Objectives of the course: The nature of medical information and the modern requirements for more efficient management (storage, security, recall, processing) of medical data and medical knowledge. The optimum use of medical data, in order to provide better health care, to reduce cost in medical care, to improve medical education, and medical research.

Contents of the course: Introduction to Medical Informatics, Evolution eras, New Directions, From Medical Informatics to Health Informatics. The nature of Health Data and Information, Standards of Data Coding and Classification Systems (SNOMED-CT, ICD, MeSH, UMLS). Management Information Needs in a Hospital, Introduction to Hospital Information Systems, Basic Medical Information Systems, HL7 Standard and Interoperability of Individual Information Subsystems. Databases, Database Management System (DBMS), DBMS architecture, Classification of DBMS, Data Models, Relational Model, Examples of Distributed Medical Databases. Introduction to Electronic Health Records (EHR), EHR Proposed Encodings, Architecture and Implementation Examples, Processing and use of EHR in e-Health, Applications of Personal Health Records (PHR), From the EHR to the Citizen's Health Record. Computers in Medical Imaging, Basic Principles of Digital Image Processing /Pre-Processing /Segmentation/ Analysis-Interpretation. Telemedicine, Objectives and Applications, Web-Telemedicine, Contemporary Education Requirements, Internet and E-learning.

Practicals: Introduction to basic structure and operation of computers, types of memory, representation of numerical data, text code, Key Features of the CPU. Introduction to Computer Networks, Packet Switching Process, IP/TCP Protocols, Introduction to Internet, Domain name system (DNS), Introduction to Markup Languages (html,xml). Health Information on the Internet, Evaluating Health Information, Identifications of reliable and accurate information on the Internet, Examples of Websites for International Medical and Health Services, Web 2.0 Applications in Medicine, free platforms of Medicine 2.0. PubMed / MedLine search Bibliography, Improving searches working with MeSH database, create and use MYNCBI account. Processing Excel sheets, Importing and formatting data in tables, Charts, Data Processing (formulas and functions), Statistical Tests, Data sorting and Filtering. Introduction to Access Database Management System, A Relational Database Example, Definition of entities and relationships, understand the different views of database creating and using queries, Create forms, and Reports.

Mode and outcomes of teaching: Along with theory, the laboratory exercises (practicals) are conducted in the computer lab of the department. For the practice, the students are divided into four groups.

At the end of the course, students should have acquired the proper theoretical background and they should be able to describe correctly: The nature of Medical Information, the needs for the efficient management of medical information and health data, the Standards and the applications of Data Coding and Classification Systems (SNOMED-CT, ICD, MeSH, UMLS), the basic hospital information sub-systems, the interoperability between different information systems with HL7 standard, the advantages of databases, what are the key features of an Electronic Health Record, the contributions of computers in medical imaging, the modern demands and the possibilities for distant learning and electronic health services, via web, the basic concepts of the structure and the operation of a computer, the basic concepts in computer networking, the basic Internet protocols.

At the end of practicals, students should have developed skills: in assessing international web2.0 applications in medicine and health, to recognize certified sites by HONcode, in making efficient searches of bibliography in Medline via PubMed using ΜeSH terms, in processing data with excel, in performing statistical tests, in computing basic statistical descriptors, in using databases with access.

Hours of training per student: 91

Semester: 1st

ECTS: 5