Introduction to Health Informatics

This course introduces students to the concepts and practices of health informatics. Topics include: a) an introduction to the health informatics field; b) major applications and commercial vendors; c) decision support methods and technologies; d) analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation of healthcare information systems; and e) new opportunities and emerging trends. A semester-long group project is the cornerstone of the course that provides students with hands-on experience in planning and building healthcare information systems; associated ethnical and legal topics, software engineering and human-computer interaction issues, and user adoption and outcome evaluation methodologies will also be addressed.