With a health informatics degree (sometimes called medical informatics) you can find work in the health care industry. As the fastest growing industry in America the employment opportunities are tremendous.
Health informatics plays a vital role in enhancing the efficiency of the healthcare industry. By maintaining patient records in an organized and systematic manner, the healthcare industry’s efficiency is vastly improved. As such health informatics specialists are in high demand.
An online degree in health informatics covers computer science and information science as it applies to the health care industry. The course trains you in the methodologies and technologies required to correctly acquire, store, and retrieve medical data. It also trains you to design great medical record keeping systems.
The curriculum covers subjects such as core science courses, data integrity, computer science, database management, and information security. Other courses teach about aspects of clinical documentation, health law, coding and classification systems, and medical terminologies. This bachelor’s program normally requires the student to complete a project or thesis.
The Bachelor of Science degree in medical informatics is appropriate for those who work in the healthcare industry and are interested in IT or for those who are interested in IT and envision a career in the healthcare industry.
Those who are unable to study for four years to obtain a bachelor’s degree can opt for a certificate program that will provide a good overview of the subject.
The Master of Science degree in healthcare informatics aims to teach students more than ways of using computers to keep records. Its aim is to enhance the student’s decision-making, analytic, implementation, and research capabilities, thereby preparing them for mid- and high-level management positions.
A few programs permit students to specialize in one area of medical informatics. These popular areas include bioinformatics, public health informatics, clinical informatics, as well as organizational and social informatics.
After graduating with an online health informatics degree, people have found work in home healthcare services, insurance companies, hospitals, research labs, and private doctors’ offices. They can be placed as consultants, patient information coordinators, data quality managers, or record technician specialists.
As this career comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility, you need to be meticulous, passionate about serving people, great at solving problems, able to handle pressure, and love working on computers.
You can be certain that as a health informatics specialist you will be paid at least fairly well. Individual salaries are commensurate with education level, experience, and geographic location.
Online degrees on health informatics are also called medical informatics or bioinformatics courses.
All these medical and health programs aim to help students acquire knowledge and skills in programming, database management, and health care management. This is a growing field. A health informatics degree is considered an interdisciplinary subject as it blends clinical and computing skills. The course helps those with information technology or computer technology backgrounds as well as those with medical or clinical training to work in healthcare systems, hospitals, academia and research, as well as the medical equipment industry. It enables efficient storage of healthcare records. By acquiring a graduate degree in medical and healthcare informatics from accredited institutions students are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to lead others. Both campus degree and online distance learning courses focus on teaching application of principles of design, implementation, integration, management, and evaluation of information systems covering the entire healthcare enterprise.
A specialist in health informatics applies information technology to suit the particular requirements of the healthcare industry. An online degree in health informatics will equip students with knowledge of the technology required to develop great medical recordkeeping systems for research centers and hospitals. As healthcare institutions rely on correct information transmission health informatics is vital to their everyday functioning.
The health informatics curriculum is similar to the curriculum for information technology. However, the emphasis shifts to health information and user interface. You can further enhance your indispensability by acquiring or honing your skills in security, network administration, and database administration. Working professionals looking to expanding job skills and specialize in a particular field opt for online graduate and undergraduate certificate programs. Those seeking entry-level jobs in health informatics should opt for a bachelor’s or master’s degree, while those looking for work in research or as university teachers should enroll in the doctoral program.
Most online courses in health informatics cover core sciences, statistics, computer science, and database management. Advanced courses help students specialize in select areas of health informatics, such as public health, bioinformatics, and social, organizational, or clinical informatics.
Bioinformatics, the latest health sciences field focuses in using advanced technology to speed up research and development in treatment, diagnosis, and cure of injuries and diseases. Bioinformatics is also used to create new foods and medicines. A specialist in information technology can find work in almost any field be it environmental science, marine biology, botany, biochemistry, ecology, geoscience, food science, physiology, biophysics, microbiology, or zoology.