3  What is Medical Informatics? 
    Chapter  1. Introduction and 
                Overview  
    Chapter 36. Education and 
                Training 
10  Chapter  3. Data Processing  
    Chapter  4. Database Management 

17  Chapter  5. Telecommunication,  
                Networking, and 
                Integration 
    Discuss student medical informatics 
    papers 
24  Chapter  8. Biosignal Analysis 
    Chapter  9. Medical Imaging

 1  Chapter 31. Human-Computer 
                Interaction in  
                Health Care 
 8  Examination 

15  Chapter 11. Primary Care 
    Chapter 12. Clinical 
                Departmental  
                Systems 
22  Chapter 13. Clinical Support 
                Systems  
    Chapter 14. Nursing Information 
                Systems 
29  Chapter 20. Hospital Information 
                Systems: 
                Clinical Use 
    Chapter 21. Hospital Information 
                Systems: 
                Technical Choices

 5  Examination 
12  Chapter  7. The Patient Record 
    Chapter 29. Structuring the  
                Computer-Based 
                Patient Record  
19 
    Chapter 19. Health Care Modeling  
    Chapter 32. Costs and Benefits of 
                Information Systems  
    Chapter 37. Project Management 
26  No Class -  Thanksgiving Break

 3  Examination 
10  Online debate about medical 
    informatics issues and workshop 
    to format medical  
    informatics paper 
17  Final paper due

Fall 1998 
Thursday 6:00-8:40 
Fisher 435 

Charles Webster, M.D., M.S.I.E., M.S.I.S. 
396-4767 
webster@duq3.cc.duq.edu 
Office Hours By Appointment 

COURSE DESCRIPTION 

This course provides an introduction to medical informatics: its roots in computing and health science, its subdisciplines (such as medical imaging, document management, and decision support), and its interactions with other fields (particularly business and cognitive science). Topics include medical databases, networks, multimedia, artificial intelligence, communication standards, and signal processing. 

The class will use a combination of guided readings, survey lectures, student discussion and debate, research on the World Wide Web, and an assigned paper that will be based on the same format and guidelines as used by the International and American Informatics Associations. 

 COURSE OBJECTIVES 

1. Acquaint the student with the relationships between informatics and medicine that led to the creation of the field of medical informatics. 

2. Arrive at a conception of the philosophical basis for medical informatics. 

3. Create awareness of typical medical informatics projects: who, what, where, why, and how. 

4. Analyze personal skill base relative to undertaking further medical informatics training. 

5. Understand medical informatics professional structure, its journals, and how to write a medical informatics paper for submission to a medical informatics conference. 
 

REQUIRED READINGS 

Handbook of Medical Informatics, edited by J. H. van Bemmel and M.A. Musen, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1997. 
(all chapters referred to in the topical outline are in the HMI) 

You may order HMI from www.amazon.com 

Readings as assigned by the professor. 

 RECOMMENDED READINGS 

Introduction to Clinical Informatics, by Patrice Degoulet and M. Fieschi, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1996. 

You may order ICI  from www.amazon.com (20% discount, arrives in 2-3 days) 

Any of the many conference proceedings of the International and American Medical Informatics Associations, and the IMIA Yearbooks, which can be found in the office of the Department of Health Management Systems. 
 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS 

1. Examination 1 (20%) 

2. Examination 2 (20%) 

3. Examination 3 (20%) 

3. Paper (30%) 

3. Class participation (10%)