Health Informatics: New Focus Areas!

Course overview for the Health Informatics program

In total, students enrolled in the Master’s program complete 10 required courses and two electives for a total of 12 courses.

1. The Healthcare and Public Health Landscape
2. Introduction to Health Informatics
3. Healthcare Quality
4. Computer Science for Health Informatics Professionals
5. Database Design, Standards, Access, Modeling
6. Health Information Legislation, Compliance, Privacy and Security
7. Project Management
8. Information Analysis and Visualization: Turning Data into Insight
9. Emerging Opportunities in Health (Practicum experience)
10. Master’s Project (Paper capstone project)
    
    
11. First elective of your choice (focus area class)
12. Second elective of your choice (focus area class)

Many professionals have found it convenient to begin the Health Informatics program by earning their Graduate Certificate, and then make the decision whether to finish out their Master’s degree.

Health Informatics Focus Area: Healthcare Leadership

The ‘Healthcare Leadership’ focus area was created for students who may already have a career in Health Informatics, and are looking to move up to the next level of leadership.

These electives are designed for professionals looking to move up the career ladder or looking to move into a leadership position. The coursework in this focus area centers around strategic planning, development of initiatives, financial management budgeting, leadership skills, leadership tactics, supply chain, and of course, finance and economics.

The two courses that make up this focus area are:

• Leadership and Strategic Management in Healthcare Settings
• Healthcare Finance and Economics

This focus area is designed for professionals who wish to work toward becoming a leader in the field of healthcare.

Health Informatics Focus Area: Health Data Analytics

The ‘Health Data Analytics’ focus area is particularly valuable in today’s world, as data and the analysis of data are evident in virtually every aspect of our daily lives. We designed this focus area to reinforce skill areas that are in high demand in today’s job market.

The two courses that make up this focus area are:

• Foundations and Data Analytics
• Advanced Concepts and Analytics

The content of these courses centers around data mining and warehousing, statistical computing and visualization, predictive modeling, and machine learning. These data-heavy courses round out a rigorous and robust program.

Health Informatics Focus Area: Training and Development

To develop our new ‘Training and Development’ focus area, we partnered with another program within the College of Graduate Professional Studies, the Graduate Programs in Education. Recent standards and best practices have shown that to be effective, trainers need to be proficient in adult learning theories and solid communication techniques.

The two courses that make up this focus area are:

• Adult Learning Theory
• Communications for Healthcare Leaders

The content of these courses centers around adult learning theory as it pertains to training in IT settings, effective written, visual and oral communication techniques, and communication techniques to inform instructional programming.

This focus area is designed for professionals who wish to develop their careers in corporate training, large multi-system implementations of technology, or educational programming within the healthcare technology integration sector.

Focus area: Generalist

Students are also able to choose whichever two electives suit them and their career goals best, by choosing any two elective courses in the Master’s degree course plan. These two electives of their choosing allow students to complete their degree with a Generalist focus.

If you were to have a professional goal that is not satisfied by any of the three focus areas, you can choose your own path that meets your educational and professional goals.