HIM 600 - Information Technology and Systems

Introduction to health informatics including broad coverage of technology concepts underlying modern computing and information management. Topics include computer networks, communications protocols, data architecture, Internet, basic computer security, database management, graphical user interfaces, client/server systems, and enterprise applications.

HIM 601 - Quality Management in Health Services: Information for Quality Care

Diverse perspectives in quality management and regulation including relevant research and management methodologies, performance improvement, methods and applications in the area of outcomes research including practice variation, risk adjustment, quality measures and quality management (or quality improvement), practice guidelines, evidence-based medicine, clinical decision support, health-related quality of life, utility assessment, economic evaluations (including cost-effectiveness studies).

HIM 602 - Legal Issues in Health Information Technology and Systems

Examination of legal issues related to electronic-based health information; the growth of computer and communication technologies, including privacy, security, electronic data interchange and compliance related issues; policy, regulatory and related concerns; interpretation and implementation of enterprise information policy

HIM 603 - Leadership for Health Information Technology and Systems

Strategic management and planning, change management, leadership in e-health environment, project management including planning, scheduling, monitoring and reporting, process modeling. This course builds on the undergraduate health information management or other professional preparation. . Discussion of implementation of electronic health record systems, systems analysis.

HIM 604 - Financial Management for Health Professionals

Financial statements, components of operational budgeting and capital budgeting and management of capital projects; variance analysis, internal controls, contracts; facility – vendor and/or supplier relationships, cost reporting, reimbursement methods, and return on investment.

HIM 605 - Healthcare Information Systems

A survey of fundamental concepts of information technology applied to health care from the perspectives of providers, payers, consumers. Major topics include the electronic health record, health information systems, repositories and data bases, enterprise-wide systems, laboratory, radiology (PACs) systems, voice recognition, physician order entry, telemedicine, decision support systems. Overview of historical, current, and emerging health information systems; concepts and knowledge involved in making strategic use of information technology (IT) in health care organizations and linkages to business, planning, and governance; Overview of multiple systems, vendors, processes and organizations; methodology for evaluation of health information systems

HIM 606 - Healthcare Vocabularies and Clinical Terminologies

Standard clinical terminologies including SNOMED, Clinical Terms Version 3 (Read Codes), UMLS, ICD-9-CM, ICD-10-CM, and ICD-10-PCS, CPT/HCPCS, medical linguistics, medical vocabulary standards, natural language processing and the role of healthcare vocabularies and clinical terminologies in the electronic health record.

HIM 607 - Statistics and Decision Making

Advanced statistical techniques building on existing knowledge of descriptive statistics and fundamental inferential statistics as applied in the field of health information; biostatistics, methods of health data collection, analysis, and interpretation, including descriptive statistics, probability, and hypothesis-testing and confidence interval estimation for normally distributed data; tools in using data to make informed management decisions; use of data from clinical information systems in performing clinical effectiveness research, including the strengths and limitations of these data.

HIM 608 - Knowledge Management

Application of decision analysis and knowledge-based systems and decision analysis techniques; Topics include data mining, data marts, data warehouses, clinical data repositories, OLAP and data modeling and obtaining information from clinical and administrative systems.

HIM 609 - Concepts of Research Methodology

Discussion of the elements of research, evaluation methodologies including the research process, study design, methods of data collection with emphasis on preparation and evaluation of data collection instruments, statistical analysis of data including use of statistical packages, literature searches, and scientific writing.

HIM 610 - Issues in Health Information Technology Seminar

An exploration of current issues related to health information technology including healthcare policy analysis and development, ethical issues, structure of healthcare delivery systems, assessment of population health, models of health care delivery, access and quality of care issues.

HIM 611 - Thesis

Original research in the area of health information management, information systems and/or health informatics.

HIM 612 - Non-thesis research project

Rigorous project focused on a real-world informatics setting and application of problem-solving methods for development of solutions. Oral and written reports required, including oral presentation and defense of project.