Medicine is (finally) in the middle of an information processing
revolution. Dramatic improvements in computer technology are making
possible comprehensive record-keeping systems, automated laboratories
and therapeutic devices, machine-learning techniques, and sophisticated
visualization techniques. Societal demands for cost-effective
care result in vast collections of clinical outcomes data that
provide opportunities to learn from experience. New organizational
structures for providing health care (such as HMO's) and an increased
importance of the role of the patient in his or her health care
provide additional new opportunities for innovative information
technologies.
This class will analyze the computational needs of clinical medicine,
review the history of interesting systems and approaches that
have begun to support those needs, and present the computer technologies
that appear most applicable to contributing to revolutionary advances.
We will also have numerous real databases available from Boston-area
hospitals, and the participation of doctors from those institutions
who are currently developing new systems and applications. Significant
emphasis will be placed on societally relevant issues such as
preserving confidentiality, security architectures and de-identification
of clinical databases.
Some of the homework and a final paper will be based on innovative
applications of sophisticated computing techniques to real clinical
data. We will explore topics in automated diagnosis, monitoring,
detection of errors in treatment, learning new models from data,
personalizing explanations to specific patients, etc. We will
also examine the architectures of comprehensive clinical information
systems.
Students are expected to have a flexible competence in programming,
because assignments will involve use of diverse databases and
programming languages. A knowledge of artificial intelligence
at the level of 6.034 will also be assumed, as many AI techniques
will find application in the class material. The class is open
to both undergraduate and graduate students, and will qualify
for Graduate H credit.
The course will be structured as a sequence of lectures with a substantial reading requirements. Students will rotate in presenting a summary of the reading assigned for that lecture. A short answer style mid term examination will be given. Each student will be expected to submit a final project along with a high quality paper describing the project.