Health Informatics Degrees

Overview

Health informatics is the process of using information technology to benefit health and human services industry. Degree holders in health informatics can create new ways to maintain records and other essential information that are accessible any time. Tools involved in health informatics include computers, clinical guidelines, and information systems. Health informatics degrees are applied in the field of nursing, dentistry, clinical care, and other health related activities. Roles of health informatics students are providing technical support for databases, design new systems, and make purchasing decisions for new equipment. They also have to evaluate usability, figure out ways to enhance systems, check data for accuracy, and train staff members to access the database.

The curriculum of the health informatics includes bio-informatics, organizational informatics, and clinical informatics. You can pursue a master degree, bachelor degree, or doctoral degree in health informatics. The duration of the course may vary from four years to seven years. You can also pursue certificate programs in health informatics like nursing informatics, health care informatics, and health care data security management. The duration of these programs may take fewer than three semesters to complete.

Benefits

Health informatics is very juvenile field and offers many opportunities as it is rapidly expanding. You are provided with an opportunity to work in variety of environments like hospitals, health research laboratories, health insurance companies, Internet companies, health information technology suppliers, consulting organizations, and more. Some of the job titles are health informatics project manager, health informatics project designer, health informatics systems analysts, and so on. The starting salary of health informatics ranges from $30,000 to $50,000. As you gain more experience, your earnings will probably be in six figures.

Costs

The average tuition fee for a bachelor's degree in health informatics is $495 per credit for three credits. Other costs include admission and registration fees, study materials, and housing. For the master's program, you may have to shell out $695 per credit hour towards tuition fee alone.

Schools

There are various schools and colleges in the US that provide training in health informatics. University of Pittsburgh, Stony Brook University, North Western University, Vanderbilt University, and Stanford University are some of the colleges which provide degree programs in health informatics. Online degree programs are also available in certain colleges.

Testing & Preparations

For obtaining the health informatics degrees, you may have to satisfy a few requirements. A student must have a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0. Students must earn a 'C' or better in major and core courses and have completed one semester of high school biology and computer science. For admissions to graduate programs, you may be asked to submit Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. They also need to acquire various skills like attention to detail, problem solving, customer service skills, ability to work independently, and trouble shooting.

Financial Aid

Financial aid is issued in the form of loans, scholarships, and grants to the students pursuing a degree in health informatics. American Medical Informatics Association provides scholarships and grants to health informatics students based on certain conditions. Also, the Federal Pell Grant is government-aided scholarship awarded to deserving students in all parts of America.