IS 461/661 continues to introduce the major areas of Health IT outlined below. It will also include a number of guest speakers who will be chosen from the prominent leaders of the Health IT community in the Baltimore-Washington area. The three major course objectives are that the students will:
- Develop a broad knowledge of Health IT
- Understand the challenges and opportunities associated with adopting and meaningfully using Health Information Technology
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Establish familiarity with the related literature, terminology, and concepts which will enable them to communicate with the other Health IT professionals more effectively and efficiently
Textbook:
Health Informatics: Practical Guide for Healthcare and Information
Technology Professionals (Fifth Edition) by Robert E Hoyt, Nora Bailey, and Ann Yoshihashi
The course topics will include:
- Online Medical Resources Search
- Engines Evidence-Based Medicine and Clinical Practice Guidelines
- Disease Management and Registries
- Quality Improvement Strategies
- Patient Safety
- Electronic Prescribing
- Telemedicine
- Picture Archiving and Communication Systems
- Bioinformatics
- Public Health Informatics
- E-Research in Health Care
Why learning about Health IT is Important?
Health care is a major challenge area for the US. Despite the advancements with the use of information systems in other fields, there is a very big need to adopt information technology effectively and efficiently in various areas of health care. Health IT is expected to support the target of achieving reduced costs, better care, and better health. Therefore, it is a national area of priority regardless of the specific US administration, i.e., both Democrats and Republicans are in favor of supporting health IT. Huge investments were made into this area during both Bush and Obama administrations. As a result, new jobs and research opportunities were created. Our Baltimore-Washington area is one of the important hubs for this industry with many related hospitals, corporations, governmental agencies, and research institutions. The area of health IT will further expand in the future, and its importance will further increase due to the information intensive nature of health services and care.
