Capstone
The MBMI program requires that students engage in a mentored Capstone Project in clinical informatics during their final year. This is accomplished in the context of a seminar in which students develop, propose, implement, and present their capstone project. During the semester, students meet regularly with their Capstone Advisor, who is also invited to attend the seminars. The seminar affords both students and advisors the opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas and skills, and ultimately the honing of projects to a high level of value for the students and the clinical environments in which they conduct their projects.
Capstone Advisors
Each project is supervised by an IBI Senior Fellow, selected by the student and vetted by the Advising Committee. The Capstone Advisor will be selected by the student for expertise in the topic addressed in the capstone. Additional individuals with expertise relating to the student’s project can join the advisory team as needed. The Capstone Advisor will be responsible for ensuring a high degree of quality of the project and the student’s work thereupon. The Capstone Advisor will be responsible for guiding and evaluating the student’s progress throughout the semester, and for submitting the final evaluation and a grade. This grade is then used as part of the overall capstone grade (see Deliverables below).
Capstone Projects
Capstone projects may align with the day-to-day responsibilities of the student's employment or may be in a new area of interest. Projects should be completed in the course of a 15-week semester. However, the proposal and determination of Capstone Mentor takes place in the semester prior to the capstone project semester. For example, if a student intends to perform their capstone project in the spring semester then the proposal and mentorship team deliverables are due in the fall semester. Sample projects could include:
- Design, implementation, and evaluation of a clinical decision rule
- A workflow analysis pertinent to a given clinical environment
- Evaluation of a feature or set of features of an existing clinical information system
- Development and evaluation of a training program for new users of a clinical information system
- Assessment of clinical information system adoption by health professionals
- Design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel feature in a patent portal system
- Development and evaluation of a program for improving patient engagement in using patient portals
- Design and evaluate a clinical process improvement
Deliverables
The capstone will culminate in the preparation of a written final report and a powerpoint capstone project presentation.
The written final capstone report paper will consist of the following:
- thorough critical review of pertinent literature
- statement of the problem or research question
- clearly articulated statement of the goal(s) of the project
- description of the aims proposed to addressed the goal(s)
- methods used to address the aims
- results
- discussion of the results
- conclusion
- description of future directions
Two IBI Senior Fellows will serve as Discussants and will evaluate both the written final capstone report paper and the capstone project presentation and provide oral and written feedback to the student and Capstone Advisor (s).
The components of the student's final capstone grade (for the semester) are as follows:
- Capstone Final Capstone Report Paper - 50%
- Capstone Advisor Grade - 35%
- Capstone Final Capstone Project Presentation - 15%