THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
INFORMATICS
INF 385N (Unique No. 25870)
Fall, 2005 Monday, 6-9pm; SZB 556
Instructor: Professor Glynn Harmon
Phone: 512-471-3972; Fax: 471-3971
Office: 562D Campus Mail code: D7000
Office hours: Immediately after class and
Wednesday, 1:30-2:30 pm or appointment.
Email: gharmon@ischool.utexas.edu
Teaching Assistant: Don Drumtra
Phone: 471-2718; Fax: 471-3971
Office: SZB 463
Office hour: Wednesday, 12:00-1:00 pm
Email: drumtra@aol.com
I.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Provides a seminar-oriented overview of informatics, including the study of
information resources and their utilization and impact within various disciplines
and professions. Concentrates on health informatics, which addresses information
phenomena and resource utilization within the basic health sciences and
healthcare, including practices, education, research, administration, and
enterprise. Covers the past, current and future development of health informatics,
including recurring themes, technological applications, key information resources
and organizations, and advancement of the field’s knowledge. Incorporates the
alternative/complementary and integrative health care movements, evidencebased approaches and bioinformatics.
II.
OBJECTIVES, REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
1. To acquire a working knowledge of information resources that support
health informatics practice, research and education. Requirement: A short
annotated pathfinder—a guide to key information resources of health
informatics (30% of course grade).
2. To understand specific, recurring themes in health informatics, current
technology applications, and probable future trends. Requirement:
Leadership of seminar-like discussion of two selected textbook chapters
and two updates of the two chapters (30% of grade).
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3. To understand health informatics as an academic field and a profession
and to prepare to contribute to the advancement of its knowledge.
Requirement: Final, open-book exam or submission of a preliminary draft
of a journal article, conference paper, or research proposal (30% of grade).
4. To participate constructively and actively in presentation discussions and
other seminar activities (10% of grade).
III.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK
1. Shortliffe, E. H. and Perreault, L. E., eds. (2001). Medical Informatics:
Computer Applications in Health Care (2d. ed). NY: Springer. ISBN: 0387-98472-0. Note the Bibliography and Glossary.
1V.
EXAMPLES OF SUPPLEMENTARY SOURCES (not required)
1. Coierra, E. (1997) Guide to Medical Informatics, the Internet and
Telemedicine. NY: Oxford University Press.
2. Friedland, D. J. and others (1998). Evidence-Based Medicine: A
Framework for Clinical Practice. Stamford, CT: Appleton & Lang.
3. Blois, M. S. (1984). Information and Medicine: The Nature of Medical
Descriptions. Berkeley: University of California Press.
4. Weed, L. L. (1991). Knowledge Coupling:New Premises and New Tools
for Medical Care and Education. NY: Springer-Verlag.
5. Cutler, P. (1995). Problem Solving in Clinical Medicine: From Data to
Diagnosis. 2d. ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
6. Davis, J. B. (ed.), (2003). Health and Medicine on the Internet: A
Comprehensive Guide to Medical Information on the World Wide Web
(4th ed.). LA: Practice Management Information Corporation.
7. Goldstein, D. E. (2000). E-Healthcare: Harness the Power of Internet
e-Commerce and e-Care. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publications.
8. Trivieri, L. and Anderson, J. W. (eds.). (2002). Alternative Medicine: A
Definitive Guide (2d. ed.). Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts.
9. Bergeron, B. (2003). Bioinformatics Computing. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
10. Pizzorno, J., Murray, M. T. and Joiner-Bey, H. (2002). The Clinician’s
Handbook of Natural Medicine. St. Louis: Churchill Livingston.
11. Walford, A. J. (1983). Maximum Life Span. NY: W. W. Norton & Co.
12. Cowden, W. L., et. Al. (2001). Longevity. Triburon, CA:
AlternativeMedicine.com.
13. Spencer, J. W. and Jacobs, J. J. (2003). Complementary and Alternative
Medicine: An Evidence-based Approach. St. Louis: Mosby.
14. Kohatsu, W. (2002). Complementary and Alternative Medicine Secrets.
Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus, Inc.
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15. Horrigan, B. J. (2003). Voices of Integrative Medicine: Conversations and
Encounters. St. Louis: Churchill Livingston.
16. Thede, L. Q. (2003). Informatics and Nursing. 2d. ed. Philadelphia:
Lippencott.
17. Egger, M., Smith, G. D. and Altman, D. G. (2001). Systematic Reviews
In Health Care: Meta-analysis in Context. London: BMJ Publishing.
18. Beinfield, H. and Korngold, E. (1991). Between Heaven and Earth: A
Guide to Chinese Medicine. NY: Ballantine Publishing Group.
19. Kaptchuk, T. J. (2000). The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding
Chinese Medicine. Chicago: Contemporary Books.
20. Riegelman, R. K. and Hirsch, R. P. (1996). Studying a Study and Testing
a Test: How to Read the Health Science Literature. 3d. ed. Boston: Little
Brown and Co.
21. Detwiler, S. M. (2000). Supersearchers on Health and Medicine.
Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc.
V.
GUIDELINES FOR COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS
1. Short Annotated Pathfinder for Health Informatics Information Resources.
The purposes of the Pathfinder are to (1) help you and your colleagues to find
resources that are useful in advancing health informatics practice, education and
research, and (2) to further your own career advancement. You may develop your
annotated Pathfinder individually or with no more than one class partner (partners
receive the same grade). Pathfinders should be no shorter than 5 pages nor longer
than 10 pages (exclusive of any appendices) typed single-spaced. The annotations
need not be lengthy, since the function of the Pathfinder is to serve as a reminder of,
and directory to, key health informatics resources. The Pathfinder can be useful in
completing all other requirements for this seminar. One page of annotations is
recommended for each of the following five classes of information resources:
(1) Associations. Annotate brief descriptions of professional associations that focus
primarily or heavily on health informatics. Include their mission, programs, special
interest groups (SIGs), working groups, publications, job/career opportunities, and
links to other organizations. Note each association’s useful information resources
(including links) and other features that might be important to someone who has had
little exposure to health informatics. Note also the specific job listings of possible
interest to you, and potential career affiliation benefits. Key associations include the
American Medical Information Association (www.amia.org), the Medical Library
Association (www.mlanet.org), the American Nursing Informatics Association
(www.ania.org), the International Medical Informatics Association (www.imia.org),
and others. It is important to be familiar with these sites.
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(2) Federal research and services sponsors. Include a brief description of the
mission, programs, service units, research sponsorship, and information resources of
the National Institutes of Health (www.nih.gov). Note its Center for Information
Technology, Center for Scientific Review, National Center for Research Resources,
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and other Institutes
and Centers. Likewise, briefly describe the National Library of Medicine’s mission,
research programs, informatics training programs, bioinformatics programs,
information services, and other key features (www.nlm.nih.gov). Note also
www.cdc.gov and www.grants.gov.
(3) Evidence-based health care sites. Include a brief description of the highly useful
resources of an evidence-based resource like the available through UTLOL online
databases, such as EBMR. Note the home pages of www.cochrane.org and other
evidence-based organizations.
(4) An anthology of super-searcher’s online resources. Briefly describe the online
classes of health and medicine resources available from
www.infotoday.com/supersearchers (click on links to health and medicine). You
might wish to print this list for future reference.
(5) PubMed (MEDLINE) search interface. A user tutorial is available at
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ (under Enterez Pubmed click on Tutorial). You
should go through all eight modules, which should take 1-2 hours, and briefly
annotate some useful pathfinder tips for searching MEDLINE.
Pathfinders will be graded on the basis of their apparent helpfulness in guiding
research, professional practice and health education, and in completing other course
requirements (leading discussions, updating chapters, framing an article or research
proposal, doing the final exam, etc.).
Pathfinder grades count for up to 30% of the course grade (6% per section). Please
submit two copies to the instructor by the due date. Also, please limit your inclusion
of web printouts in your Pathfinder to just a dozen or so. Focus instead on providing
your own annotations.
2. Discussion Leadership on Recurrent Themes and on the Years Ahead
First, study your selected textbook chapter (from among chapters 1-3 or 6-8
on a recurrent theme, and develop a brief “reminder” summary to present in
the seminar. You may use interesting discussion questions at the start or end
of each chapter in the textbook. The brief summary should be presented
orally. Assume that others will have read the chapter ahead of time.
Second, go to www.amia.org to “Publications” and then to Journal of the
American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) archives. Or, you may
access JAMIA through UT Library Online (UTLOL).
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Skim the contents of the JAMIA issues from 2001 through the present and
select a minimum of five relevant articles (say one article to represent each
year since 2001) that can be used to update your assigned chapter.
Third, please write a one-page update (single spaced on one side of one
page) that very briefly updates the five or more articles you have selected to
update your chapter. Of course, you may summarize other sources that serve
to update your chapter, but for instructional purposes, we will concentrate on
using JAMIA to update chapters. On the assigned class date, present a brief
(say 5 minute) oral summary of the chapter or reading, present your update
and lead a seminar-like discussion. We will devote about 25 minutes to
reviewing and discussing each chapter. Assume that everyone has already
read the chapter when you summarize it, so that we can devote time to
probing the discussion questions and some related issues.
Before or at the start of the class session in which you lead the discussion,
submit your one-page chapter update to the instructor (who will make
copies for the class and distribute them).
Discussion leadership will be graded on the basis of apparent effectiveness in
presenting issues and stimulating productive discussion, while chapter updates
will be graded according to quality of the update (recognition of significant,
related JAMIA articles, key events and landmarks, problems and trends) and
evidence presented. Discussion leadership for each chapter counts for 5 % of
the course grade and the chapter update for 10% (total 15 %).
3.
Discussion Leadership on Medical Computing Applications.
The instructions in item # 2 above likewise apply to leading a discussion on
your selected chapter on technological applications (from among chapters 918), as do the grading criteria. Again, discussion leadership counts for 5% and
chapter update for 10% of the course grade (total 15%). Submit your one page
chapter update immediately before the session in which you lead the
discussion.
4. Final, open-book Exam (or preliminary draft of journal article,
conference paper or proto-research proposal.
The final exam will be derived from chapter discussion questions, class
discussions of issues, problems, and trends, and the useful features of
informatics information resources and technologies. It will be administered in
open-book style, and will consist of about four or five questions.
As an alternative to taking the final exam, you may submit a draft of either a
short journal article, or conference paper, or a research proto-proposal. In the
case of journal articles, drafts must be formatted to the targeted journal’s
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editorial form and style and submission guidelines. Likewise, a conference
paper draft must comply with the specific submission requirements of the
conference targeted. Research proposals should comply with the submission
requirements and guidelines of the targeted funding agency. Funding
agencies may be found via such databases as www.grants.gov or
http://fundingopps.cos.com or at the agency and association sites mentioned in
the Pathfinder Guidelines above.
Drafts of articles or grant proposals are due at the conclusion of the final exam
time (see Calendar). The exam counts for 30% of the course grade, as does
either the article or the research proposal draft.
VII.
COURSE CALENDAR
Monday
September 12
 Introduction to course
 Introductions and biographies
 Commence reading/skimming Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science
(2d. ed.) (ELIS 2) articles on “Health Informatics,” “Medical Informatics,” and
“National Library of Medicine.” Available electronically through UTLOL.
September 19
 Assignment of discussion leaders
 Discussion of web sites: AMIA, MLA, NIH, NLM
 Discussion of ELIS2 articles on NLM, Health Informatics and Medical
Informatics
 Discussion of pathfinder assignment
 Discussion of E-Health
September 26
 Evidence-based movement
 Online resources
 Discussion of Pathfinder assignment
 Review of MLA Self Education Resources
 Discussion of alternative/complementary and oriental medicine
October 3
 Discussion of Chapter 1: Computer meets Medicine
(Discussion Leader:_______________________)
 Discussion of Chapter 2: Medical Data (Discussion leader:_________________)
 Discussion of Pathfinder Assignment
 The alternative/complementary/integrative movements
 Discussion of ELIS 2article on “Information Productivity”
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October 10
 Discussion of Chapter 3: Medical Decision Making (Leader:________________)
 Omit Chapter 4 on Concepts of Computing (because of its obsolescence)
 General discussion of Chapter 5: System Engineering
 Discussion of ELIS 2 article on “Web of Science
October 17
 Discusssion of Chapter 6: Standards (Leader:___________________)
 Discussion of Chapter 7:Ethics and Health Informatics (Leader:______________)
 Discussion of Pathfinder and information resources
 Discussion of ELIS 2 article on “Drug Information Data Bases”
October 23, 2-5 pm (Tentative date/time) Visit to Academy of Oriental Medicine,
2700 West Anderson Lane (across from Northcross Mall)
October 24
 DUE: Pathfinder (submit two copies-give brief oral report)
 Discussion of Chapter 8: Evaluation/Assessment (Leader:_________________)
 Discussion of Chapter 9: Patient Record Systems (Leader:_________________)
 Discussion of alternative/complementary medicine
October 31
 Discussion of Pathfinders and final exam and alternatives
 General Discussion of Chapter 10:Integrated Delivery Networks
 Discussion of Chapter 11: Public Health/Consumer Uses (Leader:____________)
 Discussion of Chapter 12: Patient Care Systems (Leader:___________________)
 Discussion of Nursing Informatics (www.ania.org)
November 7
 Discussion of Chapter 13: Patient Monitoring Systems (Leader:______________)
 Discussion of Chapter 14: Imaging Systems (Leader:_____________________)
 Discussion of ELIS 2 article on “Radiology Informatics”
 Discussion of Supersearchers site sources
November 14
 General Discussion of Chapter 15: Information Retrieval Systems
 Discussion of artificial intelligence in medicine
 Discussion of Chapter 16: Clinical Decision Support (Leader:_______________)
 Discussion of research and publishing opportunities
 Evidence-based medicine
November 21
 General Discussion of Chapter 17: Computers in Medical Education
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Discussion of ELIS 2 article on “Bioinformatics”
Discussion of Chapter 18: Bioinformatics (Leader: _________________)
Review of World Future Society sources (www.wfs.org.org)
Discussion of research sponsors in health care and health informatics
November 28
 Discussion of Chapter 19: Health Care and IT (Leader:____________________)
 Discussion of Chapter 20: Future: (Leader:_____________________________)
 Discussion of integrative health care movement and careers in traditional
(Western) and alternative medicine
 Discussion of basic research in medicine and physiology
 Nobel laureate information seeking and discovery patterns
December 5 (last class)
 Issuance of final exam questions
 Discussion of articles and research proposals
 Survey
December 19, Monday: Official Final Exam time: 7:00-10:00 pm
 Final exam questions due; articles or research grant proposal due.
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