So this week I gave a fun project to my 12th ITGS students where they had to create a website that told the story of a Medical Patient’s IT Interactions. I am a big fan of digital story-telling and wanted the students to also practice more with website design. I was incredibly please with the results. The students were incredibly creative while also address all of the content from the ITGS – Health Unit that we were covering in their readings/homework assignments.
Their project was to work with a partner to tell the story of the IT used in an individual patient journey from illness to health—or successful long-term management. Each group was assigned of the basic patient archetypes are below, but they were free to embellish or make changes to the story.
A US Soldier who lost an arm from an IED and might have post traumatic stress
An elderly woman on Medicare with diabetes and other strange symptoms
A Uninsured recent US college graduate in a car accident with spinal injury
A teenage Liberian boy with flu-like symptoms seeking treatment from NGOs
An elite NBA superstar with a major knee injury seeking the best treatment
They had to tell the story of what happened, and what IT was used behind each critical stage. I asked them to design a multimedia website (e.g. wikispaces, google sites, wordpress, tumblr, whatever) that told the story (with links to more information, or clips from other sites/videos).
Although they had complete freedom in narrative most of them chose to simply focus on the stages and tell the IT story of each stage. They were encouraged to embellish their narrative.
- Introduction – What is the socioeconomic scenario and health system background
- Symptoms
- Diagnosis
- Treatment
- Prognosis
- Recovery – or management plan
The possible IT topics I encouraged:
Disease mapping and tracking
Personal health monitoring at home
Remote patient monitoring
Online health advice
Medical research
IT for health awareness and advice
Telemedicine –
Patient simulators and training tools
Computer models for health care
Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Health Records
Diagnostic and Therapeutic Tools in Healthcare
Robotic Surgery
Obviously this list was not exhaustive and each case will be different if you discover other IT options please bring them in. I gave them 3 class periods.
Required sections:
8 Total IT interactions with the patient, each one with a clear, understandable explanation of the key IT terms related to the patients care. Full details of the IT processes that are related to the topic. Full coverage of the issues and impacts. All claims had to be supported by evidence and real life examples. The students did a great job and I am very pleased with their work