20.453J / 2.771J / HST.958J Biomedical Information Technology (BE.453J), Spring 2005

Abstract

The objective of this subject is to teach the design of contemporary information systems for biological and medical data. These data are growing at a prodigious rate, and new information systems are required. This subject will cover examples from biology and medicine to illustrate complete life cycle information systems, beginning with data acquisition, following to data storage and finally to retrieval and analysis. Design of appropriate databases, client-server strategies, data interchange protocols, and computational modeling architectures will be covered. Students are expected to have some familiarity with scientific application software and a basic understanding of at least one contemporary programming language (C, C++, Java, Lisp, Perl, Python, etc.). A major term project is required of all students. Reading is assigned from the contemporary literature, and there is occasional homework.