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Health Informatics

SoC student and SFS scholar Miranda Jahn (left, red shirt) explains research on compromising a medical mannequin.
SoC student and SFS scholar Miranda Jahn (left, red shirt) explains research on compromising a medical mannequin.

SoC is the only school in the region to offer a major, in addition to a concentration, in Health Informatics (HI). Our research focus is on risk assessment of healthcare systems as well as health informatics curriculum development.

A number of our faculty working in Data Science are doing research in medical and bio- informatics, with some crossover and collaborative work with our health informatics faculty. Research in the HI field is often interdisciplinary, with investigators in the medical disciplines being frequent collaborators.

Recent HI research by SoC faculty and students includes:

â–¼   Reducing Medication Errors Through Clinical Simulation

Reducing Medication Errors Through Clinical Simulation
Participants:
Springhill Hospital
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀSchool of Computing
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀCollege of Nursing

Objectives:

Determine factors that lead to real-life clinical medication errors; Design and build a simulation that is able replication known factors as well as test the impact of proposed factors; Use findings to create a real-time decision support tool for clinicians; Use the simulator to train and evaluate student nurses.

â–¼   Mitchell Cancer Institute Cancer Survivor App

Participants:
Mitchell Cancer Institute
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀSchool of Computing
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀCollege of Nursing

Objectives:

Monitor patients’ health after receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatments; Track patient symptoms and provide support; Alert physicians to changes in the patient’s condition

â–¼   College of Medicine Patient Community Simulator

Participants:
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀCollege of Medicine
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀSchool of Computing

Project Objectives:

Develop an application that produces a virtual community with controllable attributes of age, ethnic, gender and other parameters. Model epidemiological, clinical, prophylactic and treatment parameters of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and atherosclerosis, including coronary artery disease and stroke, among appropriate number of individuals of the virtual patient community. Allow all virtual patients to progress based on natural history, prophylaxis and treatment of diseases so that each student can follow a group of virtual patients throughout their lifetimes.

â–¼   Investigating Factors Impacting Hospital Readmission Rates

Participants:
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀSchool of Computing
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀCollege of Nursing
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀCenter for Strategic Health Innovation

Data Source: CMS - 2011 Medicare Claims Data, 5% sample

Project Objectives:

Identify factors leading to patient readmission for a number of common diseases; suggest actions that providers can take to mitigate the negative impact of these factors and reduce readmission events.

â–¼   Medical Device Security Research

Participants:
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀSchool of Computing
Â鶹Ïà¹Ø±¨µÀCollege of Nursing

Objectives:

Examine the electronic devices used in both training healthcare workers and providing treatment to patients. Identify security vulnerabilities in medical devices and work with healthcare providers and manufacturers to mitigate risk using various sources and a risk management perspective, we developed a health information security and privacy threat tree. We defined 25 nodes (threats), breaking them down into key risk-related data attributes: threat source and action, the health information asset and its vulnerability, and potential controls. The identified threats related to the disclosure of health information by insiders and outsiders, and the manipulation of health information by vandalism, loss, or corruption of data. The construction of such a threat catalog is argued to be useful for risk assessment and to inform public healthcare policy.

 

Contact Us
Dr. Ryan Benton
Chair of CS,
Associate Professor
(251)-460-7361
rbenton@southalabama.edu
Dr. David Bourrie David Bourrie
Associate Professor
(251)-461-1761
dbourrie@southalabama.edu
Dr. Matt Campbell

Matt Campbell
Associate Professor,
HI Curriculum Coordinator

(251)-461-1602
mattcampbell@southalabama.edu
Dr. Jingshan Huang Jingshan Huang
Professor
(251)-460-7612
huang@southalabama.edu
Dr. Tom Johnsten Tom Johnsten
Professor
(251)-461-1599
tjohnsten@southalabama.edu
Dr. Jeff Landry Jeff Landry
Professor,
IS Curriculum Coordinator
(251)-461-1596
jlandry@southalabama.edu
Dr. Harold Pardue

Harold Pardue
Professor,
Dean of Graduate Studies 

(251)-461-1600
hpardue@southalabama.edu