HI 6305 Social Dynamics and Health Information

The implementation of information systems will not only greatly enhance the quality of healthcare but also radically change the nature of healthcare. This course will look at healthcare as a distributed system composed of groups of people interacting with each other and with information technology. Two major areas will be covered in the course. The first area is computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), which is defined as computer-assisted coordinated activity such as reasoning, problem solving, decision-making, routine tasks, and communication carried out by a group of collaborating individuals who interact with complex information technology. Most health information systems (such as EMR) are large groupwares that support large numbers of synchronous and asynchronous users with diverse background in the executions of many different types of tasks. The second area is the social impact of information technology. This area will focus on the impact of internet on healthcare, such as the functions and impacts of virtual communities, online health groups, and tele-healthcare through the web.

Course Objectives

(1) Understand the dynamics of the complex interactions between people and information systems and among groups of people.
(2) Learn the theory and principles of socially distributed systems that are composed of information systems and groups of people.
(3) Learn the methodology of analyzing socially distributed systems.
(4) Learn to design distributed systems that help people work together more effectively.
(5) Learn to design user interfaces for distributed systems.
(6) Learn the social impact of information technology on healthcare.
(7) Gain application experience through a term project.
(8) Prepare a poster presentation and a web-ready final report for the term project.

Prerequisites

Consent of instructor, highspeed internet access, personal computer