"Contemporary Issues in Health Informatics"

ABSTRACT:
Georgia Tech and Emory are discussing the formation of a new School of Biomedical Informatics. This talk will provide some of the background for the field and will review its principle domains; it will explain why one of the key domains – clinical information systems – has become a national priority; it will provide an introduction to the other domains and it will explain how they all relate to contemporary challenges facing the health care delivery system in the US.
 
BIO:
Dr. Braunstein teaches health informatics and is involved in research aimed at wider and deeper adoption of health information technology to improve the quality and efficiency of care delivery. He was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Patient Care Technologies, Inc. ("PtCT"), an ATDC Graduate company, a 1998 Inc 500 company, and a leading provider of electronic patient record and care management systems to the home care industry. PtCT was acquired by MEDITECH in 2007. He received his BS degree from MIT in 1969 and his MD degree from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 1974. After an internship at Washington University he joined the faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy at MUSC until he left in 1978 to co-found PROHECA, an early developer of clinical pharmacy systems. PROHECA was acquired by National Data Corporation (NDC) in 1981 and was the seed for NDCHealth. At NDC he ran what was then the NDC Healthcare Division for five years and was the company’s President and COO for three years until he left in 1990 to co-found PtCT. He is the author of over fifty papers; articles and book chapters devoted to various aspects of clinical automation. His most recent publication is "Searching for the Holy Grail: Integrated Electronic Medical Records and Beyond," a chapter he co-authored for the book "e-Healthcare: Harness the Power of Internet e-Commerce and e-Care," edited by Douglas E. Goldstein and published by Aspen. He is Senior Adviser for health information technology to Focus, LLC, an investment banking firm that provides a range of services tailored to the needs of emerging growth and middle market businesses from offices across the country. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of the Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures (GATV) -- a corporation that supports the Advanced Technology Development Center, a technology incubator operated by the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a past Chairman of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region and of the Atlanta Chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. He won a 1996 Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Southeast Region, received a 1995 Innovation in Medical Management Award from the American Society of Physician Executives and received the 2006 Founder’s Award from the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, a family physician and co-author of the book "Your Body, Your Health."