CI and electronic patiend record app

[eluser]jetzkr8[/eluser]
Just an add on question to this topic. I am also new (and charged up) at learning CI. OO concept is totally new to me, I always end up trying to figure how it would be procedurally (the memory structure etc).

I have worked quite a bit with Joomla! and know many things inside it is already made up and applying modules here and there, menu systems already setup etc.

My question is, would applying CI to handle core functionalities and using Joomla! as front-end be practical?

Possibly, are there any full-fledged examples starting off from scratch using Ci alone into a complete application? I could learn fast enough with such example. CI is well documented as reference to concept and classes; There exist a very good blog example video but this does not cover the basics of a full-fledge application - header, footer, template, user authentication, sessions setup and handling etc. Sorry if this is a tall order, but such an example will be most welcome.