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UW offers health informatics diploma -- from the UW news bureau

The Education Program for Health Informatics Professionals (EPHIP) addresses the educational needs of professionals in the health field who wish to upgrade their knowledge and skills and take on leadership roles in health IT management.

EPHIP will be taught via distance education and will be available to health informatics professionals throughout North America. Successful students will be awarded certificates and a diploma from UW's faculty of mathematics.

This month, Waterloo-based Mitra became the first EPHIP "partner", providing $50,000 in cash support, critical to the launch of the new program. Mitra, a digital imaging industry, offers "a growing set of integrated technologies and services". that serve as the framework for the virtual electronic health record. "We are committed to innovation in the health system," says Eric Peterson, Mitra president. "Information and communications technologies can't be deployed effectively in the health environment without well educated health informatics professionals. We're pleased to support EPHIP in its efforts to provide that education."

EPHIP is one of several diploma programs being developed by EPStar, a UW-based provider of education programs for professionals. The innovative EPHIP is modelled on the Education Program for Software Professionals, which has served more than 500 students since 1996.

Don Cowan, professor emeritus of computer science and the founder of EPStar, says: "We are ecstatic that Mitra has partnered with us and supported EPHIP. Our goal to provide an essential educational service to the health industry is closer today because of their foresight and generosity."

EPHIP is expected to be available to students early next year. The program is actively seeking additional corporate support.

Students attend Hong Kong summit -- by Barbara Elve

Environment and resource studies students Suzanne van der Leeuw, Justin Kinney and Sandy Kiang (left) have been chosen as one of three delegations representing Canada. The other two are from McGill and Queen's. The team was selected based on a five-page proposal discussing their roles in relation to sustainable development, integrating environmental, social and economic issues.

Calling themselves the Canadian Mosaic Group, the UW students "represent a diverse ethnic and cultural group with the common goal of better improving the environment our society depends on". They bring together "a diverse range of knowledge" including dispute resolution, environmental assessment, international and domestic policy, field ecology, biology, and use of a systems approach to environmental and natural resources issues.

As examples of sustainable development initiatives, the UW team cites the Federation of Students' Environment Commission -- on which all three serve -- describing its Lug-a-Mug and Energy Awareness campaigns. As well, all members of the UW delegation have spent work terms employed by the Residential Energy Efficiency Project, and their submission describes its role in helping homeowners reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy costs.

Summit organizers hope to "set the stage for initiation of joint effort, as its ultimate aim is to initiate the setting up of international joint university student groups dedicated to striving for a sustainable future."

Free air fare and accommodation in a student hostel is provided for delegates to the summit, which runs from today through Friday.

Solar car has far-flung fans

"The team also had keen eyes and supporters in Australia, Singapore and Korea," writes John Grzan of NRGCells Singapore in the aftermath of the American Solar Challenge, in which Midnight Sun finished third.

Grzan notes that his company "worked closely with the Midnight Sun team to design a highly efficient and energy dense Lithium ion battery pack. With energy densities nearing 150Wh/kg, Midnight Sun was able to travel longer distances and faster speeds, and with the great work by the Midnight Sun electrical team, the car had a great race."

He says "management, staff and family" of both NRGCells and LG Chemical were keenly glued to the Web links in the wee hours of the morning to get the latest updates and profiles. They only wish we had more on-line real time updates."

And he promised last week that NRGCells will support Midnight Sun in future competitions "and hope to carry our latest technology in the vehicle to get even faster times".

I asked Grzan whether he or any of his colleagues at NRGCells were Waterloo alumni. No, he said: "We're all Australian here."

On the first day of spring exams

Also in the wild: the Code Red worm IST's anti-virus page

And on Wednesday of last week I was writing about the supremely irritating SirCam virus, and said that "it operates through the Microsoft Outlook e-mail program". In fact, it has become abundantly clear that some other e-mail clients can also spread the virus, so it's not only Outlook users who need to be wary. (And the best advice for everybody, repeated endlessly by computing experts, is not to open e-mail attachments unless you are certain you know what something is and where it came from.) Some of the effects of SirCam are described in a light-hearted article in this morning's New York Times.

I was out last night for a brief spin through the city of Waterloo's new RIM Park (formerly Millennium Park), in the northeast corner of the city. The place is enormous, and though most of it looks like empty barren land right now, there's enough construction machinery on the site to create something very welcoming very fast. "I just thought I'd let you know," says a memo that happened to arrive on Friday, "that AHSUM, the Applied Health Sciences Undergraduate Members undertook a fund-raising campaign this term to have a portion of the community trail at RIM Park named after Applied Health Sciences. By holding barbecues and other special events, and from generous donations by faculty and staff, AHSUM managed to raise enough funds to support 18 metres of the trail, just short of their objective of 20 metres."

A seminar this morning will describe the use of Mathcad software to develop a full-sized text -- in this case, a book titled "Building Thermal Analysis", done by Andreas Athienitis of Concordia University. "Each section," an abstract explains, "contains theory, live equations that can be changed, and graphs linked to the equations. The e-text may be used in printed form as a regular text book to teach basic concepts, but moreover it may be used to demonstrate interactively in class the effects of changing the models and the design parameters." The session, sponsored by the mechanical engineering department and the LT3 learning centre, will start at 10:30 a.m. in Doug Wright Engineering room 2536.

The arts copy centre (in the Humanities building) will be closed today.

Also closed is Techworx in South Campus Hall, which is in the process of moving to larger quarters around the corner and just outside the building's north doors. Techworx will reopen on Wednesday.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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