This course provides a broad survey of health informatics focused on five themes: health informatics foundations; clinical decision support; human factors/organization factors; public health informatics and current issues in health informatics including best practices.

The application of the information system development life cycle in the design, selection, and implementation of health information technology applications will be examined. Human computer interactions and emerging technologies will be explored for their impact on patient care and safety. The role of legal, regulatory, ethical, and security issues will be discussed as they apply to clinical and consumer information technologies..

Data science concepts and database theory as related to healthcare settings will be introduced. Simple database modeling, design, and manipulation will be explored using a database management system and a query language. Key data science methods, such as data wrangling and visualization, will be leveraged for decision making.

The information system development life cycle process is presented with emphasis on determination and analysis of information system requirements and system design that meet the identified healthcare information requirements. Object-oriented techniques, such as Unified Modeling Language and Unified Modeling Methodology, will be introduced to facilitate process analysis and design proposal development.

This course examines the role of health informaticians as champions of information governance in healthcare organizations. Course content includes an exploration of the topic of information governance, as well as introduces strategic considerations for enterprise processes, policies and procedures, standards, and metrics to support information governance efforts. Information is considered throughout the course as a strategic asset for organizational optimization. External users of information and related implications are also discussed.

This research or evidence-based project course is designed for students to apply knowledge from their coursework. Students will work with a faculty mentor on components of a research, quality improvement, or evidence-based practice project. The student will create a scholarly document. Prerequisites: a research course and two informatics courses, or consent of instructor.