Health informatics is one of the fastest growing fields in the country. As a result of many factors, including technology innovation and new federal legislation, all things “health” are the foci of radical changes in this country. Graduates of the health informatics program will be at the forefront of this transformation. You will obtain knowledge and analytical skills relating to individual health, health care delivery, and population health. You will also master concepts and acquire methodological skills from information science; behavioral, cognitive and organizational science; health policy; and highly powered analytics. You will develop skills in systems analysis, planning, development, and implementation.
Through the MHI core curriculum, students learn:
- The structure of the U.S. health system
- How work is done in health organizations and agencies
- Basic concepts in the field of health information and related systems
- Fundamentals of data management, statistical analysis, computing, and project management
Through MHI electives, students focus on current trends in health informatics such as:
- Consumer-facing applications of technology that support personal health outside of clinical settings, such as wellness programs, personal health records, mobile health, and decision support tools
- Design and evaluation of information systems that support clinical work in formal health care settings, including hospitals, office practices, and long term care facilities
- Population health including looking across individuals through epidemiological analysis and data mining, supporting epidemic detection and tracking, and improving public health practice at the local, state, and national levels
A central feature of the program is the internship component:
The program focuses on developing the skills required to create health information systems and resources that are truly useful to those who interact with them. This requires a deep understanding of the context and the goals of the systems’ end users, and an ability to translate their requirements into designs that are practical to implement and support, and that can accommodate the high rate of change that is characteristic of the health sector. Through the internship experience students integrate conceptual understanding of health issues with a strong ability to recognize unique requirements of each setting.
