General provisions

The course is part of Uppsala University's work within the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Health and targets both professionals and students at all disciplines.

Ideally the course would consist of a mix of people with clinical background, relevant technical background (e.g. software developer, health informatician or computer science), and people with lived experience of being a patient and/or informal caregiver.

Entry requirements

120 credits. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing in-depth knowledge about digital health innovation based on the needs of patients, family caregivers and healthcare professionals. Interdisciplinary teams of course participants will, in association with stakeholders, identify needs-based problems and in dialogue with target groups (public and patient involvement, PPI) develop solutions for identified problems. Feedback on process and proposed solutions are given by teachers and mentors, course participants (peer learning) and the potential end-users.

The starting point will be concrete and real needs of patients, informal caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Interdisciplinary teams of course participants will, in association with stakeholders, identify needs-based problems and in dialogue with target groups (public and patient involvement, PPI) develop solutions for identified problems. Feedback on process and proposed solutions are given by teachers and mentors, course participants (peer learning) and the potential end-users.

After passing the course, the student should be able to

• Identify problems and challenges with relevant to health and care based on existing settings in, for example, the public and private sector,
• Plan, implement and apply methodology for an innovation project with a user focus and within given timeframes, with a focus om digital health
• Understand the importance of and utilize the knowledge and experience of interdisciplinary groups in developing creative innovation projects
• Describe opportunities and challenges of patient-driven innovation
• Compile, use and critically interpret relevant information for the innovation project
• Give oral and written presentations adapted to different kinds of target groups
• Give constructive feedback to oral and written presentations given by other course participants.

Content

With the citizen's needs in focus and gained knowledge about digital health i, the course participants identify, plan, carries through and evaluate a relevant health innovation project. As support for the work, theory and practical introduction about methods on how to co-create with the intended user of the innovation solution are provided. Theoretical discussions are combined with practical work on how to energize creativity in innovative processes and how project groups can enable productive collaboration. Ideas are tested through meetings with needs-providers, mentors from innovation support organisations and the final solutions is presented to a panel of evaluators and end-users.

Instruction

Place visits, lectures, seminars, project work in teams. Teaching is online and in English.

Assessment

Active participation in mandatory assignments and completion of a project according to instructions ( 4 credits). Oral and written reports ( 3.5 credits).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.