Master of Science in Medical Informatics

Transcription

1 Master of Science in Medical Informatics An online program OFFERED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FEINBERG SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Northwestern University s Master of Science in Medical Informatics program provides both information technology professionals and clinically trained health professionals the knowledge and experience needed to apply their talents to careers in information services organizations. Typical career options include work in hospital or health system IT departments, academic departments, consulting, and the broad array of IT vendors and consultants. This interdisciplinary professional program brings together individuals with computing and clinical skills to achieve advanced understanding in the field of medical informatics. The curriculum recognizes the complexities and academic demands of the field and emphasizes the specific technical requirements of the profession without training its students too narrowly. Graduates are able to understand and affect developments in the medical informatics field from technical, theoretical and managerial perspectives. The MMI program also provides the leadership knowledge and skills essential to the field of medical informatics. The program is offered in a convenient online format that focuses on the study and application of principles of information management, design, integration, implementation and evaluation to enterprise-wide health care information systems. As information technology is brought into the clinical environment, this program enables graduates to create and analyze the effects of these changes. Whether your background is in computing or information technology, health care or the life sciences, this program builds upon your expertise and prepares you for the challenges of the medical informatics field. (continued) Northwestern s MMI program does an excellent job of combining the clinical and IT components of medical informatics. After practicing medicine for 25 years as an ENT, I'm using the program to launch my second career as a chief medical information officer or consultant to a medical informatics software vendor. James McGhee, MD, student 1

2 Northwestern University provides superior instruction, rigor and student support. Northwestern Memorial Hospital has been awarded most wired status by Health Care s Most Wired magazine. The MMI program offers students access to established leaders in health care informatics. These leaders include academic professors and physicians in private practice who are successful early adopters and developers of ambulatory medical records. Graduates of the MMI program will have the skills to fill positions in health care information technology across the entire spectrum of health care delivery: independent physicians practices that need consultants to implement and maintain their electronic health records as well as hospitals or health systems beginning the implementation of online orders. Graduates also have the skills to enter the growing field of health information exchange and patient-centered models leveraging personal health record systems. Students in the Northwestern University s Feinberg School of Medicine can take advantage of the program s flexible course schedule to earn both MD and MMI degrees while completing their studies in medicine. At the conclusion of the Medical Informatics program, students will be able to: Create a vision for electronic health records demonstrating how principles of effective implementation and use positively influence the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery and healthcare research. Assess the informatics needs and system constraints within health care organizations from clinical, operational, and financial perspectives. Demonstrate leadership skills to prioritize, strategize, manage, and advocate for informatics solutions tailored to organizational needs. Integrate federal and state requirements for security and privacy into compliant system implementation and management. Apply informatics tools to public health and population questions. Synthesize at leadership and managerial levels the privacy, security, legal, ethical, and social challenges inherent to the informatics industry. Mediate among IT, clinical, research, and administrative stakeholders in a health care setting. The Medical Informatics program gave me a comprehensive understanding of the intersection of health information technology, medicine, law and the business needs of an efficient healthcare system. The courses provided me with a strong informatics background that have proven to be instrumental in my success of implementing EHRs for hundreds of healthcare providers while having an expert understanding of the needs of both clinicians and patients. Imran Khan, 2010 graduate, electronic medical record (EMR) system administrator and implementation expert, Advocate Health Care 2

3 CURRICULUM Most students starting the MMI program have either a technical or a clinical background. In order to bring all students to a level where they can succeed in the core program, many are placed into one of two tracks upon admission: The technologist track is for students with a technical background and consists of two courses that introduce them to the American health care system and the clinical landscape The clinician track is for students with clinical backgrounds and consists of two courses designed to familiarize them with basic concepts in computer databases and networking Students with little background in either area who have attained leadership positions may be admitted and will be asked to take all four of the above courses. The technical and clinical paths then merge in the program s common core of seven courses and a leadership course. The program concludes with a capstone project, which combines research with hands-on experience and provides an opportunity for students to take investigate the resources of Northwestern University and the Feinberg School of Medicine. A minimum of 11 units of credit are required for the MMI degree, with each course counting as one unit of credit. The curriculum applies to the MMI online and MD/MMI degrees. (Students may be required to complete up to 13 courses in order to gain the necessary background in the field.) Track Courses (number determined upon admission) Clinician CIS 313-DL Telecommunications and Computer Networks CIS 317-DL Introduction to Databases Technologist MED INF 401-DL American Health Care System MED INF 402-DL Introduction to Clinical Thinking Core Courses (7 courses) MED INF 403-DL Introduction to Medical Informatics MED INF 404-DL Health Care Enterprise Operations MED INF 405-DL Health Care Information Technology Integration, Interoperability and Standards MED INF 406-DL Decision Support Systems and Health Care MED INF 407-DL Legal, Ethical and Social Issues MED INF 408-DL Medical Technology Acquisition and Assessment MED INF 409-DL Introduction to Biostatistics Leadership Course (1 course) SCS strives to equip its students with fundamental skills in effective leadership, communication, innovation and change management. In order to gain exposure to theories and best practices in these administrative areas, MMI students are required to take a 10-week leadership course. With these skills complementing the core curriculum, graduates are better prepared to face the challenges of the modern workplace. Capstone Project (1 course) MMI students may pursue their capstone experience independently or as part of a team. As their final course, students choose either an individual research project in an independent study format or a classroom capstone course in which students integrate the knowledge they have gained in the core curriculum in a project presented by the instructor. In both cases students are guided by MMI faculty in exploring the body of knowledge on medical informatics while contributing research of practical value to the field. The independent project and course project count as one unit of credit. 3

4 FACULTY PROFILE David Liebovitz, MD Before medical school David Liebovitz majored in electrical engineering. He s made good use of that hybrid background as chief medical informatics officer for the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, medical director for clinical information systems at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and director of the MMI program at SCS. He also sees patients in his clinical practice in internal medicine, supervises residents and conducts research on the use of electronic information systems. How can medical informatics revolutionize patient care? Let s say a physician sees a new patient who s already received five or six diagnoses and is on nine different medications. It s beyond the ability of any physician to manage that much information during a 20-minute visit. Medical informatics facilitates and guides medical decision making, increasing the probability of safe and effective care. Tens of thousands of people die from medical errors every year; those are largely system errors that could be significantly reduced with proper management of medical information. Are there other advantages? Medical informatics improves communication and acts as a bridge between patients and physicians. In my own practice, patients have online access to some of their records, including lab results with my comments. Information can empower patients and encourage them to participate in their care. Medical informatics also saves money potentially billions of dollars annually. How does the MMI program work? MMI students follow one of two tracks, depending on whether their backgrounds are in health care or in computing and information technology. The program helps students leverage their backgrounds to understand both sides of the equation. There s an enormous need for a skilled work force in medical informatics. The time and effort spent in the MMI program should pay off in expanded opportunities for Northwestern graduates. 4

5 ADMISSION Applicants must hold a bachelor s degree from an accredited U.S. college or university or its foreign equivalent. A competitive undergraduate record that indicates strong academic ability is required. Work or research experience in clinical, computing, or information technology fields is highly desirable but not a requirement for admission. Applicants to the joint MMI/MD program must already be admitted to the Feinberg School of Medicine. Application Deadlines Applications are accepted every quarter. QUARTER DEADLINE Fall July 15 Winter October 15 Spring January 15 Summer April 15 Application Checklist Application deadlines Online application begin the process by clicking the online application link at at $75 nonrefundable application fee Official transcripts from ALL previously attended colleges and universities should be sent to our admissions office directly from the issuing institution. Applicants with international transcripts are required to submit an official course-by-course evaluation prepared by a NACES member and issued directly to our admissions office by the evaluator Two letters of recommendation focusing on academic and professional achievement and ability Statement of purpose (see below) Current resume or curriculum vitae (include details of clinical or IT experience) Statement of Purpose Applicants must submit a 300-word statement of purpose explaining how the degree program will help them meet their academic and professional goals. Those without previous education or training in medical informatics or a related field should explain how other academic and nonacademic experiences have equipped them to undertake graduate study in the program. English Proficiency All applicants to SCS programs whose first language is not English, at minimum must demonstrate language proficiency through the TOEFL or IELTS exam, or through official transcripts verifying an undergraduate or graduate degree from an accredited institution where the language of instruction is English. Please contact the admissions office for more information. For More Admissions Information Please see for additional information on the medical informatics online degree program. Duration The MMI program is designed to be completed in two to three years of uninterrupted part-time study, although students have five years to finish the program. Tuition and Fees Tuition for the academic year is $3,583 per course plus a technology fee of $115 per course. 5

6 LEARNING ONLINE Many students question if there is a difference between a Master of Science in Medical Informatics (MMI) earned online versus earning a degree by attending on-campus classes. At Northwestern, students benefit from a rigorous and prestigious program with no distinction made between degrees earned through online or on-campus courses. Students enrolled in the online format benefit from the flexible and convenient course structure. MMI online courses are delivered in a combination of asynchronous and synchronous learning activities. The asynchronous sessions provide flexibility for busy professionals and enables students to participate in the program regardless of schedule and personal obligations. The optional synchronous sessions allow for live interaction with faculty and fellow students but do not have an impact on student grades. Similar to the on-campus programs, online courses require students to utilize textbooks that are part of the instruction for each course. In addition to textbooks, students have access to various e-learning tools such as a virtual classroom environment that includes discussion boards and chats. Course Delivery Methods The Northwestern University online experience is specifically designed for working professionals who seek to immediately impact their current and future work settings. Utilizing the latest and most effective e-learning educational technology, Northwestern enables busy working professionals to pursue a master s degree in medical informatics. Students in the online MMI program form an active learning community that leverages advanced e-learning tools to engage in asynchronous and synchronous activities. Asynchronous sessions offer the flexibility of learning activities that can be completed independently. Other synchronous sessions enable you to interact with faculty and fellow students in live lectures, discussions and presentations. By logging into the course management system, Blackboard, and dialing-in via Voice over IP (VoIP), you can listen to the instructor's lecture, ask questions and participate in meaningful discussion and debate. 6

7 FACULTY Northwestern University MMI faculty members play an integral role in setting national health care informatics standards and bring this expertise to the virtual classroom. As doctors, clinicians, administrators, educators, researchers and information technology professionals, the MMI faculty is comprised of the nation s top leaders in developing and deploying health information technology. This unique interdisciplinary program between Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies and Feinberg School of Medicine enables students to quickly discover that innovative teaching and pioneering research unite in a highly collaborative environment that transcends traditional academic boundaries. Faisal Akkawi Faisal Akkawi, director of SCS s MSIS program, was on the faculty of Illinois Institute of Technology from 1998 to He has an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in computer science from IIT. His area of specialization is software architecture for concurrent systems, and his research interests also include reactive/adaptive intelligent systems and design issues of concurrent programming languages. Akkawi was selected for the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program in 2003 and reported to the Johnson Space Center that May to work in the Avionic Office. He designed and implemented a framework that was used in the advanced diagnostic and advanced caution and warning system for the International Space Station. Jay Anderson Jay Anderson, vice president of operations at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH), is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of all surgical, professional and imaging services for the large urban academic medical center. Anderson was also instrumental in leading the quality efforts and was responsible for bringing the skill sets of process improvement, measurement and monitoring to the organization. Prior to joining NMH, Anderson was a certified Six Sigma Black Belt for the General Electric Company, utilizing his process improvement skills within the financial services sector, and was a nuclear trained officer for the U.S. Navy. He received his BS in information systems analysis from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and his MBA in finance from the University of Chicago. Patricia Becker Patricia Becker is vice president of technology services at University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), where she is responsible for building and managing information systems and services that support the needs of UHC s programs. UHC is a member organization supporting the needs of academic medical centers across the United States. Before joining UHC, Becker was employed at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Health Systems for 19 years in various information services management positions, including an appointment in 1993 as vice president of information systems and chief information officer. She has been an active participant on UHC s Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council and has been the CIO representative on UHC s operations committee since its inception in Becker has an MBA in management systems from DePaul University. Nicholas Bertram Nicholas Bertram has worked in the medical informatics field for hospitals and vendors and as a consultant. His work in hospitals included direct patient care and systems administration. He is knowledgeable in systems engineering, clinical engineering and quality assurance due to his vendor-sponsored, cross-functional roles. Bertram is a senior consultant at Beacon Partners, where he supervises testing on a complex integration of systems including Allscripts TouchWorks electronic health record, Lawson s general ledger and refund system, Siemens Enterprise Access Directory master patient index, Dictaphone s transcription system, QS/1 s pharmacy information system, Siemens Novius radiology information system and Spectrum s laboratory information system. Bertram has a bachelor s degree in nuclear medicine technology, an MS in management information systems and MBA from DePaul University. 7

8 Mark Clare Mark Clare has more than 20 years of experience in knowledge management, strategic change and informatics with leading Fortune 200 companies that include 3M and Allstate. Clare is author of many publications including the book Knowledge Assets, a series of articles in KM Review on Solving the Knowledge-Value Equation. He holds a patent in artificial intelligence with several more pending. Before founding New Value Streams Consulting LLC, Clare held several executive positions including vice president of knowledge and informatics management at Parkview Health, a nine-hospital health system in northeast Indiana. Clare holds an MS in physics and an MA in analytic philosophy, as well as a Six Sigma Black Belt. Robert Cundick Robert Cundick, PhD is a graduate of the Department of Medical Biophysics and Computing (now Biomedical Informatics) at the University of Utah. He has more than 30 years of experience developing medical software. His early career efforts focused on microprocessor-based operating systems for hospital blood analyzers at Technicon Instruments Corp. In 1987 he returned to the University of Utah to work closely under Dr. Homer R. Warner a pioneer in the field of medical informaticson the development of Iliad, an expert system to assist in medical diagnosis. One of Cundick s major contributions to Iliad was the development of a simulation mode to generate hypothetical cases that medical students could use to test their diagnostic skills. In 1992 he joined Applied Medical Informatics, Inc. a spinoff company formed for the commercial development of Iliad. While there he also helped develop a consumer-oriented product called Medical HouseCall. He is currently a senior software developer on the research informatics team at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City. Since joining HCI more than thirteen years ago he has developed applications for order tracking and data management for the DNA sequencing lab, applications for sample annotation and management of laboratory RNAi feeding experiments and chemical screens, and an analysis and data management application for a breast cancer bioclassifier test. He has also developed employee management, purchasing, computer and facility support, and volunteer management applications for HCI s administration department. Susan Finerty Susan Finerty is the owner and principal consultant of Finerty Consulting. She has more than 17 years of experience in training, organization development and coaching in corporate environments. Her consulting practice focuses on effectiveness at an organizational level (designing and managing large-scale change); team level (team assessments and effectiveness); and individual (coaching and career development). Her clients include Baxter Healthcare, Abbott Labs, Astellas Pharma US, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Hollister Inc., Evanston Hospital and the American Hospital Association. Prior to her external consulting career, Finerty held a series of internal consulting and leadership roles at Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals, Boots Pharmaceuticals and Baxter Healthcare. She holds a master s degree in organizational communication from Indiana University. John Gatta John Gatta is executive vice president of ECRA Group, an education and health care research firm. In addition, he is assistant professor and director of research for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Northwestern s Feinberg School of Medicine. His unique blend of academic, technical and management experience gives him keen insight into the research process and organizational improvement. Gatta has publications in both the education and health care sectors and has taught research and statistical methods at the graduate level for major universities. He designs and oversees nearly all of ECRA Group research projects and is the chief architect of its technology systems related to data structures, data mining algorithms and reporting. He also designs and overseas healthcare-related research projects conducted by the Feinberg School s Department of Family and Community Medicine. In addition, he is on the review board and audits statistical methodology for the Journal of Qualitative Health and the Annals of Family Medicine. Gatta received his PhD from Loyola University Chicago in research methodology, and was awarded dissertation of the year by Phi Delta Kappa. 8

9 Richard Gershon Richard Gershon is director of psychometrics and informatics at the Center on Outcomes, Research and Education (CORE); and a faculty member of Northwestern University s psychology department. He is a leading expert in the application of Item Response Theory in both individualized and large-scale assessment. He has developed item banks and computerized adaptive testing for educational, clinical and health applications, including cognitive, emotional and motor applications. He is principal investigator on the National Institutes of Health(NIH) Toolbox, the largest contract award in CORE s 10 year history. He is also coinvestigator and measurement development expert on each of the following CORE projects: the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokee sponsored project Quality of Life Outcomes in Neurological Disorders (Neuro- QoL), the NIH Roadmap project Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System and its cancer-specific supplement, as well as several smaller projects. Melinda Jenkins Melinda Jenkins, PhD, has more than 25 years of clinical experience as a family nurse practitioner, mostly in federally-funded inner-city community health centers. She has taught for more than 15 years at the graduate level. After completing her PhD in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993, she directed the adult NP and FNP programs there. From 2002 through 2005, she taught at Columbia University and co-directed a federally-funded project to teach informatics to NP students. She taught nursing research at Seton Hall University from From , she was coordinator of consumer informatics in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Primary Care Information Project. Her role included the promotion, implementation, and evaluation of a patient portal to an outpatient electronic health record being used by more than 2,000 Medicaid providers in New York City. Jenkins is committed to promoting effective interdisciplinary primary health care where the patient is the most important member of the team. The application of informatics in primary health care is her research interest, including electronic documentation for providers and consumers, the use of standardized terminology, and decision support related to quality of care. Jenkins has published and presented a great deal regarding primary care and also informatics. She is active in the American Medical Informatics Association, in both the primary care informatics and the nursing informatics working groups. She volunteered for one year in the ambulatory electronic health record workgroup for the CCHIT (Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology). Jenkins is a long-standing member of the American Nurses Association. David Liebovitz David Liebovitz is the chief medical informatics officer for the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, the full-time academic medical practice affiliated with the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. In this role he works to further development of the outpatient medical records system and optimize information exchange with Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he serves as medical director for clinical information systems. Within the hospital, Liebovitz has been the physician lead for implementation of computerized physician order entry and online notes. In addition, he works on the inpatient general medical service, sees outpatients in his clinical practice, and in his role as an associate program director for the internal medicine residency program, supervises residents inpatient and outpatient experiences and their interactions with medical records. Liebovitz previously was a full-time faculty member at the University of Chicago. He received his medical degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago and his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Liebovitz is faculty director of the MMI program. 9

10 CAREER INFORMATION According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics*, employment in medical and health informatics is expected to increase by 18 percent through the year That s faster than the average for all occupations in the United States. One reason the field of medical informatics is expanding at this high rate is due to the increasing number of medical tests, treatments and procedures evaluated by health insurance companies, regulators, courts and consumers.* As a result, there s an increased demand for electronic record-keeping and the professionals who can lead and manage this effort. As graduates of the MMI program, students will possess the technical skills and leadership experience necessary to lead and manage change in the health care industry. The demand for medical informatics professionals is increasing in various roles such as consulting independent practices and large medical facilities to implement and maintain electronic health records. Graduates will have a competitive advantage when seeking medical informatics jobs in: Health Care Administration and Management Design, extract and analyze management information from health care information systems Develop implementation and financing strategies for integrating electronic health record systems into organizations Create innovative applications for electronic health records Provide information management consulting services to health care organizations Clinical IT Leadership Promote the design and deployment of new technologies to improve patient outcomes Design and develop clinical decision support and knowledge-based systems Research Develop new techniques and technologies for integrating clinical and research data and information Collaborate with industry as a consultant, providing clinical input during design process Education / Academic Teach medical and clinical students, residents and fellows core informatics concepts Develop education programs in biomedical informatics Organizations Needing Medical Informatics Professionals with Master s Degrees include: Hospitals and other health care providers Private health care practices Medical software companies Health care consulting companies Pharmaceutical companies Medical device and medical technology companies Medical libraries Public health organizations Government and non-governmental agencies and health care associations Insurance and other health care related companies Research laboratories Universities and colleges *Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor 10

11 Karin Lindgren Karin Lindgren is a health care lawyer who practices law at the intersection of law, medicine and IT. She is General Counsel for Reed Group Ltd., a health care informatics company in Colorado. Prior to joining Reed, Lindgren was a private practice lawyer providing advice and counsel nationwide to health care technology organizations, health care providers, payers and to clients involved in medical informatics, e-commerce, IT contracting, clinical data analytics and database activities. She also frequently conducts in-house training for sales teams and management on key legal, compliance and risk management issues that impact their business. Lindgren is former general counsel and corporate compliance officer for the University HealthSystem Consortium, an alliance of more than 90 percent of the nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois, California and Pennsylvania, as well as before the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a nationally prominent speaker and author on medicallegal issues. Gersimos Petratos Gersimos Petratos currently serves as the Global Head of Healthcare Data Analytics at the Roche Group, a global pharmaceutical company focused on cancer therapeutics and diagnostics, as well as many other therapeutic areas. Petratos s pharmaceutical career includes experience in the Research, Development and Medical Affairs Divisions, specifically working for the past seven years in Phase 2 4 drug projects at Schering Plough and Roche. He was previously the director of clinical decision support at Roche, where he oversaw data-driven applications of clinical information management in the areas of protocol design, graphical medical review, analysis, reporting and publications which supported the discovery, approval and promotion of medicines for the benefit of patients worldwide. He also helped to design the strategy and implementation of patient reported outcomes and quality of life claims for oncology and neurologic medicines. Prior to pharmaceuticals Petratos conducted clinical research at Intermountain Healthcare and the University of Utah Health Sciences Center as part of a National Institutes of Health Fellowship with the National Library of Medicine in Biomedical Informatics. There he learned and applied advanced methods of clinical information management to improve patient safety and measure outcomes related to adverse drug event detection capabilities for Oncology, Pain Management and Antibiotic drugs. Gerry heads the Alumni Network for the Biomedical Informatics Department of the University of Utah, and is also active in the Hellenic Medical Society of New York and the Global Hellenic Medical Network. He has spoken at numerous occasions, including the Drug Information Association, the American Health Information Management Association, the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society, and the Graduate Seminar of the University of Utah. Petratos obtained his bachelor s degree in biology from Cornell University, a doctor of medicine degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and a master s in health service administration and medical informatics from the University of Utah. Mark Roche Mark Roche Medvedovic is a physician with working experience in clinical and translational informatics standards and supporting information systems on institutional, state/provincial and federal levels. He participated in the design, development and implementation of cancer data standards repository (cadsr), supporting information systems (Oracle Clinical), and clinical data migration activities for the cancer Bio-informatics Grid (cabig) project at the U.S. National Cancer Institute. In Ontario (Canada), he lead the development of the first provincial standardized nomenclature for microorganisms and laboratory tests (based on LOINC) and supporting messaging specifications (based on HL7v2.4); he also assisted data integration activities between provincewide laboratory information system (OLIS) and depended information systems used by Ontario Public Health and Cancer Care Ontario. At Canada Health Infoway (CHI), Roche assisted in the development of the pan-canadian blueprint for interoperable electronic health record that utilizes HL7 v3, LOINC, SNOMED- CT, ICD9/10, UCUM and other standards. Roche was also responsible for the analysis and alignment of more than 60 standards-related EHR project activities across Canada, and across all medical disciplines. He is currently an entrepreneur and a consultant at CML Healthcare where he assists the organization with the adoption of laboratory standards. Roche completed Doctoral degree in Medicine at the University of Vienna (Austria), a post-doctoral fellowship in Biomedical Informatics at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and master s degree in medical informatics at Northwestern University. 11

12 Elizabeth Ryan Elizabeth Ryan, EdD, is the vice chair of education and an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at Northwestern University s Feinberg School of Medicine. She has 12 years of experience working in medical education ranging from undergraduate to graduate education, and from primary care to surgical education. Ryan is an active participant in Feinberg s student programs, serving as a faculty tutor and on committees. She has served as the lead reader for student thesis papers in Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration program. She was the principle investigator for a Field Foundation Grant of Illinois, Evaluation of a Program Designed to Identify Racial and Ethnic Disparities, and supervised a MPPA student s work on this grant. She has been invited to participate on a panel for the Association of American Medical Colleges Central Group on Educational Affairs to facilitate the development of a research agenda pertaining the use of electronic health records in medical education. Her research and educational interest include the investigation of how teaching and learning need to change with the utilization of electronic health records. Dale Sanders Dale Sanders is the chief information officer for the National Health System of the Cayman Islands. He is the past vice president of information services and CIO at Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation. His background includes serving as regional director of information systems and medical informatics for Intermountain Health Care; vice president of systems integration for Information Technology International; senior systems engineer for TRW Space and Defense Systems Integration Group; and as a captain and information systems officer in the U.S. Air Force. He earned a bachelor s degree in chemistry with biology minor from Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado, and a master s-equivalent certificate in information systems management from the U.S. Air Force. His areas of expertise include software architecture, data warehousing, systems integration, the role of IT in clinical quality, healthcare economics and patient safety. Margaret Schulte Margaret Schulte is the editor of Frontiers in Health Services Management a publication of the American College of Healthcare Executives, is a commissioner with the Council for Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME), and assists the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in education program development. Previously she served as vice president of education for HIMSS, where she was responsible for the professional education programs of this membership association of IT professionals. In this role, she led the development of conference education for the society s annual conference, which is attended by more than 25,000 professionals and 900 exhibitors, and was responsible for global health care IT conferences in Europe and Asia, as well as other educational offerings. Prior to this, she held positions as vice president of research and development for the publishing division of the American Hospital Association; director of education with the Healthcare Financial Management Association, and served on the faculty of the graduate program in health care policy and management at Mercer University in Atlanta, where she also served as adjunct faculty to the Mercer University School of Medicine. Previously, she held various management and executive positions in hospitals and in the governmental sector. Schulte holds a doctorate in business administration from Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale and an MBA from Xavier University, Cincinnati. 12

13 Pallav Sharda Pallav Sharda is experienced in both the clinical domain and information technology as a physician and medical informaticist. He has worked in the health care IT industry for more than six years in research and commercial settings, fulfilling roles within services and engineering organizations. Sharda works as a clinical product manager in the global engineering organization of GE Healthcare Integrated IT Solutions. During his research study at Columbia University, he developed and maintained a decision support system prototype intended for including patient preferences in palliative care. Sharda s special interests focus on implementation and engineering of clinical information systems, controlled terminologies and computerized clinical decision support. He is the primary inventor and coinventor on several patents held by GE Healthcare and has authored papers on electronic medical record systems. He serves as an executive member of Indian Medical Informatics Association and is a core member of the Laboratory of Decision Making and Cognition at Columbia University. Sharda received a master s degree in medical informatics from Columbia University and a bachelor of medicine and surgery from Delhi University, India. Vikram Sheshadri Vikram Sheshadri is vice president of product management at Emedapps Inc., where he is in charge of product lines for a health care IT company. He developed a computerized patient order entry system, an HL7 Interface engine, scanning software and an application to create continuity of care records. He is also involved with the Illinois Community Health Record project. Sheshadri received a PhD in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and was a postdoctoral fellow with a joint appointment at Northwestern University s Feinberg School of Medicine and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where he developed computer systems to track responses of hemiparetic stroke patients. Belita Smith Belita Smith is a director with the Cerner Corporation. Her responsibilities include delivering client results to hospitals and physician group practices utilizing Cerner software solutions, consulting and clinical adoption services, and complimentary health care information technologies. Smith previously was vice president with MacNeal Hospital, in charge of profit and loss responsibilities for the physician practice business. She also has held the position of director of information services at the University of Chicago Hospitals. Smith earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and a master of science degree from Chicago State University. 13 David Veillette David Veillette is president and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Western Regional Medical Center. He is past president and CEO of the Indiana Heart Hospital, a fully digital heart hospital, and was the CEO of the Oklahoma Heart Center LLC in Oklahoma City, He is president and CEO of CardCon Inc. a consultation firm specializing in health care development and implementation of new facilities. With more than 35 years of experience in the health care field in both clinical and leadership roles, he has held national registries in cardiovascular, perfusion, radiology and pulmonary technologies. Veillette is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and earned his bachelor s degree in Chemistry, his master s degree in administrative studies and his PhD in management studies. He has served as a member or officer of several national and international committees and boards of directors. Veillette is a Paul Harris Fellow in Rotary International, has served as chairman for the AHA Heart Walk in 2000 in Oklahoma City and in 2003 in Indianapolis. He has written several articles on the current state and future of health care and lectures at national programs and symposiums several times a year. He has published a book on the future of health care and what the smart organization can do for their success: Hospitals in Crisis, a Digital Solution. Ken Woo Ken Woo has 19 years experience in the information technology industry, including 10 years in the telecommunications industry. He has given numerous talks at the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction Conferences while serving on a local school board as a member of their technical advising team. He is a member of the University Council for Educational Administration and Educause. He received an MBA in management from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and an MS in computer science with a concentration in telecommunications from DePaul University in Chicago. He is the director of information technology and facilities for Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies.

14 COURSES Following is a sampling of the courses offered by the MMI program. For the latest course and schedule information, please visit CIS 313-DL Telecommunications and Computer Networks This course provides an overview of telecommunications and computer networks. Course work includes the study of signals and bandwidth concepts, spectra, basics of electronics, information and coding, modulation, multiplexing, transmission systems, transmission media, analog versus digital communications, computer networks and switching techniques. Clinician-track course. CIS 317-DL Introduction to Databases This course covers the fundamentals of database design and management. Topics include the principles and methodologies of database design, database application development, normalization, referential integrity, security, relational database models and database languages. Principles are applied by performing written assignments and a project using an SQL database system. Cliniciantrack course. CIS 435-DL Introduction to Data Warehousing and Data Mining This course provides an introduction to data mining, with a few hours of focus on data warehousing as one of the commonly used data sources for data-mining applications. Students learn data-mining applications, core concepts, and algorithms. Among these algorithms are supervised (Naive Bayes, Decision Tree and Neural Network) and non-supervised (association Rules, commonly used for market basket analysis, and clustering) algorithms. Students learn via experimentation; they observe the outcome of applying data mining algorithms to reallife data. Prerequisite: CIS 317. MED INF 401-DL American Health Care System This course covers the components of the U.S. health care system, including the federal government s role in health care, health industry management, cost and quality issues, managed care, reimbursement mechanisms, legal and regulatory issues, profit vs. nonprofit care, the role of technology and technology assessment and the U.S. system vs. international health care systems. Technologisttrack course. MED INF 402-DL Introduction to Clinical Thinking An introduction to the clinical environment throughout the health center for students not previously involved in clinical medicine and those trained in medicine outside the United States. The course features problem-based learning and traditional medical informatics task domains and covers medical terminology and basic pathophysiology. Topics include the clinical setting, eliciting information from patients, synthesizing the history and physical examination, establishing diagnosis, treatment planning, integrating evidence-based medicine and using an intelligent medical record in a complex environment. Recommended before attempting core course work beyond MED INF 403. Technologist-track course. MED INF 403-DL Introduction to Medical Informatics This course is a survey of fundamental concepts and activities on information technology as applied to health care. Topics include computer-based medical records, knowledge-bases systems, telehealth, decision theory and decision support, human-computer interfaces, systems integration, the digital library and educational applications. Department-specific applications such as pathology, radiology, psychiatry and intensive care are also discussed. Should be taken within first two terms, preferably as the first core course. Prerequisite: CIS 317 (if required by admissions committee), equivalent knowledge or consent of instructor. 14

15 MED INF 404-DL Health Care Enterprise Operations This course examines the entire information technology needs of every part of hospital organization and management, including patient access services, ambulatory care, clinical practice and organization, nursing services, managing facilities and resources, personnel and staffing, and finance. Prerequisite: MED INF 401 or consent of instructor. MED INF 405-DL HIT Integration, Interoperability and Standards This course provides the details of health care technology standards and interoperability. Topics include the value proposition of standards, health information models and the IHE Initiative, HL7, DICOM, CCOW, CorbaMED and other medical standards. The role of non-medical standards in medical informatics (HTTP, XML, etc.). The course also covers multi-institutional issues and telemedicine, e-commerce and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act standards compliance. MED INF 406-DL Decision Support Systems and Health Care This course provides an introduction to decision analysis with an emphasis on medical decision-making and elements of human cognition under uncertainty. Topics covered include structuring decision problems and developing creative decision options, quantifying uncertainty and preferences, and combining them to arrive at optimal decisions. The course also provides the foundation needed to apply the methods of decision analysis in decision support systems and intelligent systems. Students become familiar with the graphical display of medical information, decision analysis and modeling, evidence-based medicine, Bayes theorem, knowledgebased systems, learning systems, lexicons, coding and structured data entry, and data mining techniques. Prerequisite: MED INF 409 highly recommended. MED INF 407-DL Legal, Ethical and Social Issues This course addresses the legal, ethical and social issues in health care informatics and equips students with the knowledge and analytic tools needed to spot those key issues, thereby better protecting students and their employers in the medical informatics field. The health care industry is highly regulated, and this course also covers regulatory informatics requirements as they apply to work with health care data and information management systems. The course also covers topics such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy and security, fraud and abuse, confidentiality, antitrust law, intellectual property, the Joint Commission, disclosure and compliance programs. MED INF 408-DL Medical Technology Acquisition and Assessment This is a practical course on acquiring and assessing new medical technology, either as a vendor who needs to know how to meet the expectations of customers and their acquisition requirements or as a customer/practitioner who must know how to validate technology selections and implementations. Topics include cost analysis and justification, economic models, capital purchase, leasing strategies, the ASP or risk-sharing model, purchase agreements and contracts, writing an RFP, analyzing an RFP response, and the industry business trends. MED INF 409-DL Introduction to Biostatistics The biostatistics course is designed for the biomedical researcher. Topics include descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, estimation, t-tests, chi-squared tests, analysis of variance, linear regression, correlation, nonparametric tests, survival analysis and odds ratio. Biomedical applications are discussed for each topic, as well as overall application of statistical methods in the informatics field. MED INF 481-DL Foundations of Leadership This course identifies the fundamental leadership behaviors that enable people to excel in their careers and helps students apply these behaviors to personal and professional success. The course builds from the basic premise that leadership is learned and looks at the theory and practice of leadership at the individual and organizational level. The course explores definitions of leadership, the importance of leadership, leadership styles, the role of vision and integrity, the importance of giving and receiving feedback, how to lead change and solve problems, effective teamwork and communication strategies. For more information about the Master of Science in Medical Informatics online program, visit