Postgraduate study in Digital Health

Hi everyone, welcome to the online information session for postgraduate programmes in digital health at the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka.

Kia ora, my name is Steve Gallagher. I'm the course director and we will introduce ourselves a little more fullsomely shortly.

We are going to open proceedings today with a karakia which is a customary way, for those of you who are outside of New Zealand, a customary way to open and close meetings in New Zealand to allow us to focus and come together with a central purpose. So this is our karakia.

Tau mai te mauri
Te mauri tū
Te mauri ora
Te mauri o tēnei kaupapa
e whakaū nei i kā uara ki Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
Te mana
Te tapu
Te whakapapa
me te mauri
Puritia kia ū, puritia kia mau
Haumi e
Hui e
Tāiki e

Thanks everyone and you can see the translation on the right hand side there.

Let the mauri settle
The mauri that stands firm
The mauri of wellbeing
The mauri of this purpose
affirming the values at the University of Otago
Mana
Tapu
Whakapapa
and mauri
Hold fast, hold firmly
Let us be united
Let us come together
It is complete

We are coming together today to talk about the postgraduate programmes in digital health at Otago. You have the opportunity to ask questions through the Q&A function in the webinar. We will come to answering some of those questions further on.

But to begin with we are going to start by introducing ourselves. So as I said my name is Steve Gallagher. I'm the course director for the postgraduate programmes. I take the lead on the two core papers in this the first semester, the papers that make up the postgraduate certificate and more on that I'm from the Department of Public Health here in Dunedin and it's a pleasure to be able to speak to you.

Kia ora, I'm Sian Ellis. I'm a recent graduate of the postgrad digital health certificate. I'm a pharmacist by training. Experienced manager leader and entrepreneur in the healthcare sector.

I'm a GP in Dunedin and I'm also a bioethicist at the Department of Bioeththics here at the University of Otago. I teach the 707 paper in the course.

Greetings. I'm Brendon. I am a member of faculty at the School of Computing here at Dunedin as part of the University of Otago. What I do is teach and research into artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science and I'm the paper lead for both 708 and 709.

Great. Thank you. And yeah, we're looking forward to talking to you as colleagues and explaining a little bit about the course and what you can expect if you choose to study with us.

I'm going to start by just talking a little bit about what we mean when we say digital health. And it's actually easy to say think about what isn't digital health because as you know digital is everywhere in our system today. It's impossible to avoid really.

And there are many benefits and potential opportunities in the effective and proper use of digital technologies in the health system. And that can be within your personal health, keeping track of your your fitness, your your various little things that you can measure with your with your wearables, your Apple Watch, and other devices.

But it's also everything that happens in the health system, whether that's at the hospital or in primary care or in community health. And all of those things are things that we pick up on in our course.

The key thing about digital health at the moment is you'll be aware there's been a little bit of a technological shift over the last few years and that has lots of implications for health.

The health system really needs people who understand the underlying foundations, fundamental knowledge and skills that are necessary to understand how to work safely and effectively in this environment. How to take advantage of the opportunities that these technologies provide and avoid some of the traps that these new technologies can present.

It's not just about new technologies. We also talk about everything that is underpinning and has underpinned our health systems from a digital perspective for many many years. The good, the bad, and the ugly and equip you with the knowledge to be able to have conversations about that with colleagues in this space.

We talk about electronic health records, we talk about telemedicine, we talk about artificial intelligence, of course, we talk about wearables and we talk about all kinds of other things and we will explain a little bit more about that as we go.

You might wonder what what is the benefit in studying digital health? Well, alongside the need to understand how we implement and develop new technology safely and securely, there's an identified need for people in the health system with these skills to be able to work on the digital transformation of health.

This course allows you to develop your knowledge of the technologies and systems that are in place and that are on the horizon. Critically, it helps you understand how to ask really solid critical questions of these technologies and the vendors and the suppliers, the developers and the health system itself around how we going to harness the opportunity and not fall into some of the some of the traps that might exist.

We've got quite a broad programme which covers everything from fundamentals of health informatics design of digital health technologies, regulation, safety, data privacy and security, data sovereignty, all the way through to the ethics and governance that are necessary in this space, the emerging technologies and the use of these technologies for improving personal health and wellbeing.

So by doing the course you learn about these systems, you learn the language that you need to be able to communicate about these systems with other people in the sector. You learn about these cutting edge technologies as they happen.

What kind of people study digital health? Well, here are two recent graduates who both came to the course with quite different backgrounds.

The programme is open to people from health, technology and related backgrounds. Commonly people will have a bachelor's degree in a related discipline, but not all the time. We also recognise professional experience and qualifications in some cases.

And here we have Maddison who came from a user-experience design perspective and worked on some of the technologies that we used, the user-facing technologies that we used in New Zealand's COVID response and having taken a bit of a break out of health wanted to come back in, and she took our diploma and you can see what she said there about her experience and she credits her experience in the course is helping her to get her foot back in the door with health New Zealand, where she's now a service design lead in Health New Zealand.

Alongside Maddison there at the graduation is Jacinta Jacinta is a physiootherapist who came at this really with a a really strong interest in understanding what do I need to know and what skills can I develop to help me make a change to the health system, and how can I take my idea for a new way of doing digitally- enabled healthcare in her practice. How can I scale that up? What lessons do I need to learn around how do you design and build a business in this space?

And so whilst leading a allied health team, Jacinta is also working on the development of an app based on her original idea using some of the skills and knowledge that she acquired through her study with us in the diploma.

So the key point there is that you can come into this programme from a variety of places with a variety of experience. And you can learn and benefit from your exposure to the course.

What kinds of opportunities are out there? Well, I mean the sector has signalled for some time that we need to do more digital transformation in the health system.

Here in New Zealand the Minister of Health announced a health digital investment plan just over almost two years ago and that signalled a really strong programme of work over the next 10 years and funding to a kind to go alongside those ideas to really shift the way the New Zealand health system functions at a digital way that's really kind of hospital and primary.

We need people who know about these technologies to be able to work on those projects. The private sector is also running really hot at the moment with health technology, medical devices, medical technologies. It's one of New Zealand's largest export sectors and we need people working in those spaces in the private sector as well as in the public sector who can converse the current up-to-date and modern language of health technology and digital health.

We need people who understand this space to be able to enable this change. And you can see on the right- hand side there that a recent survey of our graduates told us that 82% of them are currently working either full- or part-time in a digital health role and many have taken on new roles and credit this diploma or certificate as part of the reason that they have acquired those new positions.

So why Otago? Well, first of all, we've got a really flexible programme, fully online and flexible. We have live seminars and we really strongly encourage attendance, but we also record everything and we understand that you can't always attend and there's no attendance requirement.

But you you learn a lot by coming along to class, don't you? More on that. More on that later. But all of the resources are recorded, made available after the fact. Everything is mediated through our online learning technologies.

All of our assessments are run online and it's designed with working professional suppliers. Do this as you work. Classes timed around the workday. Mostly they occur in the evening. And as as it says there, they're designed for working professionals. Everyone that I've had in the course over the last couple of years has been in employment.

So, it's definitely possible. If you're worried about that, I'd say we can help you out.

And there are pathways into further study should you wish, including masters' in Health Sciences. We can discuss that with people who are interested in that pathway.

We've got a student at the moment who did some papers on our programme who came through the School of Computing and is currently working on a work-integrated masters' project with Health New Zealand looking at AI scribes actually, and so we're able to connect people in this programme with the industry opportunities to learn how to apply these skills and get critical experience in the workplace whether that's in the health the public health system or in other aspects of the health environment.

So what do we do here? The structure of our programme, we have a postgraduate certificate and a diploma. The diploma builds on the certificate. Those first two papers there, 701 and 703. I'll talk more about shortly. Those are the core papers for the diploma as well as being those that make up the postgraduate certificate.

The other papers that typically make up our diploma are delivered in semester 2, 707 by Tania here, 708 and 709 by by Brendon over here. There are other papers which you can take as part of that diploma if you want to go down that path.

It's also possible to bring credits from other postgraduate study that you might have done. And so this is a typical picture of how a diploma looks and it's the digital health focused papers that we're going to be talking about today.

But I want you to be aware that there are other options should you be interested in pursuing those.

So who do you learn from apart from us of course? We do as much as we can to bring the people that are leading in this space into the classroom to guide you to tell you their war stories to talk to you about the current issues that they're grappling with and they really want to grow people into the sector and they they tend to be really willing to give their time.

We have a range of health sector industry and clinical leaders that come and speak to us and here's just a sampling of them. We are really grateful for the input of these people who really understand what's going on today.

And you can see our friends Will, Karl, Ruth, Nathan, and Alistair here. Just a sample of some of the people that teach onto our programme.

One of the great things about their involvement is that by doing the course in our small classes and our interactive sessions, you get to talk with these guys. You get to make connections with them and those those conversations continue outside of the classroom.

Something I think our [clears throat] programme does really well is build a network of people that support each other and connect with the people that can help you with your particular problem or need.

And it's it's one of the one of the coolest parts of the course I think.

Those are lecturers some of whom teach contributed to 701. We have a guest lecture in 701 every week. We also have guest lectures in all of our other papers. [clears throat]

And what does the sector think about our offering? There's some quotes from from some people who responded to a recent survey that I sent out to some of our collaborators.

The key message here is that the programme is seen by people in the sector as filling the kind of gap that they need filled to enable the digital transformation of health.

I like the the the quote at the top there which highlights the practical nature of the projects that we work on. That's something that I think is really important about our programme is that we let you bring your questions, your ideas, and your problems into the classroom and work on them through your assessments.

With the goal that you can try stuff in a safe environment, learn some lessons, get some feedback, and get input from people in the sector as well as from your classmates.

So, I'm going to talk very briefly about the first two papers that make up the certificate and then Sian is going to talk a little bit about her experience before we then move on to talking about the other the other papers that make up the diploma.

Please do continue to throw your questions into the Q&A function if you haven't already done that and we will come to those.

So 701 first paper. This is the fundamentals paper. This is the thing which gives you the language that you need to be able to converse and communicate about all of the key things that are current and really important for digital health in New Zealand and internationally.

We talk about health information systems and hospital information systems and what are they and how do we improve them. We talk about the importance of standards for data sharing. What they are, why they're important and how we might enable better interoperability between systems within our health sector to more effectively share health information safely, confidentially and with a very strong eye on data sovereignty to improve outcomes for people.

This is all about improving health outcomes.

We talk about AI, of course, we talk about it from its early days and clinical decision support right through to some of the more innovative or at least modern uses of AI.

But we also focus really strongly on privacy. The health information privacy code in New Zealand. We talk a little bit about regulation and also how do you interpret, gather and understand evidence about the effectiveness and the efficacy of digital health technologies.

So this paper sets you up to be able to define, describe and discuss digital health systems with clinical, technical and industry experts.

I really like teaching actually because there's a lot of change happening and you got to really use your brain to keep up and it's it's a good challenge to have.

The other main paper for the certificate is digital health 703. This is design of digital health technologies.

So building on the fundamentals, we talk about how to apply industry standard design processes, user- centered design approaches to the design of digital health technologies.

The key here is that we talk a little bit about the theory, but mostly we're doing it right. We are applying theory to develop a solution to a real-world problem. One that you brought to the classroom or one that we provide for you.

You can practice those techniques of user research, developing personas, wireframes for your solution. You pitch your ideas to the class and get feedback.

And along the way you learn about regulation, how these digital technologies are approved for safe use. You have to pretend that you are validating your technology for use in the health system and we use the international standard digital technology assessment criteria for that.

So along the way by doing you're learning what is cyber security, what is usability, what is accessibility, what is safety and what are the regulatory requirements that you need to be aware of.

So this paper sets you up with the skills you need to work with clinicians and developers to solve real problems. And again I really like teaching. [laughter]

I'm going to take a breath now. I'm gonna pass the microphone as it were to to Sian who's recently completed 701 and 703.

And Sian, it would be great if you can just take us through a little bit of your experience and what you got out of doing those two papers.

Sure. So, I finished the certificate this year. It had been a very long time since I had done any study at the University of Otago since my Bachelor of Pharmacy degree.

So, I was a little bit apprehensive. I was worried about how I was going to juggle a full-time job, a very busy job, being a mum to two teenagers and study, but I think it was it was so much easier than I realised.

And because I was very passionate about the topic, that really helped with wanting to learn and spending time in in learning. And I really looked forward to my evening classes. It was really nice thing to do.

The people that you meet are incredible. Everyone comes from quite different backgrounds.

And for anyone considering the programme, my advice would be that you don't worry if you don't see yourself as a technical person. I mean, I was a pharmacist. I'd worked on the front line. I had worked during COVID times at the Ministry of Health on some pretty big projects with technical teams, but as the primary care lead.

So for me it was about trying to get some more understanding around the technology speak and and things we needed to consider when developing new platforms.

Digital health I believe needs people who really understand health care people in real-world problems. And if you're curious about how health care could work better, this programme will give you the knowledge, connections and confidence to really help shape that future.

The lecturers are very supportive. Advice is there on tap when you need it.

Your fellow classmates really want you to succeed as well.

The learning is so practical and relevant to everyday life. You can apply it immediately in the workplace which I found so beneficial. It really cemented the learning and very much impressed my peers in the workplace when I was coming back with all this tech-speak and knowledge about the healthcare sector from a digital perspective.

There's a really strong focus on user-centered design which is really something I'm passionate about because I feel technology in the health sector needs to focus more on the end-user which is our health clinicians who have to use this technology and that's one thing that really comes very strongly in this course.

You develop some incredible professional networks and friendships from your classmates but also from the guest lecturers that we have that attend the course and they go on those relationships continue on post the course.

So you become part of a community that really cares a lot about digital health and making a difference to the healthcare sector.

Yeah. Great. Thanks Sian.

And what did you do after you finished the certificate?

So after I've done the certificate, I've actually launched my own online IT company in terms of that offers a service to the to the health sector for doctors focusing on patient and colleague feedback to help with their continuing professional development.

Which I would never have had the courage to do had I not done the course.

And I'm really proud to say I I focused on the user-centered design philosophy when building the problem to tailor it to the needs of the users, our doctors.

And I'm also now working in a general practice as the business manager, which is something I wouldn't have done either. But I'm loving it and it you know this gives, this course gives you the knowledge to ask the right questions, understand what the workflows are when it comes to it, and health clinicians having to use this technology and asking the questions about how we can make it better.

So yeah I'm very grateful for the course.

Oh sure it's great having you on the course and thank you. One day we'll get you back to do the diploma. [laughter]

Speaking of the diploma, we've spoken on the the first half the of the year, semester 1, 701 and 703.

I'm now going to pass over to to Tania to talk about one of the semester 2 papers, which is digital health 707. Over to you, Tania.

Yes. So in 707, we focus on the ethics side of new technologies in healthcare, governance as well.

As you can see there, I feel like I no longer have to say the first sentence in the sense that often when there are fundamental issues with health technologies, it is about ethics.

I think if you look at the current world scene and the discussions and debate around AI, a lot of those issues are actually ethical in nature.

So what we do in the paper is introduce you to how do we do ethical assessment of emerging health technologies. To look at frameworks that you can use to help you and then we look at specific case analysis.

One of example of that has already been mentioned the use of AI scribes. You may be familiar with it if you're a clinician using an AI scribe in your daily work or if you went to see your GP as a patient recently.

Maybe your GP has also used an AI scribe to generate notes. So they have technology listening in on the consultation and then generating a note that can be copied and pasted into the electronic health record.

That's one example of a technology that raises a number of ethical questions.

The AI scribes have been introduced without necessarily having a lot of evidence against them in terms of how well do they perform? Are there any errors? How how how often do we see hallucinations, for example, but also with more widespread use we see that it may affect memory and clinical reasoning.

Doctors seem to not remember the consultations as well when they've generated their notes with AI versus if they've typed them in themselves.

So those are interesting consequences of the use of AI scribe.

That's just one example of the type of case analysis that we do in 707.

So in general, the goal is really to learn you how to think critically about these technologies and to identify those ethical concerns.

But it's not just being the what I call the party pooper ethicist. [laughter]

It's also about thinking about possible solutions for those issues and sort of finding ways in which we can use these generally very exciting technologies in responsible ways.

I see students from very different backgrounds which you will have already picked up on. We've got people with background in bioeththics, health care but also in IT.

So it's always interesting to see the exchanges when we have discussions about these topics and technologies and like Steve said we have a combination of seminars where there's always room for discussion but also workshops with guest speakers in the 707 course.

Great. Thanks. And and like you I really enjoy teaching.
You must be doing something right. Thanks Tania. That's great.

Yeah, the the the party pooper ethicist thing is something which I think people go 'oh thanks' but like you say it's not just saying 'oh no' you can't do that it's actually well how do we do this well properly, and and how do we make sure we're aware of the the risks and design effective solutions.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Brendon, it would be great if you can take the reigns and tell us about 708 and 709.

Sure.

So 708 is really asking the question about how is digital technology transforming the relationship between the patient and the healthcare provider.

So here what we're doing is actually looking at reviewing and evaluating innovations in digital health technology that are centered around this idea of promoting patient well-being and self-management.

So as examples that we worked through this particular semester, we looked at this concept of mental health chat bots, the pros and the cons associated with that type of technology.

We also investigated the concept and application of telehealth. In addition to that, we also investigated the use of telehealth for long-term pain management.

We then moved into the ideas concerning patient-centered medical records. So the idea now about them that patients are more empowered to access data about what has been recorded by their GP or healthcare provider and also sometimes submitting or augmenting that type of their data that might have been collected by wearables that the patient has to enrich the journey that the patient is having with their health care provider.

And finally, there's the idea of accessibility and digital health. What technologies are out there to again empower those people who are disabled.

I as an example here, we've got meta glasses, but we've had a very good presentation from someone that absolutely loves meta glasses and what they can be used to identify objects that are in front of that person to tell them that they're coming up to a door, for example.

Much like in 707 and the rest of the other papers, you're learning from guest lecturers as well on how this digital health has transformed the patient healthcare provider relationship.

So this then feeds into the ideas concerning 709. So this is where we investigate further.

A lot of the emerging technologies in digital health, from my perspective, this idea of AI is has a longstanding history that dates back over 80 years. And throughout that particular history, those techniques have been applied for healthcare. But only recently, we've seen it being applied in the sense of generative AI. And that's only been since about 2022.

But here what we do is actually take a step back and look at how emerging technologies can be applied for digital health in the sense of how wearables can help their patients, the sense of what we have for the metaverse vs how virtual reality and augmented reality can help here, but also more importantly what is happening in the space now with the new digital hospital build that's happening here in Dunedin especially now that the outpatients building has now been completed.

How is digital health actually or digital technology changing the way that people now engage with that particular service?

Great. Sure. Thanks, Brendon.

So, you mentioned something there which maybe not everyone will be aware of on the webinar, but the we're lucky in here in Dunedin to be partway through the process of a a new really significant hospital build.

And the it's the first build in the country to start with digital first and we benefit from the fact that we are a block away from the new outpatients building and all the people that have been working hard on understanding existing patient flows practices in the the current environment and how they can be transformed through the appropriate use of digital technology to improve clinical workflow, patient workflows, you know increasing efficiency and effectiveness of the new system.

So some of those guys come and give guest lectures on our course as well and so I think we really benefit from having exposure to that really current and up-to-date build in the New Zealand health system.

We are really at the end, I think, if I can get my slide to go forward of the talkie-talkie stuff from us. We really want this webinar to be interactive. We want to hear your questions and understand what sorts of questions you have so that we can answer them and answer any questions that you might have.

So, continue to pop your questions into the the Q&A box on the webinar.

We have been keeping an eye on these throughout the talk. I'm going to open my my laptop and see what kinds of questions you're asking and see what we can do to answer them.

So, just bear with me a second.

I'm just saying. Okay. So what I'm going to do is start with a question which came through about how is AI actually being used in the health sector.

Tania, do you mind talking to that as a GP you sure know as well.

Well from a a primary care perspective I think we see two main uses. I've already talked about AI scribe so I won't talk more about that but that's probably the most widely used application of generative AI currently in primary care at this point about 40% of GPs are using that so that's quite a a big number.

We also see use of an application called Open Evidence that people may be familiar with so that's an application that will help you search through medical evidence published in the big medical journals and guidelines.

We see increasing use of that in New Zealand as well.

And then we see let's say the use of the the so-called frontier models. So we see lots of people both in primary care and in the hospital using Co-pilot and using Open AI and using your Claude you know all of them basically not to put patient information in there but to help people deal with the admin side of things which is important too but those are probably the main uses at the moment.

We see other applications in the hospital such as in radiology for processing imaging. So there is a lot going on being tested.

But as I said still lots of open questions that we need to answer in particular in terms of having good evidence for how they how well they work and how well they operate.

Yeah, thanks Ha. There's certainly always a lot of conversation online about these new AI technologies in the health system and the the good and the bad and people imagining the you know all of the risks and other people equally prompting and promoting all of the the benefits which are inevitable in some people's eyes.

It's some somewhere in the middle, isn't it? Most of the time.

Yeah. Brendon, did you have anything you wanted to add as a as a AI researcher yourself?

Uh yes, Steve. So there's a much broader sort of application area for artificial intelligence in healthcare.
So I'm just thinking in my head about the ideas concerning that it can be used to transform personal health. In other words, analysing people's specific biometrics and their medical history to have much more idea about precision health care, so you're actually much more targeted towards that particular individual.

Also being used to decision support and improving medical diagnosis. So, not removing the human out of the loop, but using that as a way of augmenting the decisions made by someone who's looking at an X-ray of say a particular, for a particular condition, to enable them to have more confidence or to basically be used as a way of assisting them.

It has also been used for the likes of speeding up drug discovery as well because it can work through vast amounts of data very quickly. And in doing so will help to design drugs or predict any particular side effects which would reduce the cost of running a number of clinical trials for example.

Also looking at the ideas concerning transforming maybe patient experience, so offering offering schedule reminders, telehealth tips, the suggested next steps for the patients themselves, so your own little personal agent as it were to assist you on your healthcare journey.

So I mean I think one of the things you'll pick up there is that the people that are teaching you are really on top of what's happening at the moment and keeping track of current developments.

And I think that's one of the things which really makes this course stand out from some other options that might be offered from other organisations outside of New Zealand perhaps that may be more accessible but not necessarily kept as up-to-date and current based on the input of people like Brendon and Tania but also those guest lecturers that we bring in.

I've seen a question come in, couple of questions that have come in about, well, what what what kinds of jobs might open up if I was going to do a course like this?

It's a really good question and I I think the truth is that it depends a little bit on your background whether you are working clinically or working perhaps more in the data and digital side of things. either in health or outside of health.

So it depends on your background, your current role and your skill set.

If you're clinically trained, if you're working clinically, then in the public system, there are certainly clinical informatics roles that come up from from time to time.

I'm not a clinician. In fact, none of us work in Health New Zealand, although we we know lots of people that do. We don't always see those jobs when they're advertised. So it's it's a little hard sometimes to know exactly what's going on in the sector.

I have to acknowledge that there's been quite a lot of churn in the sector recently. And governments bring policies in place which sometimes change the landscape and we've gone from centralising our health system to decentralising it again. And with that churn comes restructures and those restructures are challenging but also they provide opportunities.

So there's it's very very clear that there is an intention to invest more in digital health in New Zealand in the public health system. Some of us know how much needs to be done, how much work's involved in doing it and therefore we know that there's a work problem and that there are people that need to be working on that.

They might be coming at it from a clinical informatics perspective. They might be coming at it from a, you might find opportunities in business analysis, technical analysis.

You might need to be the kind of person who talks to providers and understands their workflows and documents them, so that they can be maybe be automated or improved or integrated more effectively.

So those are kind of business analyst, tech analyst type roles. And they certainly do come up in the health system and also outside of health. But health adjacent.

So the companies that are producing the technologies that are going to be implemented in I mean primary care is is a whole other, I almost said Wild West, but it's a different environment to say the health system in New Zealand because there's much more scope for more providers, more vendors and more decisions to be made by individual business owners in primary care.

And that's great because those businesses need health people to have those conversations with those GPs, with those practice managers and business owners. And so there's a lot of work in the translation of technology into clinical practice and vice versa.

I think there's a lot of work in understanding patient and clinician needs and translating those into digital solutions.

So you could be in UX, user-experience design, service design, as I said before, business analysis, project management, programme management.

And the advantage of doing a course like this, if you're in that kind of project management or programme management space compared with someone who has maybe come from a more pure business perspective, with programme management is you understand the language of health.

Having done this course, you understand the pressures. Health is different to other businesses. It's not it's not really a business, even though bits of it need to run like businesses.

And therefore, there's a slightly different mindset. There are different priorities, different values, and different questions that need to be answered.

Huge challenges in health data around making sure that it's safe, secure, and respected.

And so, data sovereignty is something that we need. People who understand data sovereignty and can work with vendors to say you tell me that you've got sovereign AI and I'm telling you right now you don't and this is why.

So you get set up to have conversations with vendors as well that are leading to a better solution.

Does does that tell you what kinds of roles are out there? I guess what I'm saying is there are some specific roles we know about but there's a lot of capacity for getting involved and saying I've got something to offer here and finding yourself attached to work which you can then turn into a long-term career.

So I really hope that that helps answer that question.

I know for example with the new Dunedin hospital they've got a whole heap of BAs [Business Analysts] doing process flows and having the health background really helps in that space.

If you're interested in what's out there and what opportunities might be possible having done the diploma talk to us, connect with us on LinkedIn.

There is a lot of conversation in the digital health sector in New Zealand and internationally on LinkedIn. And opportunities often become known about through places like that.

Sometimes you'll have a thing you really want to do and you know people us people we know we can connect you with people that are working in that space and make something happen much like the master student that I spoke about earlier on who's working alongside Health New Zealand now on their project.

Anything to add from the rest of the panel?

I think for me personally as someone who's completed the course I was surprised by the opportunities that I was offered once I had the postgrad in Digital Health on my CV and had I been willing to move from Dunedin to Wellington I was offered two really great roles actually, non-traditional health roles but roles that I never thought I would have been in the ballpark of getting because I'd done this course.

So, it really does open doors for you, having this diploma or certificate on your CV.

Cool. Thanks, Sian.

Yeah. Tania.

No. Okay. No, I was thinking you you may get the opportunity to sort of carve out your own space and that's always a hard cell, I think, because it's hard to imagine before you start.

It may not be clear what's at the end of the journey, but like Sian's experience and and the experience of many others, I think it may open doors that you hadn't even thought about before you got started.

And that's probably not an ideal answer as to, you know, this is a list of 10 jobs you can roll into. But I do think it's, yeah, it gives you opportunities that you had not imagined before, right?

Exactly. Your experience and so that in itself I think is the world is your oyster is what someone said and I think that applies yeah and I mean I think the world is also a very changeable place at the moment in terms of employment right and many sectors are facing change which they think is coming but they don't quite imagine what it's going to look like and that's true in health as well as it is in many other places.

The way I look at it is that by becoming confident and competent in the technologies that are involved in that transformation, you have an opportunity to be part of how that's guided and how that's enabled and you have an opportunity to continue to be employed during that process.

I don't think that we are going to see fewer nurses or doctors in the health system as a result of AI for example. I think we're going to need more people who understand how these systems work and do the safety and the translation and the integration of these systems.

Absolutely. Yeah.

And so, I think there's opportunities. They might not all be advertised at the moment and maybe they're still coming, but there's definitely opportunities out there.

And I see there's a question in here from someone who's currently working as a registered nurse in Health New Zealand. We've had a lot of registered nurses do the course and use that experience to change track a little bit in their career.

One in particular that I'm thinking of is a very experienced nurse. He's been nursing for many many years and is a current student of the course and [snorts] is using the knowledge he's gained to influence how systems are connected to manage certain kinds of outbreaks that might occur. I'm not going to go into any detail.

But he says to me that because he's done that he started on the course, he can now have the right kinds of conversations with the right kinds of people to make a change. And I can see him moving into a more fully fledged informatics leadership role in the future as a result of that experience because he's got the knowledge but he's also put it into practice and I think he's also got the support of a local digital health company to try and make that happen.

Yeah. So, I think there's a huge amount of opportunity for RNs in digital health because we all know what is, Tania, that it's the nurses that do most of the work in the health system. You probably wouldn't disagree with me actually.

And they're often first to have to adopt these technologies and the ones that have to end up implementing and and fixing things when they're broken because they're the ones that see the impacts.

It puts RNs in a really powerful role if you can harness these technologies to be able to affect change. And that might be project work, it might be a different role, it might be a step up into leadership roles in the public health system.

So, I hope that answers those questions around RNs and career prospects.

There's a question here about what about continuing on and studying in cyber security.

So we talk about cyber security in 703 in particular around the regulation requirements and what cyber security looks like but also some really interesting case studies when things have gone bad and we seem to have brand new case studies every day at the moment.

We've got AI agents breaking into the Australian health system today.

Great. Let me tell you, the demand for cyber security expertise is going up, not down.

And the opportunities at the University of Otago to study cyber security. There are some real specialists in that space. I'm thinking of your your mate David and in the School of Computing who works in cyber security and health doing some really really interesting research in that space.

So yes there are opportunities to to take this and move into a cyber security focused line of study.

For example, you could do the diploma and you could then take a step up and do a masters' in Health Sciences or in fact a masters' in computing that's co-supervised between computing and and health sciences and get the best of both worlds maybe. I don't know.

And so there's a pathway there where you could actually potentially identify a project in your own workplace or an internship opportunity within the system be it public health or private sector and work on a cyber security problem and that becomes your masters'.

So I think there's good opportunities to take the core learning you get from the diploma and then extend it through a masters' programme.

And I really encourage people to do work-integrated practical and internship-based projects as part of their masters'. And we absolutely have the academic framework to support you to do that.

Any thoughts guys while I find the next question?

No. Okay.

Okay. Gosh, we do have quite a few hours per week of commitment. Okay.

There's a rough metric based on the number of points. So the more points your paper's worth, the more hours you're supposed to do.

That doesn't mean direct teaching time. It also includes preparation, reading, completing your assignments and that sort of thing.

Papers that I teach. I teach 701 on a Tuesday evening. I teach 703 on a Wednesday evening. Two hour slots. We don't always use the full two hours, although often we do, don't we, Sian? Because we like talking to each other.

And we have a guest lecture slot on a Thursday.

So if you were doing 701 and 703 next year, that would be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights. And that's the kind of contact time and again if you can't make it to those sessions live you can watch the recording.

And the preparation varies based on the topic that you're studying and also your background but we do readings and assignments and and that that factors into it.

The semester length is 12 weeks next year. So you get a break.

What's up guys? No. Okay. [laughter] Oh, I see. So changing the slides.

We [clears throat] where was I going with that? 12 week semesters. You get a two-week break in the middle. And that time is time that you could use to catch up on things if you need to or maybe just have a break.

So the rough hourly commitment depending on the paper that you're taking it would be you know two to three hours per paper, for the 30 point papers per week contact time, and whatever preparation time you need around that.

It's probably similar for 707.

Very similar. Yes, we've got a 2-hour seminar on Wednesday evening. That's a 5pm to 7pm and then we've got Friday lunch workshop 1pm to 2pm.

If people cannot make that lunchtime they catch up on the recording and I think in terms of preparation you you do have a bit of reading to do and and your assignments as well.

So I think that does add up.

Now one of the benefits is that you don't have to do those two papers in one semester, right? So you can spread it out and just take one paper for example in semester one, one paper in semester two and then spend another year to finish the rest of the diploma.

So nothing forces you to take it all up in one go.

Absolutely. Thanks for making that point. There's lots of scope to spread this out over a number of years if you need to take it part-time.

We're totally cool with that. And we if people are worried about the commitment, we can talk about what's a good process for you, a good plan for you.

And I'm really happy to have additional questions, you know, after the session and talk through specific circumstances in more detail.

And I see there's a question here about eligibility as a final year master student.

We can talk about that if if the person who put that question in wants to send me an email. We can more specifically pick up on that because everyone's situation is a bit different but we will find a way to develop a programme that works for you within the constraints that bureaucracy places upon us. [snorts]

I'm going to ask the question about.

So, we've been asked what makes this programme stand out from courses like those offered online by Coursera. So, online MOOCs [Massive Open Online Courses]s, massive open online courses.

One thing I didn't say is I've got 25 maybe 30 years experience as a learning technologist and an e-learning specialist. And so I'm very familiar with the way that online courses are developed and run.

I've developed a few myself and we use learning technologies to support the flexibility of the the courses that we deliver here.

What you miss with a MOOCs style environment is the kind of connection, contact and up-to-date conversation around specific issues that are relevant to your work, your sector, your country, and your aspirations.

We get to really dive into the personal relevance and importance of the questions that you have.

You don't get that through a MOOCs. You just don't.

Now MOOCs are great, massive open online courses again. For certain kinds of people, they might be a good way to dip your toes in the water.

But if you're curious and you want people to test your curiosity and push you to really understand and answer important questions, our kind of course is is the kind of course where you get to do that because you're in the room with people who know the stuff.

You're talking to them and you're answering questions together and you're finding out the latest research on the fly as it happens and you're responding in real time to things that come up in the news about the latest health system issue whether it's good or bad the developments in AI they're real-time conversations which  happen in the room.

I think that's the real benefit and I think the engagement within the class with the lecturer and the students really help cement your learning.

Yeah, thanks Sian.

And I want to pick up on that point you made earlier on too about the the the network you develop in this course continues outside of that.

Absolutely. And I I mean I know that you're on the blower at the moment to the CEO of Medtech about a particular question you have. He's a friend of the course. [laughter]

It's always great for name dropping when you're in the workplace and you know people that you've connected through with the course.

Yeah, I do really think that I genuinely believe that's a real strong benefit of what we do here. I think we bring people together and and we keep you connected.

So, I won't say anymore. [clears throat]

Can an international student register for this course and study while they're outside of the country?

Yes, it's a distance course. You don't need to be here to study it.

Information about enrolling as an international student is available through our website. There's lots of information there. Our international office is great. Get on the phone to them, send them an email, ask a question through Ask Otago and you will be directed to people who will help you answer the questions if you're considering studying this from overseas.

We welcome people from overseas to consider studying this as an international student.

Let's do that. I'm just changing slides and throwing up the QR code where you can find out more about the course and gaze once again at our beautiful faces and our names there.

The email there, digital health.ac.nz, that's the one to use if you've got specific questions about the course and they'll come through to the team here.

I see we're going to run out of time for questions. I'm just going to quickly look and see.

Scholarships. Available. There is a large database of scholarship opportunities at the University of Otago available on our website. I really encourage you to look into that. Contact the Scholarships Office and again a great team. They'll help you out.

If you need information to apply for a scholarship outside of the University, about the course, and how it applies to your workplace, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do to help you out.

No promises of course, but if it's about applying what we do to what you're trying to apply for, then we can certainly give you information to help you there.

There's a question from a particular specialist. I'm not going to mention the specialty because, you know, it's it's a clinical specialty.

Um yeah, we've had we've had dentists, oral health, community pharmacy, pathology laboratory managers, UX specialists, data scientists, GPs, data and digital team leaders, who else have we had on the course in recent times?

Physios. RNs, new grads who've just come out of, they've just finished their bachelors and they're wanting to do something new and they've come straight into this with no clinical experience.

Completely fine. So, we're open to all specialties, clinical and nonclinical. If you've got the right kind of background and the right kind of curiosity and this is something that has questions that you want to answer, we will welcome you to the table.

It's been quite popular in dentistry.

Yeah, we've had a few dentists come by. I think there's a lot of use of digital health applications there.

Yeah, so yeah, and we've got a dental surgeon starting the course next year already.

There's a question about when is the intake for the course. It's now. You can enroll now.

You can at least make an application and then that will get you into the system and start the process.

The course starts in February next year. But you can apply now and that will get you in the system and allow you to answer any questions, provide any evidence you need for the application.

Why is there no masters' programme in digital health? Well there's no endorsed masters' that's called Digital Health but there is a masters' programme where you can study digital health and actually I am working on an endorsed masters' in Digital Health as part of our future offerings.

As a dentist what benefits would I get? Like I say lots of dentistry is a tech-heavy part of clinical practice. You know there's a lot of systems.

There's also some real challenges with health information in dentistry in New Zealand at least and the interoperability or lack thereof between dental records and other parts of the system. We've done case studies on that in our courses. So I think you'd find something relevant there.

Can you do a paper in semester 1 and then a second paper in semester 2 for the postgrad?

We can't offer 703 in semester 2 at the moment unfortunately. What you can do is do 701 in one year and 703 the following year with no problem. We've had a number of students that have followed that pathway.

Future proof of the course opportunities.

Well, we try and keep really up-to-date. Digital health isn't going anywhere. It's a growth industry.

And what we teach you is the cutting-edge stuff, but also the fundamentals. And they those fundamentals will stay current for a very, very long time.

No one's going to get rid of HL7 FHIR as an interoperability standard for a while yet. For example, and we are always going to have to understand data structures, interoperability, data sharing, privacy, and all of those things.

So, I think those are that's how I'm going to respond to that.

We're just about out of time.

Someone's asked a question about digital health systems for adolescents. I've got a PhD student starting next year who's going to be looking at the use of AI chat bots for health and adolescence.

I'm really looking forward to her starting with me.

We talk a little bit about rangatahi ora in the context of m-health, mobile health, which is a a lecture that I give on for Brendon on 708 and it's a huge area. It's a really fascinating area.

It's something that I've been interested for a long time in my career. I'm a psychologist by by training. I'm a behavioral scientist. So I'm always interested in the intersection of technology and health. So plenty of opportunities to talk about that.

There's a question about whether this course would assist medical professionals whose businesses are involved in designing digital software.

The answer is yes. 703 is basically designed to help people understand that whole process from goal-directed design, user-centered design, persona development, prototyping, iterative development, regulation, security, it's all in there.

So I think you'd find that valuable.

I think maybe those are the most current questions and I think we might be out of time, guys.

Time's late. I'm just I'm checking with the team at the front of the room and just making sure there's nothing burning on fire that we need to ask about.

No, we're good. Okay.

So, look, thanks everyone. Thanks for coming. Thanks for listening. I hope it's been valuable.

Keep the conversation happening. Get in contact with us. Ask us questions and we will do our best to answer those for you.

We are going to close the session now with a a closing karakia.

And I just want to say thank you to the panelists. Thank you to the team who's helped put this together.

The recording will be made available so that you can share it with people down the line as well if needed.

And and let's have the closing card everyone.

Thank you.