The 36-semester hour graduate program in Healthcare Informatics provides clinicians with knowledge and experience that allows them to function as valued team members selecting, installing, adopting, employing, evaluating, and optimizing healthcare-related IT systems, such as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), in today’s healthcare delivery systems. The clinical objectives of healthcare informatics are to enhance individual and population health outcomes, improve patient care, and strengthen the clinician-patient relationship. This program emphasizes translational, communication and interpersonal skills during the selection, implementation, and optimization of healthcare IT systems while providing a solid base in informatics practice, analytics tools, and the management, capture, analysis, and governance of healthcare data. These skills are necessary for effective change management of healthcare providers, for knowledge management in the institution, and for effective communication of key information and insights to both colleagues and senior decision makers.
Program Goals
A successful student of the program gains the following skills (vary according to the degree/concentration taken):
- Lead healthcare information technology teams to analyze healthcare-related IT systems;
- Evaluate today’s analytic tools to select the appropriate tools for data analyses;
- Lead healthcare information technology teams to develop innovative techniques;
- Leverage insights from analysis of healthcare data and evaluation of the socio-political environment to devise programs aimed at improving the health of the community; and,
- Apply appropriate principles to create clear and effective communications for a variety of audiences.
