Teaching information management

Managing in the present chaotic hospital financing environment requires integrated clinical/financial data systems and people who know how to use them. Health care management students of the present and future will need to understand how these information systems are structured and used. This article describes a graduate course in integrated clinical/financial information management as it has evolved at Yale University. The course provides students a vicarious experience in information management through class sessions and exercises using a database of real patient and cost center level information. Health care management of the future will depend on interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships in education between provider organizations and academic programs. Both are modeled in the course.