Who / When / Where
Instructor: Bradley Malin
Semester: Spring 2008
Time: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2:35 - 3:50pm
Location: Featheringill Hall, Room 313
Office Hours: Time TBD, Location: 2525 West End Avenue, Suite 600 (map)
Course Syllabus (PDF)
Description
The integration of information technology into biomedical environments has enabled unprecedented advances in the collection, storage, analysis, and rapid dissemination of patient-specific data. Many organizations need to share data for various purposes, such as quality assurance, public health, and basic research. In today’s complex networked environments, it is increasingly difficult to share biomedical data due to concerns about patient privacy and anonymity. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the computational challenges, as well as formal solutions, for data privacy in healthcare and biomedical environments. Data privacy is an interdisciplinary problem, so this course will touch on issues in computer science, law and policy, and biomedicine.
Prerequisites
Required: There is no programming language requirement, but students should be able to design and write basic software applications.
Recommended: When appropriate, relevent methodology will be reviewed in class, but you should be comfortable learning about basic statistics, data structures, and algorithms. Prior experience with security principles is NOT a prerequisite for this course.
| Criteria | Percent of Grade |
| Homework Assignments (3 assignments, 10% each) | 30% |
| Class Participation | 10% |
| Reading Summaries: There is no primary textbook for this course. Reading assignments will be selected from various periodicals. Students will be required to read and submit brief summaries of assigned readings. | 10% |
| Project: In lieu of a final exam, each student must complete an independent project on a data privacy issue in biomedicine. Projects should investigate a topic of interest to the student, and must demonstrate analysis and critical thought. The project will require a significant commitment and contribute to a substantial part of the final grade. A list of sample project topics will be made available and reviewed in class. | 50% |
| (Initial Project Report) | (10%) |
| (Status Report) | (10%) |
| (Final Report & Presentation) | (30%) |
| Total | 100% |
Topic Overview - see Schedule