Director(s): Katharyn Atkins, Steven Horng, Yuri Quintana

Prerequisites: Students should have already had PCE experience; background in computer science or a proficiency in computer programming.

Offered: Full time every month.

Location: BIDMCE - BI-Deaconess Med Ctr-East (1)

Open to Exclerks: Yes (may be restricted for international students)

Description: Students may add themselves to the waiting list for this course during add/drop periods but not during lottery periods. This elective will provided students with a broad overview of the newly recognized field of clinical informatics. The American Board of Medical Specialties has recognized "Clinical Informatics" as a medical sub-specialty and physicians in all 24 subspecialties are now eligible to become Board Certified in Clinical Informatics. Clinical Informatics is the application of information and communication technology to deliver healthcare services. Students with have the opportunity to interact with both local and national leaders as we explore the opportunities and barriers at the intersection of medical education and health information technology. Students will explore how can Electronic Health records be leveraged in clinical settings to improve patient engagement, optimize disease management, and implement prevention initiatives? Students will have the opportunity to work with faculty mentors and physician leaders at the Office of the National Coordinator for health Information Technology (ONC) in the US Department of Health and Human Services to explore these questions, design "lean" experiments, and collaborate with both government and educational leaders to better understand and define policy or process interventions. The Division of Clinical Informatics is a research division of the Department of Medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and has been at the forefront of computers in healthcare for 40 years. This elective is designed to give students hands-on experience with the design, implementation, governance, and evolution of electronic health records and other real-world clinical computing systems. Enrollment is subject to the pre-approval of the course director, Dr. Yuri Quintana, yquintan@bidmc.harvard.edu.