Biomedical Informatics at Stanford and Boston (Harvard, MIT, BU, and Tufts)

Many of my friends went to Stanford. I chose to head out to the East Coast, so I ended up at MIT. As a result, I made many friends at MIT, Harvard, Tufts, and Boston University. Stanford has a Biomedical Informatics program that I'd like to write about. This program, the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR), used to be called Stanford Medical Informatics. Back in 2007, Stanford changed the name from Stanford Medical Informatics to the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research. Here's a little snippet from their website:

The BMI training program encompasses bioinformatics, clinical informatics, and public health informatics. Bioinformatics focuses on methods for relevant to basic biology. Clinical informatics focuses on methods relevant to patient care. Public health informatics focuses on methods relevant to entire health systems.

Now, if you head to the east coast, you'll find the BIRT. What's BIRT?

The Boston-area Biomedical Informatics Research Training (BIRT) program is a consortium of leading informatics laboratories at Harvard, MIT, Boston University, and Tufts and is supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine. BIRT participants comprise a vibrant academic community of individuals with diverse backgrounds and broad-ranging interests, providing fellows with many opportunities for interaction and collaboration.

Speaking of BIRT, here are the different labs that offer programs:

Harvard
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center	Division of Clinical Informatics
Brigham and Women's Hospital	Center for Clinical and Quality Analysis
	Decision Systems Group
Children's Hospital	Children's Hospital Informatics Program
Massachusetts General Hospital	Laboratory of Computer Science
Partners Healthcare	Center for Information Technology Leadership
	Clinical Informatics Research & Development
School of Public Health	School of Public Health
MIT	Clinical Decision Making Group
Tufts Medical Center	Division of Clinical Decision Making, Informatics, and Telemedicine
Boston University	Medical Information Systems Unit

e-prescribing in Massachusetts

Boston has several different medical schools and affiliated hospitals. Can you name all of them? You have Harvard, Boston University, and Tufts (the UMass medical school is in Amherst). Is it any surprise that Massachusetts has been named the top e-prescribing state for the second year in a row by Surescripts? According to Surescripts, prescribers in Massachusetts sent more than 6.7 million prescriptions electronically in 2008, representing 20.5 percent of all eligible prescriptions in the state. That number is only going to increase because of ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Here's some more interesting info from Healthcare IT News:

Top 10 e-prescribing states

1. Massachusetts
2. Rhode Island
3. Michigan
4. Nevada
5. Delaware
6. North Carolina
7. Pennsylvania
8. Connecticut
9. Maine
10. Arizona

The top five most improved states:

1. Vermont
2. Tennessee
3. Kansas
4. Illinois
5. Missouri

Is your state on any of these lists? It's going to be very interesting to see all the changes that occur as President Obama channels money to improve the utilization of e-prescribing.

Craigslist killing suspect was a model student

According to this report on CNN.com, Philip Markoff was a "model student" and his fiancee maintained his innocence in an e-mail to ABC News and wrote that Philip Markoff "is the wrong man" and "was set up." It's so hard to know what goes through the minds of people who commit murder. Markoff was a second year student at Boston University where his peers and colleagues thought that he was a fairly normal guy. Is it possible that the stress of medical school caused him to snap? Is it possible that he succumbed to some strange mental illness during medical school? After all, he's in that age group where psychosis and schizophrenia begin to manifest symptoms.

Tragic Story: Philip Markoff, the Craigslist Killer?

As someone who spent 4 years in Boston at MIT, this sad story hits home for me. A Boston University medical student named Philip Markoff has been charged with the murder of Julissa Brisman, a 26-year-old masseuse who advertised on craigslist. I've used craigslist for many things: to buy and sell merchandise, to find job candidates, and much more. It's a great service and there are some people who offer (or sell) their services online.

I'm sure this isn't the last time we're going to hear about Philip Markoff. He was charged today and he plead "not guilty" so we'll have to see where this goes. He's currently being held without bail for the fatal shooting of Brisman. This story makes me think about television shows like CSI. I don't usually watch TV unless I'm at the gym. I admit that I'll watch CSI if I'm running on the treadmill or using the eliptical. Without a doubt, medical technology has improved our ability to solve crimes by analyzing biological evidence. Let's hope that the evidence leads to the correct diagnosis of this criminal case.

Incentives to Boost Health IT Adoption in Massachusetts

The state of Massachusetts has seen an impressive uptake of health IT because of incentives from health plans and a state-mandated deadline to have computerized physician order entry (CPOE) implemented in all hospitals within four years. Plus, with all those medical universities like Harvard, Tufts, Boston University, and U Mass Amherst, you have a state with a huge resource of technologists and scientists developing EHRs that are tailored for their health systems.

Online Master of Science in Health Communication

Boston University (BU) offers an Online Master of Science in Health Communication. For those of you who are considering a career transition into medical communications, you may want to look into this relatively new degree program. I miss my days in Boston. It's such a wonderful city for a college student. However, if you don't live in Boston, you can still get educated by some of the great colleges in New England. Boston University is an internationally respected university with a reputation for excellence and extensive research and ranks among the Top 100 National Universities according to U.S. News & World Report college rankings. Boston University is regionally accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC).

Master of Science in Health Communication

Interested in health communications? Medical writing?

Well, two major schools in the Boston area are offering a Master of Science in Health Communication

Tufts and Boston University

The program at BU is an online multidisciplinary program consisting of 10 courses. The program at Tufts is offered by Tufts University Medical School in collaboration with Emerson College.