Health informatics (HI) has traditionally been focused on technology for health care providers. However, HI is now transforming health care on many other fronts, such as by addressing consumers' needs for health information (i.e., consumer health informatics). This course will provide students with an overview of the role of consumer health informatics in changing the face of our health care system. Consumer health informatics trends and applications such as artificial intelligence, will the explored, and relevant theoretical frameworks for the creation of consumer health informatics will be reviewed. Another emerging area of HI is public health informatics. This is the application of information and communication technology to the field of public health to support and enhance public health practice and business processes, with the ultimate goal of improving population health.

The course will provide students with an overview of the function and activities of public health agencies and authorities in Canada, which will allow for a better understanding of the need and uses of technology in public health practice and research for syndromic surveillance, immunization management, etc. Populations around the world face different health challenges and live within different health care systems. This course will provide examples of the use of HI to improve health in various regions across the world (i.e., global health informatics). This will provide students with a broad perspective of the potential applications of HI appropriate for populations around the world. An overarching theme throughout the course will be the ethical and societal impact of consumer, public, and global health informatics.

Objectives: students will: 1) Gain an understanding of the breadth, relevance, and emerging trends of consumer, public, and global health informatics applications in improving health and health care.2) Examine and analyze select current consumer, public, and global health informatics projects underway nationally and internationally. 3) Compare and evaluate current consumer information technologies. 4) Gain an understanding of the role of health information systems, such as disease registries and surveillance systems in supporting and enhancing public health activities and improving population health. 5) Gain an understanding of the structure, function and activities of public health agencies in Canada.