Brief Description: This six week online continuing education certification course identifies, explains, analyzes, evaluates, & manages cognitive bias/heuristic behaviors in decision making associated with healthcare administration, healthcare policy development, healthcare delivery and access, biomedical ethics, domestic and global public health, healthcare communications, pharmaceutical research, advertising, and sales, healthcare service management and supply chain distribution, home health care services, telemedicine utilization, OTC medicine marketing and distribution, Generative (GenAI) and Machine Learning (MLAI) artificial intelligence healthcare applications, and healthcare scientific translational research.

Catalogue Description: The course guides the student through scientific evidence in the fields of experimental psychology, neuroscience, neurophysiology, behavioral economics, business analytics, and psychosociology in achieving recognition, understanding, and control of the multiple cognitive biases that impact decision-making strategies in healthcare.

The student will learn to identify situations in which unrecognized cognitive bias, heuristics, and ethical challenges arise in not only patient, client, community-provider delivery interactions but also in health-related supporting processes of recruiting, selecting, hiring, promotion, and team management. The student will also learn strategies to identify how cognitive biases lead to faulty conclusions and decisions that negatively impact patient outcomes and organizational goals, including diminished quality of care, misdiagnosis, faulty healthcare policy planning, healthcare safety breakdowns, and inadequate treatment plans.

By course’s completion students will be able to identify and discuss the influence of bias on clinical algorithms employed for patient care, safety, and risk management. The course will also present multiple strategies that identify common harmful healthcare cognitive biases.

This course also provides effective cognitive bias shared learning management tools to gain stakeholder support of healthcare business marketing, service delivery, third-party and fee-for-service reimbursement, and quality improvement plans throughout their implementation and ongoing lifecycle.

Specific course outcomes include effective cognitive bias management in innovative healthcare policy development, translational healthcare research and product application, establishment of implementation requirements for quality improvement (QI), minimized resistance to (QI) acceptance, pharmaceutical utilization critical thinking, impact of GenAI and MLAI on predictive analytics, personalized medicine, robotics, telemedicine, and patient access. The course thoughtfully engages students with these issues through case studies, real-life examples, theoretical and practical insights, group discussions, innovative instructor podcast multimedia material, and timely, applicable instructor methodologies.        

Expected Outcomes:

• Skilled in gathering health-care evidence-based information, identifying data alternatives, assessing evidence, selection thresholds, action triggers, implementation, consequence review, and continuous quality improvement.
• Identification and control of seen and unseen obstacles to effective health-care decision-making
• Learning and applying techniques and tools for health-care decision-making cost-benefit analysis
• Understanding how the brain processes information and makes decisions. 
• Self-awareness and understanding of the impact of personal cognitive biases, heuristics, and emotional influences on health-care decision-making outcomes
• Improved communication and interpersonal skills in facilitating effective group decision-making.
• Learning skills to recognize and avoid the potential negative outcomes of poor decision-making and impulsive behavior.

Certificate Awarded: At successful course completion, the student receives a certificate of continuing education in Cognitive Bias and Applied Decision Making Strategies in Healthcare issued by the Course Professor, the University of the Incarnate Word, School of Professional Studies Dean, and the Manager, UIW Professional and Continuing Education.

Roles: This continuing education course is a must for Epidemiologists, Scientists, Healthcare Administration Professionals, Healthcare Advocates, Health Care Delivery Professionals (Physicians, Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, Pharmacists, Dentists, Chiropractors, Physical/Occupational Therapists, Allied Health Professionals) Healthcare Laboratory Professionals, Healthcare Legal Experts, Healthcare Policy Professionals, Public Health professionals, Pharmaceutical Representatives, Healthcare Communication Specialists, Healthcare Analysts, Healthcare/Pharmaceutical Researchers, Healthcare Educators, and Third Party Payer Professionals.

Registration Fee: Course fee of $1850 includes registration, all course materials, continuing education signed certificate at successful course completion, and eligibility for higher continuing education certificate levels in cognitive bias and decision-making.