-2
The foreword by Professor Reinhold Haux sets the scene by explaining that as health informatics is important, health informatics education must also be important.
The mix of contributors, all household names in the global health informatics village, lends a genuine international feel to the book with no particular country or continent pre-eminent. This strength could also be considered a weakness as educational systems and governance are highly contextual.
The book is divided into three sections: Governance, Curricula and Degree Structures, and Delivery and Evaluation Methods. Within each section the editors struggle to strike a balance between three types of chapters: those with a decidedly “education” focus, those that are purely “health informatics” and those that try to integrate both.
Lost in translation
Occasionally you can be caught out – for example, the chapter on Educational standards – terminologies used focuses purely on informatics standards and terminologies, and has nothing at all to do with educational standards. Something perhaps lost in translation?
Other chapters have a purely education focus and haven’t taken into account the nuances (and there are some) associated with health informatics education.
For readers with a health informatics background wishing to explore education theory, or educationalists wishing to find out more about the discipline of health informatics, then this book is a substantial introduction.
If you’re already operating in health informatics education, it can provide a global context to your endeavours and some useful references and contacts at home and abroad, wherever that may be.