Research Topic– Medical Informatics
The purpose of this project is to make you aware of some of the ways in which computers are affecting healthcare.
Medical Informatics is the study of how information is collected, managed, and used in the field of medicine. For our
purposes, we will break into five groups that will investigate different aspects of the field:
 Bio-informatics, the use of information technology in the study of molecular and cellular functions.
 Imaging informatics, the use of information technology in the storage, retrieval, and analysis of medical images.
 Public health informatics, the use of information technology in monitoring and delivering healthcare to
populations. This includes systems for monitoring health and disease, detecting epidemics and environmental
health issues, and emergency medical response to disasters and terrorist attacks.
 Clinical informatics, the use of information technology in delivering health care to patients. This includes
electronic medical records, telemedicine, and expert systems that help health care providers determine accurate
diagnoses and effective treatments.
 Risks. A group will look for examples of situations where the use of technology in health care has gone wrong
I have assembled a lot of good sources at http://www.extremities.com/pct/index.php?nxt=informatics
Part I, 5 points, group grade: By the end of class on Thursday, April 11th, each group must share their draft Google
Docs presentation with me. Each slide must include the name of the person who created it. I will respond with
feedback as quickly as I can. Please take this feedback seriously – I will be dismayed if it is ignored.
Part II, 15 points, group grade: Each group will jointly deliver a presentation to the class on their subject area.
Requirements for the presentations:
 First page must include list of all group members
 Each presentation must include an introduction that gives an overview of your group's informatics discipline.
Not a list of the topics you will cover, but a high-level picture of the subject area – why is it important?
 There are certain topics that must be included in the presentation:
Group:
BioInformatics
Public Health
Informatics
Imaging Informatics
Clinical Informatics
Risks
Specific topics that must be included:
 The human genome mapping project – what it is and how it's done, what it can make possible,
ethical issues of human genome project
 Personalized medicine (ex: Iressa and Tarceva)
 Rational drug design
 Comparative genomics
 Protein Folding@home and FoldIt
 GIS (Geographical Information Systems) applications in public health, including John Snow's
1854 cholera map
 Surveillance (such BioSense, NEDSS – also Google flu monitoring)
 Modeling (such as MIDAS) – what it is, how it's used
 Use of cell phones for public health, especially in developing countries
 Teleradiology and "nighthawking" (brief)
 PACS and DICOM (brief)
 CAD (Computer Aided Diagnosis)
 The Human Connectome and Brain Mapping projects
 Virtual Autopsy
 Microsoft Inner Eye
 Electronic medical records: advantages
 Electronic medical records: costs and potential pitfalls
 Electronic medical records: privacy and security concerns
 Use of EMRs for data mining
 Medical expert systems (ex: dXplain, SimulConsult, Watson MD)
 Telemedicine (other than teleradiology) and telesurgery
 Operator errors, and usability and design problems
 Bugs (programming mistakes)
 Security and malware
 Failures of critical systems
 Privacy issues
 Therac-25 incident
Principles of Computer Technology –2/15/2016
106743929 page 1 of 2




Each presentation must include a summary at the end, reviewing the most important concepts from the
presentation.
After the final summary, the group will give the class a quiz (oral, not written), to assure that the class has
grasped the major points in the subject area. Quiz questions are expected to be substantial, not trivial. Quiz
questions may be used by me as test material for a written test. I expect one or two questions for each subtopic.
All students in a group are expected to be familiar with all material in the group's presentation, not just the
slides that they prepared.
Each person in the group is expected to present at least 3 minutes worth of material, not counting the
introduction, summary, and quiz.
Part III, Overview: (15 points, individual grade.)
1) You must turn in a written overview (minumum two and a half full double-spaced pages, but may need to be
longer) of your group's entire subject area, including an overview of all the required presentation topics in that
area. I expect sentences composed into paragraphs, not an outline or bullet list. All words must be your own, but
you do not need to cite the sources for your info.
Part IV, Reflection: (15 points, individual grade.)
After all the presentations have been given, you must turn in a reflection (at least four double-spaced pages) including:
1) A substantial section on each of the other group presentations, summarizing that group's topic, and including an
explanation of each of the specific topics assigned above. Use a bullet list -- each of the specific topics should
have it's own bullet. Use full sentences. Point out something that was new (and hopefully interesting) to you
from each group. If you are absent on the day of a presentation, you will have to review the group's powerpoint
on your own time. The format should be something like this:
Clinical Informatics deals with. . . . overview of what clinical informatics in general is about. . .
o EMR advantages: Electronic medical records have several potential advantages, including. . . sentence or two
on advantages of EMRs
Again, all words must be your own. Do NOT copy text from the original group's presentation. I am looking for
you to demonstrate your understanding, not your ability to cut and paste.
2) A substantial paragraph on the dynamics of your group – how well did you work together? Did you encounter any
obstacles? Were you able to overcome them? Were you happy with the results? Given the same teammates and
subject, what would you do differently next time?
Bio-Informatics
Public Health Informatics
Imaging Informatics
Clinical Informatics
Risks
First Period
Usha, Andrew D., Lexi, Caitlin
Jake, Kristen, Milan
Nolan, Andrew M., Achint
Matthew, Taylor, Jagpal, Josh
Cheryl, Ahmed, Allison
Second Period
Savanna, Advaith, Nicolette, Rohan
Annie, Justin, Meghan
Randy, Priyanka, Reilee, Grant
Aparna, Marcus, Stephanie, Sylvie
Nicole, Sade, Rae, Ethan
Schedule:
Work in class, in groups: April 10th, 11th
Part I due to Mr. J. by the end of class on Thursday, April 11th.
Part II due, begin presentations: beginning of class on Monday, April 15th. You'll have 30 minutes at the beginning of
Monday's class to get organized.
Part III due: Wednesday, April 17th.
Part IV due: Monday, April 22nd.
Principles of Computer Technology –2/15/2016
106743929 page 2 of 2