This course is intended to help even non-technically trained students gain basic proficiency in health informatics: the application of computing to healthcare delivery, public health and community-based clinical research. This is distinct from the related field of bioinformatics, which explores the role of computing in understanding the genomic and proteomic processes within cells. Weeks 1-2 cover the US healthcare delivery system's unique structural, economic and policy issues and how they create a potentially strategic role for health informatics. Week 3-5 explains at a high level the core technologies involved in contemporary health informatics. Weeks 6-9 explore how these technologies are being deployed using some of the best commercial and open source products as examples. Week 10 presents the instructor’s personal speculation about the future of the field. There are reading assignments for each week. As the course progresses, students can, optionally, also read the appropriate chapters of the instructor’s text, Health Informatics in the Cloud.

Dr. Braunstein is Professor of the Practice in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech where he teaches health informatics and is involved in research related to improving the quality and efficiency of care delivery. He is also Associate Director for Health Systems for the Institute for People and Technology where he helps identify, create and manage research and industry partnership opportunities.

He received a BS from MIT in 1969 and an MD from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 1974. After an internship at Washington University he joined the faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy at MUSC where he developed an early fully functional ambulatory electronic medical record system and the first reported system for the clinical management of ambulatory pharmacies. In 1978 he co-founded PROHECA to commercialize the pharmacy system. The company was acquired by National Data Corporation (NDC) in 1981 and he ran the NDC Healthcare Division and was the company’s President and COO until he left in 1990 to co-found Patient Care Technologies (“PtCT”). PtCT, a provider of electronic patient record and tele-health systems to the home care industry, graduated from Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), was a 1998 Inc 500 company, and was acquired by MEDITECH in 2007.

He is the author of many articles and book chapters devoted to various aspects of clinical automation. His book, Health Informatics in the Cloud, is in press. He won a 1996 Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Southeast Region, received a 1995 Innovation in Medical Management Award from the American Society of Physician Executives and received the 2006 Founder’s Award from the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region.