Master’s Programs

The aims of the programme are to:

• Develop health informatics skills for the professionals and managers in healthcare sector with hands-on skills required to operate in the environment of health information systems that are increasingly becoming sophisticated.
• Equip students with generic tools to enable them to respond to future developments in healthcare and in information technology while grounding them in the real world of current initiatives in information policy, technology and management.
• Prepare professionals to respond to the changing dynamics of healthcare by providing them with the skills that will help them maximize the use of information technology in healthcare.
• Produce professionals who can lead organizations in the application of information technology to improve the delivery of healthcare.
• Apply industrial practices, emerging technologies, state-of-the-art design techniques, software tools, and research methods to solving health informatics problems.

The programme combines modules in computer science, health informatics, and health management. The core Health Informatics curriculum includes modules in Health Information Systems, Information Storage, Data retrieval, Management and Ethics, Research Methods and Outcomes Analysis.

Special areas of concentration include Electronic Healthcare Records, Health Information Systems, and Health Enterprise Architecture.

At the completion of this programme, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge on:

• Various data, networking, and enterprise architecture in healthcare system
• Issues related to interoperability of technologies in healthcare system
• Suitable IT solution from major vendors of hardware, software, and telecommunications
• National and global architectural standards, regulations, and future developments in healthcare systems
• Health informatics applied to real health problems through research and innovation
• Policies for public health information systems in relation to the institutional healthcare strategy
• Strategic use and implications of emerging computing and IT technologies applicable to health
• Tools and techniques of health project planning and management
• Healthcare Data management
• The strategic use of information technology from an efficiency perspective at the enterprise level
• Fundamentals of Health Informatics Terminologies
• Architecture of information systems in healthcare; approaches and standards that interface and integrate components

Module Code	Module Title	Credits	Year	Semester
HIN6151	Foundation of Health Informatics	10	1	1
HIN6152	Healthcare Management, Organization and Economics	10	1	1
HIN6153	Knowledge Management in Healthcare Delivery	10	1	1
HIN6154	Health Informatics Standards and Terminology	10	1	1
HIN6155	Clinical Information Systems	15	1	1
HIN6156	Ethical, Legal, Equity, and Governance	10	1	1
Total Year 1, Semester 1		65	1	1

Module Code	Module Title	Credits	Year	Semester
HIN6251	Public Health Information Systems	20	1	2
HIN6252	Health Information Security	10	1	2
HIN6253	Research Methodology	20	1	2
HIN6254	Project Management in Healthcare Delivery	10	1	2
Total Year 1, Semester 2		60	1	2

Module Code	Module Title	Credits	Year	Semester
HIN6351	Thesis: Proposal Writing	10	2	3
HIN6352	Decision Support Systems and Clinical Workflow	10	2	3
HIN6353	E-Health Enterprise Architecture	10	2	3
HIN6354	Industrial Attachment	15	2	3
Total Year 2, Semester 3		55	2	3

Module Code	Module Title	Credits	Year	Semester
HIN6451	Thesis 2: Thesis Writing	60	2	4
Total Year 2, Semester 4		60	2	4
TOTAL PROGRAMME CREDITS		240 CREDITS

Students are required to obtain 240 credits. The duration of the program is two academic years (i.e. four semesters) for full time. No part-time option is available now.

As specified in the Rwandan National Qualification Framework for Higher Education Institutions (NCHE, 2007), the academic year will be divided into four semesters of 15 weeks each. Academic work and assessments will be carried out within the month in which the module is completed.

Each student will be allocated a supervisor. Students will meet their supervisors on a regular basis in the face-to-face mode (in the case of local lecturers) and online (in case of lecturers who are remote or abroad). The meetings will take place at least once a week with record keeping as per UR-CMHS guidelines.

All students will be provided with study materials, assignments, exercises, guidelines, templates and supplementary materials. Those materials will also be posted on e-learning systems of UR-CEBE.

Students will be encouraged to interact with lecturers through communication tools embedded into the e-learning system. The Health Informatics program offers online links for those students who have not shown adequate prerequisites in a specific domain.

A central component of competency-driven learning requires high quality mentoring. All students will have academic and field mentors. The academic mentor will work closely with the field mentor to support the students in their academic activities and will monitor their progress, as well as participate in the assessment and in thesis development of the students.