Health Informatics in the Cloud

This class is offered as CS6440 at Georgia Tech where it is a part of the Online Masters Degree (OMS). Taking this course here will not earn credit towards the OMS degree.This is a survey course designed to provide a broad, forward-facing overview of contemporary health informatics, a specialized field of computing that seeks to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. To understand health informatics (HIT) you also need to have at least a basic understanding of the complex and highly regulated US healthcare industry. The course is designed for students from diverse backgrounds and who have not been previously exposed to HIT. It is divided into three sections:The US healthcare delivery and the key role of the federal government in promoting HIT adoptionThe core technologies that drive all contemporary HIT systems and toolsThe real world applications of HIT from electronic medical and personal health records to exploiting digital data aggregated from them for research and other purposesWhy Take This Course?Healthcare is the largest industry in the US. Spurred by new federal programs and incentives, the adoption of health IT is growing very rapidly, leading to many new career and entrepreneurial opportunities. The increasing use of modern web, mobile and sensor technologies in health informatics is also growing rapidly and is leading to many new and innovative approaches. Students who are trained and well-qualified in this field are in great demand.