QBS 192 Health Informatics

Our health is everywhere. It is affected by how, where, and who we live, work & play with (i.e. biological, behavioral, social, and environmental factors). The explosion of digitization of data captured both outside `in the wild' and within the healthcare delivery system, allows us to understand and address the many factors affecting the complexity of our health. Today, health & healthcare data is continuously being generated by healthcare delivery systems, organizations, or users and can be accessed through devices, databases, or the web (e.g., APIs). Deriving information and knowledge to improve and maintain health requires health informatics. Data science plays an active role as a profession and within its research efforts in informing and developing all aspects of health informatics: data capture, data storage, and data analytics. Students will gain experience with Python. Prior experience with Python is not necessary, but students should have some prior programming and statistics experience. The goal of this course is two-fold: first, to learn about the latest topics in health informatics and second, to design and develop a health informatics project. Special topics in health informatics will be introduced through lectures and primary literature. These topics will be organized into 4 themes:

1.) Applications Theme:exploring several key current applications of health informatics

2.) Data Capture Theme: learning about data capture technologies and standards

3.) Data Storage Theme: presenting data formats, databases, and issues of security & privacy

4.) Data Analytics Theme: a brief introduction to the data analytics cycle and special topics of visualization and analytics methodologies.

Instructor

Dr. Inas Kayal

Prerequisite

Prior programming and statistical experience preferable