MEBI 591 Overview & Logistics

• Room: Health Sciences RR134
• Time: Tuesdays 1-1:50pm
• Quarter: Fall 2006
• Instructor: Professor Wanda Pratt
  • Email:
  • Office: MGH 330L
  • Office Phone: 543-6653

Course Overview

• Content: This course provides a forum for students to critically read, present, and discuss research or articles on consumer health informatics topics. To have the kind of interactive class that everyone enjoys, students need to both attend class and participate in the discussions. By participating in class, students can demonstrate their understanding of the papers and topics and help others benefit from their perspective and experience.
• Readings will be available online through e-reserves as people submit their selections
• Format:
can follow any of several options
• Informal discussion of reading, led by speaker
• Speaker gives 20-25 minute presentation of a paper, followed by discussion and questions
• Speaker presents his or her own research to group with a minimum of 10 minutes remaining for questions and discussion

Objectives

This course will help students:

• improve their oral presentation skills
• increase their knowledge of the consumer health informatics literature
• learn about colleagues research and its relationship to consumer-health informatics
• gain experience critically reading and analyzing papers
• see various perspectives on the  field - both from the articles chosen and the class discussion
• use literature sources in which biomedical and health informatics issues are discussed and assessed
• improve their discussion skills
• get to know and understand the perspectives of their fellow students and faculty

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services: 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from DSS indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in the class. Academic accommodations due to disability will not be made unless the student has a letter from DSS specifying the type and nature of accommodations needed.

The essence of academic life revolves around respect not only for the ideas of others, but also their rights to those ideas and their promulgation. It is therefore essential that all of us engaged in the life of the mind take the utmost care that the ideas and expressions of ideas of other people always be appropriately handled, and, where necessary, cited.  For writing assignments, when ideas or materials of others are used, they must be cited. The format is not that important–as long as the source material can be located and the citation verified, it’s OK. What is important is that the material be cited.  In any situation, if you have a question, please feel free to ask.  Such attention to ideas and acknowledgment of their sources is central not only to academic life, but life in general.

Please acquaint yourself with the University of Washington's resources on academic honesty (http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm.

All of the expressions of ideas in this class that are fixed in any tangible medium such as digital and physical documents are protected by copyright law as embodied in title 17 of the United States Code. These expressions include the work product of both: (1) your student colleagues (e.g., any assignments published here in the course environment or statements committed to text in a discussion forum); and, (2) your instructors (e.g., the syllabus, assignments, reading lists, and lectures).  Within the constraints of "fair use", you may copy these copyrighted expressions for your personal intellectual use in support of your education here.  Such fair use by you does not include further distribution by any means of copying, performance or presentation beyond the circle of your close acquaintances, student colleagues in this class and your family. If you have any questions regarding whether a use to which you wish to put one of these expressions violates the creator's copyright interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

To support an academic environment of rigorous discussion and open expression of personal thoughts and feelings, we, as members of the academic community, must be committed to the inviolate right of privacy of our student and instructor colleagues.  As a result, we must forego sharing outside of class personally identifiable information about any member of our community including information about the ideas they express, their families, life styles and their political and social affiliations.  If you have any questions regarding whether a disclosure you wish to make regarding anyone in this course violates that person's privacy interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

Knowing violations of these principles of academic conduct, privacy or copyright may result in University disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct.

Good student conduct is important for maintaining a healthy course environment.  Please familiarize yourself with the University of Washington's Student Code of Conduct at:
http://www.washington.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html