HETEK4400 Digital Health and Homecare Course description

The purpose of this course is to make the students understand concepts, challenges and possibilities of digital health related to people in need of support in everyday life, or patients with chronic illness, in homecare or rehabilitation.

Digital health services comprise a complex set of technology solutions such as wearables, apps and decision support systems to assist health experts accomplish their tasks and support patients’ needs. Digital health services can be built for example for smart-homes, mobile smartphones, ambient intelligence and social networks.

Digital solutions can generate an enormous amount of data powered by platforms, algorithms, and AI technologies, providing a potent ecosystem for new digital service co-creation. AI-enabled digital health can assist healthcare experts in making individually tailored clinical decisions, enable predictive care provision, as well as facilitate efficient personalised support and improved quality of life for patients at home.

Emphasis of this course is placed on the patient's needs and how digital health services can be developed between all stakeholders (e.g. healthcare experts, individuals / patients and company representatives) in a real-life context.

Students will learn how digital healthcare has possibilities to reduce costs and create innovative and sustainable services. Ethical and regulatory aspects will be discussed.

Students must have been admitted to the Master’s Programme in Health and Technology - Specialisation in Assistive Technology in Health. The course can be taken as an elective course by students admitted to other master’s specialisations. The course is also offered as an individual course if there are vacant places. A bachelor’s degree or equivalent is required for admission to individual courses.

After completing the course, the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• can discuss the key concepts and state of the art development of digital health services for self-management and follow up in the case of chronic illness and home rehabilitation
• can discuss and evaluate practical examples of the digital health services for self-management and follow up in the case of chronic illness and home rehabilitation
• can discuss the potential for introducing personalised solutions and review their expected benefits according to the current clinical practice, and state-of-the-art in research and development
• can analyse challenges and opportunities related to digital health service co-creation

Skills

The student

• can identify and analyse different types of digital health services, their challenges and opportunities from different stakeholders’ perspectives (e.g. patients, health professional and company representatives)
• can discuss different types of digital health services for self-management and follow up in the case of chronical illness or home rehabilitation
• can communicate different viewpoints, challenges, opportunities and perspectives of the digital health services and their co-creation in interdisciplinary environments
• can review the availability of AI-based personalised solutions

General competence

The student

• can contribute to the co-creation of different types of digital health services for self-management and follow up in the case of chronical illness or home rehabilitation in an interdisciplinary context
• can discuss the potential of AI-based personalised solutions

Language of instruction: Norwegian

This course aims to enable the students to acquire specialised practical competence in the field of psychomotor physiotherapy. The trends in society are characterised by increasing ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity, and an increase in illness and physical complaints among adolescents. This course has a focus on topics such as health and illness in a cultural perspective, as well as health problems in young people. Practical training period 2 is completed during this course.

The student must have been admitted to the Master’s Programme in Health Sciences - Specialisation in Psychomotor Physiotherapy and hold Norwegian authorisation as a physiotherapist.The student must have passed the courses MAPFY4100 and MAPFY4200.

It is assumed that the student has access to a practical training establishment/own place of work where psychomotor physiotherapy treatments are performed on patients.

After completing the course, the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• apply specialized knowledge of examination and treatment in psychomotor physiotherapy
• apply specialized knowledge about personalized treatment in psychomotor physiotherapy
• analyze clinical issues in a cultural and societal perspective

Skills

The student

• can assess and adapt psychomotor physiotherapy to patients of different ages and from different cultural backgrounds
• can apply psychomotor physiotherapy to patients going through major life events
• can communicate independent assessments as part of interdisciplinary cooperation on treatment and assessments relating to social security/national insurance schemes

General competence

The student

• critically analyze and convey the relevance of psychomotor physiotherapy in treatment, rehabilitation and preventive work
• analyze and process clinical experiences for own development and innovation in the field
• apply expertise in the field in various arenas

Work and teaching methods vary between lectures, digital teaching sessions in the form of flipped classroom, supervised skills training and student-active learning methods in the form of group work, seminars and presentations. The course is session-based.

The students will perform psychomotor physiotherapy on patients at their own place of work/practical training establishment.

The last part of practical training period 2 is taken and concluded in this course.

The following must have been approved in order for the student to take the examination:

Coursework requirements for examination part 1:

• completed a minimum of 52 hours of group supervision. Practical training periods 1 and 2 comprise 72 hours in all.
• completed a minimum of 120 patient treatments, and, in all, a minimum of 200 patient treatments
• individual patient journal in accordance with specified criteria

Coursework requirements that must be approved by the lecturer:

• a minimum of 80% attendance in skills training and scheduled seminars and group work, and group supervision
• an oral presentation in the seminar group

Combined assessment:

Part 1) Assessment of practical training.

Part 2) A practical and oral examination is taken in the fourth semester over two days:

• Day 1: Examination and assessment of patient, write a patient journal
• Day 2: Submission of the journal and demonstration of treatment performed on the patient who was examined the previous day

The student must pass part 1 to be able to take part 2.

Part 1) Not relevant

Part 2) All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.