Tosh Tipler of Waterloo and Yang Wang of Kitchener, students in postgraduate programs at Conestoga College, earned second-place standing recently at a competition presented by Agfa HealthCare. The contest was open to health informatics students of Conestoga and the University of Waterloo, and attracted 30 student teams.
The Agfa Initiative, as the contest was known, was an effort by Agfa HealthCare and the Impact Entrepreneurship Group to encourage students to develop innovative solutions related to the health care and information technology industries.
The main aim was to gives students the opportunity to apply classroom-based knowledge towards practical solutions related to health care in Canada. Besides Agfa HeathCare, Impact Entrepreneurship, Conestoga and UW, event co-sponsors also included Communitech, St. Mary’s General Hospital of Kitchener and the Ontario Centres of Excellence.
The Tipler-Wang proposal dealt with creation of a three-dimensional online electronic medical record system. A video of the proposal is available at www.consulting.impact.org/agfa. For their efforts, Tipler and Wang will receive valuable practical mentoring from health care professionals at St. Mary’s.
Tipler is enrolled in the three-semester Applied Health Informatics co-op, postgraduate certificate program. The program provides in-depth knowledge of health informatics, the application and integration of information technology into the operation of health care institutions and professions. It also emphasizes development of excellent communication, decision-making and problem-solving skills.
Wang is a student in the three-semester Information Management for Health Care program, which also features co-op education and also leads to a postgraduate certificate. This program incorporates knowledge of clinical, administrative and financial processes in health care with applications of related information technology. Significant attention is given to matters related to privacy and confidentiality of patient data, as well as skills related to the development of sound training programs and materials.
CONTACT: Yuri Kagolovsky, 519-748-5220, ext. 3941.