autumn 2017 INF-3792 Medical informatics - 10 ECTS

Application deadline

Applicants from Nordic countries: 1 June for the autumn semester and 1 December for the spring semester. Exchange students and Fulbright students: 15 April for the autumn semester and 1 October for the spring semester.

Type of course

The course can be taken as a singular master's-level course.

Admission requirements

Admission requirements: Higher Education Entrance Requirement + Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Health-related professional studies, or similar education. The Bachelor degree must contain a specialization in Computer Science / Health-related courses worth the equivalent of not less than 80 ECTS credits. Application code: 9371 - Singular courses at master's level

Course content

The course presents the core concepts and methods of Medical Informatics (MI). Areas covered include: medical computations, biomedical decision-making, standards in medical informatics, ICT in healthcare, computer architecture for health and biomedical systems, system engineering in medical informatics, natural language systems in healthcare, medical imaging, patient-centered health IT systems, evaluation criteria, electronic health records, telemedicine, clinical decision support systems, bioinformatics, the use of medical informatics in teaching, ethics in medical informatics, modern applications and trends and future applications in medical informatics.

Objectives of the course

Knowledge The student has

  • Thorough understanding of (bio)medical informatics, both as a scientific discipline and a pragmatic set of tools and techniques.
  • Good understanding of about methods for use of medical data.
  • Deep knowledge about heuristics and statistical decision making in medicine.
  • Good knowledge about computer architectures for health care and biomedicine.
  • Comprehensive understanding of standards in medical informatics and the process of software engineering for health care and biomedicine.
  • Extensive knowledge about biomedical imaging informatics and the importance of medical imaging in medicine.
  • Good knowledge about evaluation of biomedicine and health information resources.
  • Understanding of the need for ethics in biomedical and health informatics.

Skills The student can

  • Identify the core topics of medical informatics.
  • Analyze the state of the science and current research issues related to the foundation of medical informatics.
  • Characterize different domains of medical informatics such as decision support systems, medical imaging and laboratory systems.
  • Evaluate a given medical information system based on different criteria such as security, embedded decision support systems and classification systems.

General competance The student can

  • Apply the knowledge of (bio)medical informatics in management of clinical ICT systems.
  • Evaluate possibilities and limitations of clinical ICT systems.
  • Understand the main medical problems health care workers are facing in their daily work.
  • Understand basic terminologies within technology in medicine and are able to evaluate clinical ICT challenges from both basic medical and technology viewpoint.


Language of instruction and examination

The language of instruction is English and all of the syllabus material is in English. Examination questions will be given in English and must be answered in English.

Teaching methods

Lectures: 50 hours, Colloquium: 10 hours. The course is given every autumn semester.

Assessment

The exam includes a written examination of four hours duration, counts 100%. The work requirement must be passed in order to access the exam.

Work requirements: Up to 5 mandatory exercises / laboratory reports. Oral presentation of the mandatory exercises can be claimed. Presentations and mandatory exercises / laboratory reports graded "Approved" / "Not approved".

Grading scale: Letter grades A-F.

Re-sit examination: It will not be given a re-sit exam in the teaching free semester for this course, unless a postponed exam already is arranged (conditional re-sit exam). To get access to the exam in the teaching free semester the student must have passed the course requirements.

Postponed examination: Given early in teaching free semester. It will be arranged a 4 hour written exam counting 100%. To get access to the exam in the teaching free semester the student must have passed the course requirements.

For further details see: - Utfyllende bestemmelser for eksamener ved Fakultet for naturvitenskap og teknologi (only in Norwegian) - Regulations for examinations at the UiT


Recommended reading/syllabus

Core book: Edward H. Shortliffe, James J. Cimino (Eds) (2014), Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine. 4th ed.  Springer (ISBN-13: 978-1447144731)

Additional reading can be added. All information from the lecturer is provided through the Fronter LMS. 

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  • About the course
  • Campus: Tromsø |
  • ECTS: 10
  • Course code: INF-3792