The goals for this course were to: understand the academic discipline of medical informatics and the role of medical informatics in clinical health care applications. It was designed to explore how medical data including clinical, administrative and financial data are used in healthcare applications. We gained an appreciation for the nature of medical knowledge and decision-making and an understanding of the role of decision support systems and knowledge-based systems.

The application of current and emerging information delivery methods such as web-based databases, enterprise decision support systems, and regional health information organizations was explored for how they can be used to enhance patient outcomes. The role of research, clinical databases and the theory behind measuring patient outcomes was also reviewed. The course established sensitivity to issues of privacy, ethics and compliance issues in the collection, distribution and use of medical information and patient records.

The curriculum also covered considerations for evaluating informatics software and systems used to support clinical and administrative healthcare operations.

Biomedical Informatics; Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine, Shortliffe, Edward H., Cimino, J.J., 3rd ed., Springer Science+Business Media, 2006

Paper: Project Heart: Using Technology to Reduce Delays in Treating Myocardial Infarction

Presentation

The group project posted as an artifact for this course is one I am very pleased to present. The technology solution we devised helped to reduce the elapsed time between the onset of Myocardial Infarction (MI, heart attack or acute coronary syndrome) symptoms and the restoration of blood flow to the heart muscle. Improvements made possible by the proposed technology could mean the difference between life and death.

The work demonstrates a strong clinical and technological understanding with a focus on providing true medical value and addressing the economic realities of bringing innovation to market. This project represents a very comprehensive and high quality effort.

The artifacts from this course demonstrate the amazing results that can be achieved when a truly exceptional team is formed. We had a diverse and competent set of players, and as a team possessed strength in all the needed places. We discovered just how much time and effort it takes to manage a team of five, but we were certainly pleased with the end result. The product specification we produced not only demonstrated clinical understanding and innovative applications of emerging technology, the product we designed had real potential for enhancing patient outcomes in this lifesaving area.

Primary research for this project including interviews with Emergency Response personnel and discussions with engineers from a software development company that has developed technology used by EMT’s during the transport of patients to the Emergency Department.