(Same as Information Studies M254.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Designed for graduate students. Introduction to networking, communications, and information infrastructures in medical environment. Exposure to basic concepts related to networking at several levels: low-level (TCP/IP, services), medium-level (network topologies), and high-level (distributed computing, Web-based services) implementations. Commonly used medical communication protocols (HL7, DICOM) and current medical information systems (HIS, RIS, PACS). Advances in networking, such as wireless health systems, peer-to-peer topologies, grid/cloud computing. Introduction to security and encryption in networked environments. Letter grading.