IS 460/660 Healthcare Informatics is related to an area which is becoming more and more important every day. Why is it so? According to the data presented by CMS, Since 2004, the National Health Expenditures (NHE) increased from 1,855.4 Billion Dollars (B), which was the 15.6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), to 2,702 B in 2011 (17.3% of GDP). NHE in 2019 is projected to be 13,382 B (19.3%). Although the estimates beyond 2019 are not published, it can be easily argued that if NHE increases at the same rate, given the crucial nature of health care, there will be considerably less resources left for other areas important to our society in the future decades.

In this large picture, there has been a bi-partisan support for Health Information Technology (Health IT) with the hope that it can help reduce some of the healthcare costs while positively contributing to the quality of care and health outcomes. On the other hand, using IT to create sustained benefits presents complex issues caused by the unique characteristics of health settings, professionals, organizations, laws, etc., in addition to the technical ones. As a result, when it comes to Health IT, there are many interesting and important interdisciplinary and applied topics well-worth to learn and discuss.

IS 460/660 will discuss 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
• 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

• Health Informatics Overview
• Healthcare Data, Information, and Knowledge
• Electronic Health Records, Practice Management Systems
• Health Information Exchange
• Data Standards
• Architectures of Information Systems
• Health Information Privacy and Security
• Health Informatics Ethics
• Consumer Health Informatics
• Mobile Technology in Health

NOTE: The students taking this course will be able to make a transition to the second course Healthcare Informatics - II in Spring 2013 easily, if they would like to explore certain topics in depth.