Curriculum

An overview of technologies that support healthcare information systems. This includes system software, system analysis and design, data management, networks and data communication, information processing distribution schemes, information systems architecture, system standards, and security.

Technology is transforming how healthcare is delivered and in the process bringing together disparate groups of people to work together collaboratively. This course will provide an overview of information technology including system analysis and design, data and network management, and information systems architecture and how each directly impacts clinical healthcare personnel. The students will also be introduced to the terminology, practices, and processes found in clinical and business operations. Communication between direct patient care individuals and technology personnel will be explored and appropriate methods fostered. This course has two areas of focus. Topic I will focus on information technology in healthcare. Topic II will focus on healthcare delivery in the United States.

Technology is transforming how healthcare is delivered and in the process bringing together disparate groups of people to work together collaboratively. This course will provide an overview of information technology including system analysis and design, data and network management, and information systems architecture and how each directly impacts clinical healthcare personnel. The students will also be introduced to the terminology, practices, and processes found in clinical and business operations. Communication between direct patient care individuals and technology personnel will be explored and appropriate methods fostered.

Introduction to organization, economic, culture, policy, and terminology of healthcare for non-health professionals. This also introduces the students to fundamental terminology, practices, and processes found in clinical and business operations.

This course features a high-level overview of healthcare informatics. Overviews of the following topics will be included: administrative and clinical software applications, healthcare systems acquisition, leadership skills, electronic health records, change management and organizational behavior, workflow design and reengineering, communications specific to the information systems leaders, healthcare information exchanges, and evidence-based medicine. A high-level look at the healthcare industry and recent government mandates will also be explored.

Health care organizations face numerous challenges, including rising costs, increasing complexity, and quality issues, all while confronting an increase in demand for limited resources. This course examines the operations of the entire healthcare organization and its management, including the role of strategic planning and governance, clinical and nonclinical support services, quality improvement, environment-of-care and facilities management, personnel and staffing, finance, information technology, and marketing.

In this course, evidenced-based practice (EBP) qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be analyzed within the scope of the healthcare industry. Topics include identification, interpretation, and evaluation of research information sources, research design, data collection, computer-based data analyses, and privacy and protection of human subjects. Clinical decision support (CDS) technologies, which provide tools for the healthcare providers' decision-making, will be examined and debated. Data warehouses will also be discussed as they relate to facilitating and optimizing the research methodologies.
Prerequisite: TAKE HINF-501 OR HIS-501

Utilization and leveraging of healthcare data can drive improvements in our nation's entire healthcare system as well as in the medical and economic wellness of patients through sharing practical guidance and unbiased information on how to harness these healthcare data and facilitating problem-solving, solution sharing, and education through the collection and analyzing of healthcare data.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501

This course is designed to provide an understanding of specific skills required to collect and maintain electronic health data in our current technical and political environment. Examines overviews and issues specific to various types of hospital systems, methods used to interface between systems, and operational issues typical of hospital systems. The course also includes a study of controlled medical vocabularies typically used to define various types of health data as well as a survey of existing and evolving government-driven standards and regulations.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501

Population health focuses on the health and well-being of entire populations. Populations may be geographically defined, such as neighborhoods, states, or countries, or may be based on groups of individuals who share common characteristics such as age, gender, race-ethnicity, disease status, employee group membership, or socioeconomic status. With roots in epidemiology, public health, and demography, a key component of population health is the focus on the social determinants of health and "upstream" collaborative interventions to improve population health and variance, identify and reduce health disparities, and reduce healthcare costs. Given the shifting health care environment-from fee-for-service to value-based care-health administrators and managers who are able to apply epidemiological and demographic tools to measure, analyze, evaluate and improve population health will be well positioned for positions in healthcare as the field continues to evolve.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501

The course prepares students to find, normalize, and use advanced statistical tools to convert data into information to make clinical, operational and financial decisions in a healthcare setting.  Topics include exploratory data analysis, data visualization, statistics, regression, decision tree, and model training/testing.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-602

This course discusses the design, analysis, and management of information systems: system lifecycle management, hardware and software selection and evaluation, the role of information systems in decision support and other functional areas of business, project management, systems development and analysis, module design, and techniques to reduce system complexity.

The capstone project involves practical work and research in a major area of healthcare information systems through student-led projects. This course provides an opportunity to integrate knowledge gained in the classroom with a real-world problem. All projects require a weekly seminar and are guided by faculty members who serve as mentors. Projects may be completed on-site within a healthcare facility. Students who currently work in the healthcare industry may develop a capstone at their current place of employment with the approval of the employer. Capstone will be taken as one of the last two courses in the students' program of study, after students have successfully completed the required core courses.

This course introduces process mapping and workflow management. The intricacies of observing, recording, analyzing, and improving processes within the healthcare setting will be discussed and analyzed. Issues arising from the development, dissemination, implementation, and use of health information technologies (information systems, monitoring systems, etc.) on individuals and organizations will be explored. The concepts of usability, learnability, likeability, ergonomic, and universal design of solutions will also be discussed in depth. Social and ethical issues will also be introduced.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501 or HIS-501

This course represents designated new or occasional courses that may or may not become part of the department's permanent course offerings. Prerequisites are established by the department as appropriate for the specific course.

This course explores evaluation and management of health information between healthcare facilities, government agencies, and consumer health records (PHR) including issues, standards, technologies, and system configurations. Electronic health records will be covered conceptually to understand their impact on HIEs. Technical components (data exchanges, interoperability, data mining, and warehouse) as well as policy issues will be discussed and debated. Privacy and security aspects regarding electronic health information exchange will be explored. Current legal requirements driving policies and procedures as well as business and best practices regarding the creation, storage, processing, access, auditing, and utilization of clinical data will be explored.
Prerequisite: TAKE HINF-552

This course serves as an introduction to managing healthcare information projects, including the development of the project charter and scope with emphasis on developing the competencies and skills required to successfully lead teams of technical, clinical, and professional specialists through workflow and work process redesign activities within a healthcare organization or system. Topics also include project initiating, planning and development, project management tools, budgeting, human resource management, project monitoring, and controlling and project closure. Advanced-level skills in using PM methodologies to create realistic project plans, schedule tasks and resources effectively, appropriately communicate with all stakeholders, and derive meaningful milestone deliverables to track and report progress for both simple and complex projects.
Prerequisite: Take HIS-501 or HINF-501 and HIS-550 or HINF-550

The concepts and latest progress on emerging technologies such as health exchanges, biometrics, wireless, mobile, and web technologies will be discussed. Biomedical technologies will also be explored. Examines trends and drivers of innovation both generally and in healthcare and how emerging technologies are adapted and evaluated. Introduces how emerging technologies are applied to improve health records, computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems, regional health information organizations, personal health records, telemedicine, new imaging systems, robotic surgery, pharmacogenomics, and national-level biosurveillance.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501

This course explores the extent to which law can implement or facilitate sound healthcare policy. The course will cover the following major areas: employment and contract law, patient rights (e.g., provider disclosure), healthcare accountability (e.g., medical error liability), and healthcare access (e.g., universal coverage). Particular attention will be paid to the balancing act between the patient's desires for available information over the internet with IT security that ensures patient privacy. Topics such as informed consent, electronic records over the internet, remote patient monitoring, and wireless technology privacy concerns will also be discussed.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501

This course examines the strategic application of information technology in healthcare organizations. The course focuses on the challenges facing the healthcare informatics administration with respect to organizational structure, alignment with enterprise strategy, portfolio management, and regulatory compliance. In addition the course looks at how the application of IT can transform healthcare delivery in the current environment.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501

Consumer health informatics (CHI) is rapidly expanding and aims to give individual health care consumers, their families, and communities the information and tools that they need to become more engaged in their health and health care. In this course, students become familiar with a range of CHI applications, including the needs/problems that the applications address, their theoretical bases, their technical architectures, and relevant evaluation results. Students acquire an ability to evaluate existing applications intended to help individuals adopt and maintain health-protective behaviors and to generate theory-informed design and implementation strategies for CHI applications.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501

This course is to introduce the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare. The student will learn about where artificial intelligence is already being applied in informatics and how it can evolve in the near future. After the course, students will be able to understand how artificial intelligence is applied in informatics and how it can change the practice of healthcare and technology to improve healthcare efficiency. The course will teach basics about artificial intelligence applications, limitations, and opportunities in healthcare.
Prerequisite: Take HINF-501

This field experience/internship is a practical learning experience arranged with a variety of healthcare organizations to provide a supervised short-term educational experience for students in the Healthcare Informatics program. An internship allows a student to develop professionally through a work experience under the guidance of leaders in the fields of healthcare informatics and healthcare information technology. As an extension of the curriculum, the internship experience affords the student an opportunity to apply her/his theoretical knowledge and technical skills in a practical manner gaining valuable training, which will better enable her/him to perform with a higher level of skill and confidence. Required for full-time students.

This field experience/internship is a practical learning experience and is a continuation of HINF 625. Arranged with a variety of healthcare organizations, it provides a supervised educational experience for students in the Healthcare Informatics program. An internship allows a student to develop professionally through a work experience under the guidance of leaders in the fields of healthcare informatics and healthcare information technology. As an extension of the curriculum, the internship experience affords the student an opportunity to apply his/her theoretical knowledge and technical skills in a practical manner gaining valuable training, which will better enable him/her to perform with a higher level of skill and confidence.