Every EHR, every lab result, every imaging study rests on a foundation of basic computing concepts. In this module you'll build that foundation, and then see how it shapes the electronic health record itself: what's in it, how data gets into it, and why a beautifully engineered system can still fail if people can't use it. We deliberately skip the procurement-focused parts of the for-credit course (RFPs, vendor scoring, contracts) and keep its one durable lesson — that implementations succeed or fail on people and workflow, not technology.

Healthcare runs on data — but data is only useful if systems can share it. This module tackles one of the most technically complex and politically charged challenges in the field: getting healthcare systems to speak the same language. You'll learn to read a real clinical message the way an integration engineer does. We cover what standards are and why they matter, the problem of identifying patients, the message standards that move clinical data (HL7 v2 and the modern FHIR), the terminology systems that give clinical concepts shared meaning (LOINC, SNOMED CT, ICD-10), and how images move (DICOM and PACS). We close with health information exchange and the ONC Cures Act Final Rule.

This final module is where everything comes together. You've learned what the field is, how data is captured, and how systems talk. Now you'll see informatics applied to the hardest problems: keeping patients safe, extending care beyond the clinic walls, putting patients and populations at the center, protecting privacy, and harnessing AI responsibly. We open with a central tension — the same technology designed to make care safer can also make it more dangerous — then tour telemedicine and evidence-based medicine, consumer and public health informatics, privacy/security/ethics, and the AI-driven future.