Integrating boinformatics, clinical informatics, and information technology in support of interdisciplinary curriculum development

Recent events in both the health care and research community have increased the opportunities available for information technology and systems integration professionals. In health care, mandatory performance specifications in electronic health care records set forth by the United States federal government have placed essentially all aspects of information technology center stage within healthcare. Similarly in scientific research, the completion of the human genome in 2001 has forced researchers to become dependent upon the capabilities of information sciences and technology to convert genomic data into new knowledge regarding human disease, diagnostics and drug discovery. This manuscript describes our next step in the development of a fully integrated Biomedical Informatics curriculum within the realm of information technology, describing three distinct courses developed for computer and information technology students.