A description of some of the topics that will be covered in class follows below. Related resources are provided for each topic.
R for reading V for video T for twitter account
Table of Contents
Mobile Health (mHealth), Digital Health and Electronic Health records (EHRs)
Mobile Health (mHealth) is the field defined as “medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices”, such as smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices.
- Mobile Health R
- Is telemedicine the future of healthcare? V
- Federated Learning in Medicine: Breaking Down Silos to Advance Medical Research – Thomas Clozel, 5 Nov 2019 V
- https://twitter.com/mHealthInsight T
Personalized Medicine (Precision Medicine)
In Personalized (or Precision) Medicine, the medical treatment to an individual is guided by the individual’s genetic information. The doctors select treatments that are most likely to help patients based on a genetic understanding of their disease.
- Medical Marvels: Precision Medicine and a Doctor/Patient collaboration stops cancer in its tracks, 26 Feb 2019 V
- Introduction to Big Data at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine – Olivier Elemento, 2 Aug 2020 V
- https://twitter.com/PMWCintl T
Deep Learning
Deep learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that uses mathematical models (neural networks) to complete complex classification tasks. Deep learning in healthcare has been applied in many forms, medical imaging and diagnostics, decision support systems, electronic medical records systems, drug discovery, disease prediction, and more.
- Decoding the human genome with deep learning models – Olga Troyanskaya, 3 Feb 2020 V
- Sakellaropoulos T, Vougas K, Narang S, et al. A Deep Learning Framework for Predicting Response to Therapy in Cancer. Cell Rep. 2019;29(11):3367-3373.e4. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2019.11.017 R
- Khosravi P, Kazemi E, Zhan Q, et al. Deep learning enables robust assessment and selection of human blastocysts after in vitro fertilization. NPJ Digit Med. 2019;2:21. Published 2019 Apr 4. doi:10.1038/s41746-019-0096-y R
Epigenomics
Epigenomics is the field that studies epigenetic modifications on the genetic material of a cell, such as post-translational modifications and DNA methylation. Epigenetic changes do not alter the nucleic acids, and are heritable.
- Precision Medicine for Astronauts and COVID Patients – Chris Mason, 13 Aug 2020 V
- EpiMap – Manolis Kellis, 16 Dec 2020 V
Genetic Privacy
The discussion around the ability to identify individuals or infer specific characteristics of individuals based on their genetic sequence.
Decision Support Systems in Healthcare
Computer-based programs that analyze data within electronic health records and provide timely information to assist healthcare providers in making decisions about a patient’s care.
- Automation in nursing support systems – Saba Akbar, 23 Nov 2020 V
- Understanding the Basics of Clinical Decision Support Systems R
Natural Language Processing
Natural language processing (NLP) is an artificial intelligence branch that allows computers to analyze and interpret speech and text. In healthcare NLP has been used in a plethora of applications, from speech recognition, data mining research, chatbots, clinical documentation, to population surveillance, and computational phenotyping.
- Overview of NLP Applications in Healthcare in 8 minutes V
- Natural Language Processing In 10 Minutes V
- Sutton RT, Pincock D, Baumgart DC, Sadowski DC, Fedorak RN, Kroeker KI. An overview of clinical decision support systems: benefits, risks, and strategies for success. NPJ Digit Med. 2020;3:17. Published 2020 Feb 6. doi:10.1038/s41746-020-0221-y R
Evolutionary Genomics
The field that studies how genetic variation contributes to evolutionary changes.
