While a wide range of opportunities exist, a nationwide survey indicates that health informatics jobs take longer to fill. Recognizing the need to train workers in this field, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) prioritized transforming health information management to a graduate-level profession and proposed the establishment of a master’s degree for advanced practice roles.
As part of the M.S. in Health Informatics curriculum, you’ll develop your competency in key areas including data analytics, math and computer science. You’ll learn from highly qualified faculty members with extensive expertise within each discipline. Your in-depth, 12-week courses in data analytics, database management, and data visualization and reporting will prepare you to integrate information technology systems, applications and principles into the short- and long-term goals of a healthcare organization.
You’ll learn how to collect, analyze and prepare data to create dashboards that communicate critical business insights. From being able to present a clear picture of current medications and dosing times to tracking patient wait times throughout the treatment process, you’ll learn to use the most popular visualization tools to structure and streamline data to highlight implications.
You’ll take an enterprise-wide look at various types of data collected by an organization as a way of learning the concepts and methods for managing, maintaining and securing that information. In addition, an introduction to data analytics will provide you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with current statistical software, statistical inference methods for informed decision making, and ethical principles of data analytics.
Recommend policies, procedures and systems that manage information as a healthcare asset
Health information is more than protected information. It’s also an asset that can be used in pursuit of the “Triple Aim,” a term coined by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement that refers to simultaneously improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations and reducing the per capita cost of healthcare.
As part of your Health Information Governance course, you’ll examine healthcare policies, guidelines, standards, processes and controls required to manage health information at the enterprise level. You’ll recognize that health information is not only a necessary element for treatment, but also a significant part of a business case, and as such, protocols to manage and maintain the integrity of that information are invaluable to individuals, to organizations and to the healthcare industry.
Healthcare takes place in a physical space where treatment is administered, but also in the space where information is obtained by clinicians and maintained over time. In your examination of the requirements for clinical workflow and application, you’ll take a closer look at the link between improving patient care to clinical workflow mapping and change management.
Tailor your studies to your interests
Your six-week capstone course is the culmination of your master’s-level studies and an opportunity for you to identify a healthcare issue and address it through a health informatics solution. Curious about treatment and readmission rates at substance abuse clinics? Is it better to buy or rent an MRI machine? You will assess a real-world situation that interests you and propose a strategic solution, as well as implementation and evaluation plans.
Gain the foundational knowledge to sit for national exams
As a graduate of the M.S. in Health Informatics program, you’ll be able to combine your learning with your healthcare experience to qualify for several national industry certification exams including: the Certified Professional in Health Informatics (CPHI), the Certified Health Data Analyst (CHDA), the Certified in Healthcare Privacy and Security (CHPS) and the Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS).