Spotlight on TM650 - Health Informatics

January 02, 2001

This course is designed to introduce the general principles of health informatics. It will be taught so that individuals with various backgrounds, including those with medical, nursing, library science, computer science, or other backgrounds, can become familiar with information management and computer applications in health care. Expert guest lecturers will be used throughout the course.

Sample topics include:

• Acquisition, storage and use of medical data (including discussion of relational database structure)
• Medical decision making and evidence based medicine
• Computer networks and the internet (TCP/IP protocols, implications, etc.)
• Data encryption and computer security (public key encryption, RSA algorithm, DES, etc.)
• The electronic medical record (technology and standards, policy, legal issues, confidentiality, security, etc.)
• Telemedicine (technology, legal issues, clinical reliability, evaluation, etc.)
• Evaluation of medical informatics applications
• Artificial intelligence and decision support
• Nursing and /or consumer health informatics
• Performance improvement and health information management
• Genomics and bioinformatics
• Rural health informatics

There are no Prerequisites for the course. The course requires web access. Meeting time is in the process of being finalized so please contact the course instructor, Mr. Michael McCarthy, Asst. Dean, MU School of Medicine. He can be reached at 304/691-1765; email: mccarthy@marshall.edu.