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Extended English abstracts of articles published in the Chinese edition of Journal of Library Science in China 2018 Vol.44 211

in further study.

Education development and teaching reform of health informatics for
Library and Information Science schools
〇a*
ZHOU Xiaoying〇 & ZHANG Lu
The reform and development of health service mode require the support of health information.
However, the lack of health information talents is the weakness of the current health service system
in China. LIS schools should adapt to national strategies, social demands, cross-disciplinary
development and changes in information environment to balance the request and take the effort to
cultivate professional talents.
This paper selects twelve LIS schools in North America as research objects. For one thing, the
study digs deeply into the research data of twelve universities, including education type of health
informatics, background of the faculty, status of related curriculum and employment of graduates
by employing network research and content analysis. For another, this paper analyzes the current
situation of medical informatics education, the macro-environment for health information talents
demand condition in China and the characteristics of international health informatics education
requirements by the method of literature investigation.
The results show that some universities in North America have developed systematic and
normative education of health informatics, and the education mode can be divided into four types.
Mode one is supported by specific training projects or research institutions and has established
definite majors in health informatics. Mode two is supported by special programs or research
institutions but has not established definite majors. In general, Mode three shows that health
information is one of their research areas in other relative majors rather than health informatics.
Mode four just has a few courses related to health information. Faculties and curriculum in twelve
universities indicate that multiple departments undertake the responsibility of health informatics
education besides LIS schools, including School of Medicine, Public Health, and so on. Health
information talents have a high level of social demand and acceptance nowadays. Consequently,
health informatics graduates may work in a wide range of professions and roles. By contrast,
medical colleges or institutes of medical information mainly accomplish the health information
talents training relying on “medical informatics” and “medical information management” education
with different professional directions in China. Furthermore, many problems of training objects,
curriculum, education scale and characteristics of discipline integration exist in present education.
Strictly speaking, the health informatics education in LIS schools in comprehensive universities is
still deficient.

* Correspondence should be addressed to ZHOU Xiaoying, Email: xyz-ruc@qq.com, ORCID: 0000-0002-9116-1525