BMI 5004 Introduction to Clinical Healthcare

3 semester credit hours
Lecture contact hours: 2; Lab contact hours: 3
Classroom instruction
Lab Fee: $30

This course will present a survey of modern American clinical health care for students without a health care background who are entering fields that interact with health care such as biomedical informatics, cancer biology, and translational science. It is not a health care system course and is not intended to teach students how to practice medicine. The course is not appropriate for students who have a health care background (e.g., international medical graduates). We will focus on how clinical health care is delivered, rather than on health care financing, administration, regulation or governance. Students will attend lectures and “mini rotations” during which they will visit operational health care settings including outpatient clinics (pediatric and adult), emergency departments, intensive care units, clinical research and surgical settings. Major medical specialties including pediatrics, emergency medicine, internal medicine, radiology, etc. are presented. Students will interact with a variety of clinical practitioners.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will:

• Compare and contrast the major roles in health care including physician, nurse, allied health practitioner, administrator.
• Compare and contrast a variety of practice settings (e.g., emergency department, outpatient clinic, intensive care unit) and clinical specialties (e.g., internal medicine, surgery, pathology, radiology).
• Understand how existing clinical systems are being used in clinical environments.