Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics
Optimize the use of information in healthcare services for better healthcare delivery, management, & planning
UNE Online’s Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics program benefits the student by rounding out their professional experience and formal training as they become more professionally established. This field is growing rapidly, and a graduate certificate can provide students the skills needed to hit the ground running in a related healthcare career.
12
Credits
Each of the four courses has been designed by health data experts & built with employer demand in mind.
6
Months to Complete
Gain advanced credentials in one semester, or less, with dedicated coaching & support.
8
Week Course Length
Concentrated learning with ready-to-use skills for modern health.
Graduate Certificate Curriculum
The Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Informatics requires you to complete 12 credit hours of required courses:
This course provides an overview of the history, challenges, and opportunities facing healthcare administrators today. Topics will include the ongoing transition from a pay-for-services model of healthcare delivery to accountable care networks, emerging public health and healthcare partnerships, and the need for analytics that can address the particular characteristics of big health data.
This course introduces students to central health informatics tools, techniques, and concepts used to improve health outcomes through technology. Students explore various healthcare technology platforms, how data is used in healthcare, and how the need for cybersecurity and health data privacy shape the information infrastructure that powers modern healthcare. This course offers students a framework for deeper understanding of many of the concepts explored in subsequent coursework.
This course explores the dynamic between healthcare delivery and leveraging data for enhanced patient outcomes. Given an increased scrutiny on empirical value-based care metrics for payer reimbursement, the strategic use of data will be key in new continuum of care models. Students will complete this course with a solid understanding of healthcare quality standards, the regulations around those standards, and how they are affected by the use of technology and data analysis. Key themes will include quality improvement methodologies, measuring and interpreting quality data, strategies to increase healthcare process reliability.
The field of health informatics depends on advanced computing systems to collect health data and analytical sophistication to make sense of that data. This course provides students with a solid understanding of the computer science that undergirds the entire field, exploring the design and implementation of database systems and technology applications, data communications, and systems analysis. Students will learn to identify current and emerging information technologies that may have strategic value for enterprise solutions, assess where those technologies may have strategic value, and explore methods for implementing those technologies in their organizations.
All courses are graduate-level and taught in eight-week terms, allowing you to take two courses each term. The Health Informatics graduate certificate is two semesters in length, which is the time equivalent of eight months (presuming you choose to take a regular course load consisting of one course each eight-week term, two courses per semester). To accelerate earning your certificate, you may complete the program in six months or less by taking more than one course each eight-week term.
Choose Your Own Start Time
The Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics can fit into your busy schedule with multiple start times throughout the year. UNE Online offers rolling admission with three separate start times—Spring, Summer, and Fall—so you can begin as soon as you’re ready to start.
Start with a Graduate Certificate, Transfer it to a Master’s Degree Later
Students who successfully complete the graduate certificate can “stack” earned credits into UNE’s 100% online Master of Science in Health Informatics (MSIN) degree program. This can be done immediately or within several years after completion of the graduate certificate. Reach out to an enrollment counselor at informatics@une.edu or (855) 751-4445 for more details on this opportunity.
After completing the four courses in the Healthcare Informatics Graduate Certificate, to earn the Master of Science in Health Informatics, students would then need to take the following seven courses:
This course explores legislation and regulation relating to health informatics. The course will examine the major laws and agency regulations governing healthcare technology, data collection, management, and privacy, as well as the security standards required for healthcare and health-related organizations. Students will explore the intent behind, and ethical dimensions of health informatics regulatory frameworks, using case studies of recent health information uses, security breaches, and challenges to interoperability. This course will also look ahead to the impact of future Health IT regulations.
This course explores in depth database basics such as the relational algebra and data model, schema normalization, query optimization, and transactions. The course addresses current needs in database design and use for optimized human-computer interaction, for rigorous security, and for robust modeling that can transform raw data into useful information. This course will also provide a deep exploration into data standards and what part that plays in the field of Informatics. Students will gain a solid understanding of, and extensive practice with, structured query language (SQL).
The implementation or integration of major projects or initiatives, such as a new healthcare technology system requires careful planning and organization. This course will provide students with widely-accepted concepts and skills that can be used and scaled to successfully complete projects of varying sizes. Through course work, students will gain experience with the common language used by professionals involved in project management. Students will explore concepts of project charter, work breakdown structures, scheduling, risk planning, and project reporting.
Large data sets are not useful in their native state. Informaticists have to begin by defining the question that will be answered by the data and then organizing, analyzing, and visualizing the dataset. Analytics provide meaningful patterns in the data, and data visualization communicates the information clearly through graphical means. This course is designed to familiarize students with core concepts in communicating information through effective data visualization. This course introduces students to data visualization elements and best practices in data visualization using Tableau and Gephi. Students will gain hands on experience building explanatory and exploratory visualizations using healthcare data.
This course begins the 16 week capstone experience in Health Informatics by providing students the opportunity to implement what they have learned through the examination of trends, technologies, and opportunities facing the field. Examining cutting-edge developments in the science and practice of informatics will provide students with a broader understanding of where health informatics may be heading, as well as the challenges facing the field. Students will write a review of the literature pertaining to aspects of their practicum experience in the context of shrinking the research-practice gap. Additionally, at the end of the course, students will describe their practicum journey and future plans via an ignite presentation.
Plus 2 electives
Free HIMSS Membership for Students
UNE Online is a proud Organizational Affiliate and Approved Education Partner of the global HIMSS network. As a recognized Approved Education Partner, HIMSS acknowledges UNE’s commitment to quality academic content in health technology and innovation, the ability to cultivate leadership proficiencies, and instruction from distinguished faculty.
Students enrolled in the health informatics graduate program, including the graduate certificate offerings, are eligible to join the global health technology network for free providing you the opportunity to network with industry professionals, take advantage of career services, discover professional opportunities, and much more.
Transfer Credit Policy
Upon acceptance, students may apply to transfer up to one, 3-credit course (maximum three semester credits) into the Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics program.
In order to be considered for transfer into the Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics program, the course must:
- Be classified as graduate level.
- Have been taken within five years of application.
- Have been completed with a grade of “B” or better.
- Be equivalent to one of the required program courses or an elective course that meets the goals of the student’s education.
- To request consideration for transfer credit, a student must provide an official transcript and a course syllabus for each course. Your enrollment counselor or student support specialist can assist you with this request.
Graduates leave our program having achieved the following learning outcomes:
- Understand the American healthcare system and the effects technology and data have had on it.
- Understand the complex system of legal and regulatory compliance that governs the healthcare system.
- Apply core concepts of database design to facilitate managing the large amounts of data produced and captured in the healthcare setting.
- Understand foundational concepts and theories of leadership and management, especially with respect to data-driven business intelligence.
- Apply technology and the healthcare quality framework to meet the goals of the triple aim of improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of health care.
- Analyze, evaluate, and apply the range of tools needed to implement new technology, including identifying, evaluating, selecting, implementing, and upgrading technological systems.
- Evaluate the ways new and developing healthcare technology trends influence world-wide health outcomes, and propose potential technology-based solutions for increasing world-wide health outcomes.
- Understand and apply project management tools, concepts, and best practices to oversee the successful completion of complex projects.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the Health Informatics coursework or the program requirements, please speak to one of our enrollment counselors at the email or phone number below.