MHA 6304 - Medical Informatics

Credits: 3

This course is designed around three themes of healthcare informatics: 1) The organization of health information to support action, 2) How IT creates value, and 3) Managing change. By focusing on operational flows rather than computers, we recognize that business and clinical needs must drive technology choices. Students will become conversant in the key operations that are driving health informatics development, while identifying the reasons for the all-too-frequent failures of health care computer system implementations. Lessons from other industries which are often ahead of healthcare will be (cautiously) applied. The course will focus attention on both the integrated delivery system (hospital-driven organizations) and the private medical practice environments of informatics. The course project will be to evaluate a patient-care system at the student’s home organization/institution using the dimensions discussed throughout the course.