Courses

Quarters

DHSI students should log on to: Confluence for course specific information.

CORE COURSES

Below is a list of the core didactic experiences, laid out in the sequence in which they are taken.

Please be advised that the information cited below *faculty/dates/times* is subject to change. Always check for correct information at the top of the page.

First quarter - ME 600.707 Introduction to Public Health and Biomedical Informatics
Thursdays, 9:00 - 12:00, Location: PCTB G18/19 (H. Lehmann & G. Kim)

Contrast differences in roles, needs, and solutions among major players in the national and commercial health IT and informatics communities. Explain why things do or don't happen in IT, at the national and institutional levels
Apply available sources of data, information, and knowledge to address healthcare and public health problems. Define informatics

First quarter - ME 600.703 Health Sciences Informatics Evaluation
Mondays, 9:30 - 12:30, Welch Library, Mezzanine (Roderer)

Review of health information systems through case studies in the design and evaluation processes. The course presents a framework for design of systems based on user needs, functions performed, related information activities, available technology, etc. Skills taught include the use of measures and methods for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of information systems, including cost, performance, effectiveness and benefit/outcome determination.

Second quarter - ME 600.708 Standards in Health Information Systems
Mondays & Wednesdays, 12:30 - 2:00, Location: Welch Library, (Mezzanine & B05 Rooms) (Orlova)

The purpose of this course is to learn the data, information, and knowledge standards critical to the successful implementation of local, regional, and national health-related information systems. Target competencies are to identify the appropriate level of HITSP standards for an informatics problem, and select the appropriate standard within that level; create use cases and an organizational process to define an interoperability standard for a specific healthcare/regional situation; participate in a national standards-creation process.

Second quarter - ME 600.700 Health Sciences Informatics Systems
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:00 - 10:30, Location: Pathology 144 (Miller)

A review of health information systems, such as patient record, patient monitoring, imaging, public health, educational, bioinformatics and scholarly systems. This offering teaches the core architectures and technologies of these core systems, focusing on commonalities and differences and design.

Second quarter -221.637.81 Health Information Systems
Internet (Weiss/Baqui) (OR Global eHealth, offered in Quarter 3, details TBA)

Recommend population-based and provider-based methods by which data are secured and analyzed to provide indicators of health service use, health risk behavior, and outcomes relative to health status.

Third quarter - ME 600.705 Health Sciences Informatics Security, Confidentiality, and Privacy
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:00 - 10:30, Location: Pathology 144 (Miller)

This course was developed in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute.Security of health information is a central component of any information system in the health sciences. This course addresses the security technologies, the confidentiality policies, and the privacy responsibilities in providing clinical care (e.g., HIPAA issues) and pursuing research (e.g., human subjects research).


Fourth quarter - ME 600.702 Health Sciences Informatics Knowledge Engineering and Decision Support
Thursdays, 9:00 - 12:00, Location: PCTB G18/19 (H. Lehmann)

This course provides a framework for understanding decision support in the workflow of the health sciences. The focus is on the types of support needed by different decision makers, and the features associated with those types of support. A variety of decision support algorithms is discussed, examining advantages and disadvantages of each, with a strong emphasis on decision analysis as the basic science of decision making. Students are expected to demonstrate facility with one algorithm in particular through the creation of a working prototype, and to articulate the evidence for efficacy and effectiveness of various types of decision support in health sciences and practice, in general.

Summer - HPM 309.86 (Required for NLM Fellows)
Nationwide and Global Health Information Exchanges
MTWHF, 9 - 4 for 1 week (Orlova)

ALL quarters - ME 600.704 Health Sciences Informatics Fellows' Seminar
Fridays, 10:00 - 12:00, ROOM 1-500Q in 2024 Bldg (H. Lehmann)

Grant writing; software engineering ethics; informatics journal club; research proposal defense.

First year students are required to present at Bookclub twice. In Dec/Jan you will present your literature review and in April/May your research design. Dr. Lehmann will work with each of you to schedule. You will need to submit copies of your presentation to the Program Coordinator and mark it on your progress template.

ALL quarters - ME 600.803 DHSI Grand Rounds
Fridays, 12:15 - 1:30, Sheldon Hall, Bloomberg School of Public Health (H. Lehmann)

Presentations by local and guest faculty on ongoing and completed research projects in informatics.

ALL quarters - ME 600.804 Health Sciences Informatics Mentored Research

A two-year process for students in the research program, culminating in manuscript submission for publication in an informatics journal. Choice of research topic is due at the end of first Quarter; background reading is due at the end of second Quarter; research plan is due for defense at the end of fourth Quarter. Work continues through the summer and next three Quarters; initial report is due with submission to the annual meeting of the American Medical Informatics Association in third Quarter; final manuscript is due at end of fourth Quarter of second year.

First year students register for 3 credits per Quarter. Second year students register for 6 credits per Quarter.

ALL quarters - ME 600.805 Health Sciences Informatics Information Technology Practicum
Harold Lehmann, MD PhD course director (hours to be arranged)

DHSI students must take 2 QUARTERS of PRACTICA DURING THE TWO-YEAR PROGRAM

Students seek experiences in ongoing information technology sites at Hopkins and at other locations for at least one day a week. The practicum preceptor is responsible for ensuring that a meaningful work group is chosen, and negotiates with the student the appropriate practicum report. The work group leader supervises the student on a day-to-day basis. Students attend requisite meetings and perform requisite activities as needed.


ME 600.8xx Applied informatics capstone
Instructor: Various
Meets: As scheduled by student and preceptor

The Applied Informatics Capstone is an opportunity for students to work on health sciences practice projects that are of particular interest to them that demonstrates their ability to synthesize, integrate and apply the skills and competencies they have acquired to an informatics that approximates a professional practice experience. Capstone projects entail an internship/participation experience of about 4 months, with a terminal paper and oral presentation in August.

Domain Informatics

Third Quarter - ME 600.709 Clinical Informatics
Tuesdays, 12:00 - 3:00, Location: CMSC 101 & Maumenee 501 (C. Lehmann/G. Kim)

Focusing on the information-system life cycle, this course provides students with essential knowledge and skills to plan the specification, development, deployment, and evaluation of clinical systems in a wide variety of contexts, taking account the special needs and characteristics of clinical environments. Sample information systems include Bar Coding, Clinical Decision Support, Computerized Provider Order Entry, Consumer Health, Continuity of Care Record, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Prescribing, Health Information Exchange, Master Patient Index, Mobile, Personal Health Records, Telehealth.

Third Quarter - PH221.842 E-HEALTH AND INFORMATICS IN LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES
Thursdays, 3:30 - 5:30, Location: TBD (Bunker/Dambita/Weiss)

Explores applications of information technologies (IT) in low and middle-income countries.  Examines approaches for developing IT resources to support both public health and clinical care.  Focuses on practical approaches to assess the appropriate application of technology to improve health of populations and individuals.  Identifies important issues for consideration when developing and deploying electronic systems within an international health context. Through review and analysis of case studies and discussions with practitioners, students gain experience in assessing and articulating requirements for a variety of types of electronic systems, from mobile (i.e., handheld) “point-of-care” systems to support clinical care to national surveillance systems.  Covers current topics and issues, including discussions about the challenges of creating and developing systems within a low-bandwidth environment; challenges of long-term sustainability and staffing within often western donor-driven funding mechanisms; interoperability (i.e., the ability of different systems to work together); potential for open source collaboration, thus allowing public health agencies to leverage low or no cost solutions; and potential for building on an electronic “blank slate”; potential for supporting wider health system reform and broader quality improvement through the introduction of appropriate systems.

Third Quarter - 309.640.01 Informatics in Public Health
Thursdays, 9:00 - 12:00, Location: TBD (H. Lehmann)

Public health informatics deals with the rapidly developing scientific field that integrates the practice of medicine and public health with information technology. This course provides public health professionals with core skills in information searching, database design, software systems development, information privacy and security, and principles of informatics. These topics were specified by SPH alumni, who reported spending 30% of their work lives in informatics tasks, but with little formal training to do so.

Third & Fourth Quarter - 600.711 Health Informatics for Disease Prevention and Management
Tuesdays, 3:00 - 5:00 pm, 2024 East Monument Street, Room 2-603 (Finkelstein)

Focusing on health information technologies in ambulatory care, this course provides students with overview and theoretical underpinnings of health information systems supporting patient-centered primary care, health promotion, computer-guided disease management and prevention, telemonitoring and eHealth. Sample health information systems include ambulatory Electronic Medical Records, Disease Registries, Patient Portals, Provider Portals, secure patient-provider communication systems, home telemonitoring, telemedicine applications, interactive health education and counseling, computerized tools for shared decison making, team-based care management tools, decision support for quality assurance and clinical guidelines implementation, system interoperability

Fourth Quarter - ME 600.710 Real Time Disease Surveillance
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 4:00 - 5:30 pm Location: 2024 Bldg, Rm 1-500Q (Lombardo)

While surveillance has always been an essential service of public health, the past decade has established the need and the technology for automated surveillance. Such surveillance provides public health decision makers with requisite data on the order of hours or days, enabling them to respond during a significant public health event.
In this course, we will review the needs and the technologies and provide students with the basic knowledge and skills they need to be critical consumers of these technologies and to enable to follow the emerging research literature over the future.

Fourth Quarter - XXX Population Health Informatics
Day, Time, Location: TBD (Finkelstein/Weiner)

To provide students the essential knowledge and skills to understands the unique issues of patient-centered health information technologies (HIT) in community and ambulatory settings; To provide an overview of theoretical underpinnings of population-based and primary care oriented patient-centered HIT, and to review the phases of development, implementation, and  evaluation of these technologies; To prepare students to: develop specifications for a successful implementation of population health / primary care HIT implementation; To prepare students to undertake evaluation and research in this domain.  

Fourth Quarter - 410.765.11 Populomics: A New Paradigm In Population Health
Day, Time, Location: TBD (Gibbons)

Informatics/technology can impact population health in 2 fundamental ways/area. First it will enable systems integrative and multilevel/transdisciplinary approaches to understanding disease pathogenesis primarily at the population level. (pathogenesis) Secondly it will enable advances in clinical treatments and public health interventions. (therapeutics) This course is about introducing this cells-to-society integrative research perspective as the starting point for developing informed and evidence based interventions/treatments for population level problems, such as dispartities.

Second Semester - NR 210.805 Translating Evidence into Practice
Day, Time, Location: TBD (Abbott)

This course follows Nursing Inquiry for Evidence-Based Practice, and focuses on the integration and application of knowledge into practice. The translation of evidence into practice, including the theoretical and practical challenges, are analyzed through the use of case studies. Specifically, theories of change, theories of caring, human needs and value systems, financial, ethical and social implications are considered in the translation of evidence into practice. Translation techniques, including informatics, will be discussed. Evaluation strategies, methods and analysis will be applied to assess proposed improvements in practice and care outcomes.

 

Elective/Enabling Courses: 7 Quarters  

Selectives: (Unless placed out)

1 Quarter of: 600.315 (E) Database Systems
770.515 (S) Database Management Systems: Structure and Design
605.472 (A) Computer Network Architectures and Protocols
1 Quarter of: 312.615 (P) Organizational Behaviorand Management
761.731 (S) Management and Organizational Behavior
1 Quarter of: 771.713 (S) Business Processes and Change Management
770.618 (S) Project Management for Information Systems
600.201 (E) IT Project Management
595.460 (W) Introduction to Project Management
2 Quarters of 140.621-4 (P) Statistical Methods in Public Health I-IV
140.651-4 (P) Methods in Biostatistics I-IV
140.632 (P) Introduction to the SAS Statistical Packages
140.646 (P) Essentials of Probabiity and Statistical Inference I: Probability
340.601 (P) Principles Of Epidemiology
340.645 (P) Introduction to Clinical Trials
340.620 (P) Principles Of Clinical Epidemiology
340.635.11 (P) Clinical Trials: Issues and Controversies
410.690 (P) Ethnographic Fieldwork
551.604 (P) Quantitative Tools for Managers

(M) = Medicine
(P) = JHBSPH
(S) = Carey School of Business (formerly SPSBE)
(E) = Whiting School of Engineering
(A) = APL

Electives: Remaining courses may be taken from the following or from comparable courses
(with Director's approval)

Informatics 140.662-3 (P) Spatial Analysis and GIS I-II
380.733 (P) Communication Network Analysis in Public Health Programs
730.713 (S) Data Mining and Disc Informatics
580.802 (E) Machine Learning
600.812 (E) Medical Imaging
260.602 (P) Introduction to Bioinformatics
260.655 (P) Protein Bio-Informatics
410.661 (P) Proteomics
600.145 (E) Introduction to Computer-Integrated Surgery
223.672.01 (P) Data Mgmt Methods In Health Research Studies (Holt)
600.706 (M) HSI Project
Computer science 770.514 (S) Systems Analysis and Design
600.321 (E) Object-Oriented Systems
773.719 (S) Information Security Foundations
774.716 (S) Security Architecture
776.716 (S) Knowledge Management Systems
635.431 (A) Information Systems, Architecture & Methodologies
Communication 410.651 Communication Strategies for Health Education and Health Promotion
410.650 or 410.650.13 Persuasive Communication: Theories and Practice
Business 312.623-4 (P) Financial Management In Health Care I-II
605.791 (E) Tech Business
312.617 (P) Fundamentals of Financial Accounting
312.790.51 (P) Managing Organizational Conflict In A Healthcare Setting
551.603 Fundamentals of Budgeting and Financial Management
770.600.71 (S) IT Budget and Financial Management
770.618 (S) Project Management for Information Systems - BE
600.201 (E) IT Project Management
Evaluation 309.615.01 (P) Introduction To Methods For Health Services Research And Evaluation
305.613.01 (P) Design And Evaluation Of Community Health And Safety Interventions
309.616.81 (P) Introduction To Methods For Health Services Research And Evaluation I, II
313.630.01 (P) Concepts In Economic Evaluation
221.638.01 (P) Health Systems Research And Evaluation In Developing Countries
380.611.01 (P) Fundamentals Of Program Evaluation
380.714.11 (P) Fundamentals Of Program Evaluation
380.612.01 (P) Applications In Program Monitoring And Evaluation
Domain 180.609 (P) Principles of Environmental Health I
188.686 (P) Clinical Environmental and Occupational Toxicology
220.601 (P) Introduction to International Health
300.600 (P) Intro to Health Policy
300.651 (P) Introduction to the US healthcare systems
305.623 (P) Fundamentals of Clinical Preventive Medicine
140.668 (P) Special Topics In Genetics And Genomics
410.620 (P) Fundamentals of Health Education & Health Promotion
410.650 (P) Introduction To Persuasive Communications: Theories And Practice
410.653 (P) Contemporary Issues in Health Communications
410.755.81 Health Communication Programs
550.63 (P) Public Health Biology
550.862 (P) Current Issues in Public Health
551.601 (P) Managing Health Services Organizations
300.651 (P) Introduction to the US healthcare system

(M) = Medicine
(P) = JHBSPH
(S) = Carey School of Business (formerly SPSBE)
(E) = Whiting School of Engineering
(A) = APL

Course Directories

APL: http://www.apl.jhu.edu/Classes/Classes.html
WSE/CS: http://www.cs.jhu.edu/courses/
BSPH: http://commprojects.jhsph.edu/courses/
BSPH: http://ocw.jhsph.edu/ (open courseware)
Carey: http://carey.jhu.edu/itsprograms/
The Carey Business School Graduate Certificate in Information and Telecommunications Systems Certificate course is available, with approval of the Program Director:
http://carey.jhu.edu/itsprograms/
Integrated Student Information System (ISIS) https://isis.jhu.edu/sswf/