This course teaches the design of contemporary information systems for biological and medical data. Examples are chosen 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. Students are expected to have some familiarity with scientific application software and a basic understanding of at least one contemporary programming language (e.g. C, C++, Java, Lisp, Perl, Python). A major term project is required of all students. This subject is open to motivated seniors having a strong interest in biomedical engineering and information system design with the ability to carry out a significant independent project.
This course was offered as part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) program as course number SMA 5304.

This innovative, trans-faculty subject teaches how information technologies (IT) are reshaping and redefining the health care marketplace through improved economies of scale, greater technical efficiencies in the delivery of care to patients, advanced tools for patient education and self-care, network integrated decision support tools for clinicians, and the emergence of e-commerce in health care. Student tutorials provide an opportunity for interactive discussion. Interdisciplinary project teams comprised of Harvard and MIT graduate students in medicine, business, law, education, engineering, computer science, public health, and government collaborate to design innovative IT applications. Projects are presented during the final class.
Starting in Spring 2010, this course will be titled Enabling Technology Innovation in Healthcare and the Life Sciences.

 The course seeks to familiarize the learners with the possibilities involved in the management of diabetes and hypertension. This course is to make medical knowledge simpler and accessible for common people. This will help reduce anxiety about the diseases. Reduction in the incidence of threatening complications like cerebral stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, blindness,  diabetic foot and amputations is the goal we need to achieve. The health-aware person, a learner of this course, can be a patient itself, a relative, a neighbor, or anyone from society. Some basic education and a will to help the patient is all that is required. 

 The course seeks to familiarize the learners with the possibilities involved in the management of diabetes and hypertension. This course is to make medical knowledge simpler and accessible for common people. This will help reduce anxiety about the diseases. Reduction in the incidence of threatening complications like cerebral stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, blindness,  diabetic foot and amputations is the goal we need to achieve. The health-aware person, a learner of this course, can be a patient itself, a relative, a neighbor, or anyone from society. Some basic education and a will to help the patient is all that is required. 

 The course seeks to familiarize the learners with the possibilities involved in the management of diabetes and hypertension. This course is to make medical knowledge simpler and accessible for common people. This will help reduce anxiety about the diseases. Reduction in the incidence of threatening complications like cerebral stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, blindness,  diabetic foot and amputations is the goal we need to achieve. The health-aware person, a learner of this course, can be a patient itself, a relative, a neighbor, or anyone from society. Some basic education and a will to help the patient is all that is required. 

 The course seeks to familiarize the learners with the possibilities involved in the management of diabetes and hypertension. This course is to make medical knowledge simpler and accessible for common people. This will help reduce anxiety about the diseases. Reduction in the incidence of threatening complications like cerebral stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, blindness,  diabetic foot and amputations is the goal we need to achieve. The health-aware person, a learner of this course, can be a patient itself, a relative, a neighbor, or anyone from society. Some basic education and a will to help the patient is all that is required.