What is healthcare informatics?
Tuesday, September 08, 2015 | 12:00 AM
Healthcare is one of the few industries that has been consistently expanding over the last few decades, regardless of economic conditions. One of the fastest growing fields within healthcare is health informatics. If you are seeking a satisfying and well-paying job in this specialty, you should consider pursuing a Master of Science in Health Sciences.
What is health informatics?
One of the challenges for healthcare providers today is to enter, process and manage the growing volume of healthcare data. Healthcare informatics is the field concerned with providing higher quality healthcare for patients by acquiring, storing and managing data more efficiently. When you work in this field, you will be responsible for handling important data such as electronic medical records.
There are specialties within this field, such as nursing and clinical informatics. If you pursue a master's degree with the intention of working in the health informatics field, you will have to take courses that are focused on IT and data management as well as healthcare. Some of the subjects you may have to study include database modeling and design, project management and current trends in healthcare management.
Possible careers in health informatics
As the amount of healthcare data increases, there is a need for people with the expertise to manage this information. A master’s in health science will prepare you for a number of careers, some of which include:
� Clinical data analyst – This is someone who works in an IT environment and has the ability to analyze complex data, recognize patterns and make recommendations.
� Nurse informaticist – Responsibilities for this position may include designing training programs, identifying the appropriate technology to use in medical environments and identifying the needs of patients.
� Healthcare implementation specialist – This career requires skills such as communicating with patients, hospital staff and vendors, installing and managing records systems and testing data management systems and procedures.
� Director of clinical informatics – In this position, you will be required to promote the understanding of information technology in a medical or healthcare setting.
If you are interested in joining the growing healthcare field, a master’s in health science can help you accomplish this goal. A career in healthcare informatics is one of the specialties you can focus on while pursuing this degree.
Source:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hsrinfo/informatics.html
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2014/03/26/consider-pursuing-a-career-in-health-informatics
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