MBIMP

(a) Aims Of The Program

The aims of this program are to:

Empower health service professionals through the development of advanced skills and knowledge in the interpretation and management of information in healthcare
Equip healthcare professionals with an understanding of the technical, social and management issues involved in informatics and how informatics can be used to provide healthcare and to play a part in improving the public's health
Equip IT professionals with an understanding of the particularities of information systems in the health care sector and how IT can better serve that sector.

(b) Learning Outcomes

While designing the curriculum we take into consideration the guidelines and rules set by the NQAAC (National Quality Assurance and Accreditation Committee). These guidelines are essentially the same set by the British Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). So the curriculum design is based on the intended learning outcomes (ILO).

The program is designed for working healthcare professionals who want to use informatics effectively in their usual role. To this end, students taking this program will expect to:

Acquire a depth and breadth of knowledge of the principles of information management
Develop skills in the critical appraisal and assessment of information needs
Be able to apply those skills in strategic planning of information management in healthcare
Be able to determine the training needs of others working in healthcare to ensure efficient implementation of a management strategy

Details of the outcomes are given in appendix A.

(c) Program Structure

The Overall requirements for the M.Sc. in Medical and Bioinformatics consists of 36 credits, with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 (on scale of 5). This comprises 30 credit hours taught courses and a thesis which counts to 6 credit hours. The program must be completed within 5 consecutive years from entry into the first graduate course.

Taught courses are structured into three groups: mandatory, core, and elective. The mandatory course is a course given to all enrolled students. Its aim is to have some sort of homogenization of the students with different backgrounds. The second group is comprised of compulsory core courses. These courses will laid the theoretical and practical foundations necessary for a medical and bio informatics specialist. The third group contains elective courses which enable the student to have some sort of customizing his program to suit his career goals.

The research component of the program is realized by requiring the students to complete a research project (6 credit hours) that lasts for at least two semesters. Students may start their research after completing 50% of the taught courses.

(d) Detailed Structure of the Program

Two mandatory courses are offered. However, each student should take one only of them according to his background. These two courses are:

- IT for medical specialists : this course is directed to physicians. Its aim is to introduce key IT concepts to them.

- Life sciences for IT specialists : this course is the counterpart of the previous course. It is directed to IT Graduates in order to introduce them to the basics of life sciences.

There are six core courses. These are:

Introduction to Medical and Bio Informatics
Healthcare Information Systems and Electronic Health Records
Medical Databases
Hospital Organization & Management
Six sigma quality and patient safety
Medical Informatics Case Study Seminar

Elective
courses are designed to allow students to customize their program of study. Students should select three courses from the following list.

Clinical Decision Support Systems
Medical Imaging
Remote Healthcare
Applied statistics and epidemiology
Ethical & Legal Issues in Medical and Bio Informatics
Information Systems Project Management
Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
Information Visualization
Machine Learning
The Internet and Health

The thesis is counted as 6 credit hours and can be registered after passing 50% of the taught courses (i.e. 5 courses).

(e) Progression Through the Program

Students, in their first semester, will typically register for the mandatory course and two or three core/elective courses. Among these courses, it is highly recommended to include MBI 610 (Introduction to Medical and Bio Informatics). In their second semester students will register for another 3-4 courses. At the end of the second semester, students become eligible to register their master thesis under the supervision of one or more staff members. Students may then proceed towards the completion of their courses and thesis which will take another year. Thus a typical student may obtain his M.Sc. degree in two years.

Failure and Resubmission
If a student failed in a course, he should register it again. There is no limit about the number of times a student can repeat a course. A student will be permitted to retrieve a failed thesis at the discretion of the Board of Examiners. Resubmission should normally be within 12 months of notification of failure.