Graduate Programs

Certificate Programs

Graduate Certificate in Clinical Informatics

Electronic medical records, digital imaging and sophisticated diagnostic systems are changing how we provide patient-centered care. Healthcare professionals who can effectively utilize these emerging technologies are invaluable. The Graduate Certificate in Clinical Informatics is designed to provide practicing healthcare professionals the education and training necessary to excel in the 21st century.

Certificate Program Requirements

Applications must be credentialed as a physician, a nurse, or other healthcare professional and hold a minimum of a bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year collegiate institution. Students must complete a minimum of 18 credit hours within three years. Fifteen credit hours may be taken through distance education. The curriculum includes two core courses, three specialization courses and a practicum. Courses include:

Core courses (6 cr.)
  • INFO I535: Clinical Information Systems
  • INFO I581: Health Informatics Standards and Terminology
Specialization courses (9 cr. - select three of the following)
  • INFO I505: Informatics Project Management
  • INFO I512: Scientific and Clinical Data Management
  • INFO I530: Foundations of Health Informatics
  • INFO I578: Data Analysis
  • NURS I635: Consumer Health Informatics
  • INFO I641: Business of Health Informatics
  • INFO I643: Natural Language Processing
  • INFO I667: Seminar in Health Informatics
Clinical Informatics Practicum - Required (3 cr.)

A maximum of three credits for equivalent courses from other programs may transfer.

Degree Requirements

To receive the Master of Science in Health Informatics, students must complete 36 credit hours of prescribed courses. In addition to core courses, students choose, in consultation with advisors, a set of concentration electives. Examples of concentration areas include 1) knowledge-based health care information, 2) health services informatics, and 3) clinical databases.

Knowledge-based health care information focuses on the storage, organization, evaluation, and dissemination of health and medical knowledge (e.g., textbooks, journals, other media, and information) to support evidence-based practice and patient education. End-users of knowledge-based health care information include clinicians, patients, health educators, and health planners.

Health services informatics focuses on information management in health care systems and addresses such diverse needs as patient flow, resource allocation, billing, and compiling and reporting of data. This involves developing information systems for processing and storing clinical data, complying with medical documentation requirements of accrediting and governmental agencies, and setting health information policies.

Clinical databases focuses on the storage of medical data and linkage of electronic systems. Study in this concentration is based on an electronic medical record system, which includes existing standards and coding, links between health-related databases, and data extraction for clinical care and management. Research is oriented to using such databases to learn more about disease and health maintenance (e.g., clinical epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, public health informatics, and nursing informatics).

Prerequisites

All students applying for the M.S. in Health Informatics should have prerequisite courses or equivalencies in the following areas:

Anatomy, Biology, or Physiology (200 level or higher); Computer Science; Medical Terminology; Statistics

NOTE: Remediated courses are available through the School of Informatics:

Clinical Care for Health Informaticians

Web Database Concepts

To receive a Master of Science degree in Health Informatics, the applicant must be admitted as a graduate student and complete 36 credit hours including: 18 credit hours in informatics core courses, 3 credit hours in seminar courses and 9- 12 credit hours of electives. The students have the option of taking 6 credit hours towards a thesis project or 3 credit hours towards a Capstone Project.

Informatics Core Courses (18 credit hours)
  • INFO I501: Introduction to Informatics
  • INFO I511: Laboratory Information Management Systems
  • INFO I530: Foundations of Health Informatics
  • INFO I535: Clinical Information Systems
  • INFO I575: Informatics Research Design*
  • INFO I581: Health Informatics Standards and Terminology
  • GRAD G651: Introduction to Biostatistics
Required Seminar Courses (3 credit hours)
  • INFO I530: Seminar in Health Informatics I
Sample Electives (9 - 12 credit hours)
  • INFO I503: Social Aspects of Information Technology
  • INFO I505: Informatics Project Management
  • INFO I512: Scientific Data Management
  • INFO I578: Data Analysis for Clinical and Administrative Decision Making
  • NURS I635: Consumer Health Informatics
  • INFO I643: Natural Language Processing
  • INFO I642: Clinical Decision Systems
  • INFO I641: Business of Health Informatics
Thesis/Capstone Project (3 - 6 credit hours)
  • INFO I691: Health Informatics Project (3 cr.)
  • INFO I691: Thesis (6 cr.)

NOTE: *Students planning to take INFO 691 project option must take INFO 505 instead of INFO 575

Project/Thesis (6 cr.)

As a capstone experience, students will complete either a project, planned in conjunction with their advisor, or a researched-based thesis, supervised by a research advisor and a thesis committee. Core and support faculty from the participating schools will have a wide range of research interests that will provide graduate students with choices relevant to their concentration areas.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN HUMAN COMPUTER-INTERACTION

Graduate Certificate in Human Computer-Interaction (15 cr.)

 The Informatics Graduate Certificate Program in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a 15 credit hour program that focuses on the core theory and best practice of the discipline. Admission requirements and procedures are the same as those established for the Human-Computer Interaction Program master’s degree. Specifically, students will be required to submit an application through the graduate school and receive a full review by the Informatics Graduate Admissions Committee, i.e., the review will take place for both master’s and certificate seeking applicants. Moreover, certificate seeking applicants will need to submit the same documentation and meet the same criteria as master’s seeking students, e.g., undergraduate GPA scores and references letters. GREs are not required for either, unless a student is seeking financial assistance from the school or university. See the description of the field of HCI below under the section titled: Master of Science in Human-Computer Interaction.

HCI Core Courses (6 cr.)

  • INFO-I 557 HCI Design 1 (Old #: I541)
  • INFO-I 558 HCI Design 2 (Old #: I561)

Specialization Requirements (9 cr.)

  • INFO-I 563 Psychology of HCI 
  • INFO-I 555 Usability and Evaluative Methods in Interactive Design (Old #: I543)      
  • INFO-I 564 Prototyping for Interactive Systems

Master of Science in Human-Computer Interaction (36 cr.)

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a branch of informatics that studies and supports the design, development, and implementation of humanly usable and socially acceptable information technologies.  The goal of the field is to shape interactive tools that support human use, augment human learning, enhance communication, and lead to more acceptable technological developments at the individual and social levels. Research in HCI draws extensively on mainstream informatics concerns with cognition, communication, representation, and computation. HCI professionals seek to identify the nature and parameters of human information processing, design and test forms of representation that support human interpretation and use of information (reliably and validly assess new technologies for usability and acceptability), and determine how information technologies change working practices and social activities. [Regular job postings for HCI personnel express a desire for professionals with suitable training in design and evaluation of interactive systems, as well as applied social scientists with technological skills.]

Prerequisites

Students may be asked to complete prerequisite course work by a graduate advisor to ensure progress through the program. 

Degree Requirements

To receive the master of science degree, the applicant must be admitted as a graduate student and complete 36 credits of graduate study in HCI according to the following schedule:

 Core Courses (21 cr.)

  • INFO I501   Introduction to Informatics
  • INFO I557   Human Computer Interaction Design 1
  • INFO I558   Human Computer Interaction Design 2
  • INFO I555   Usability and Evaluative Methods
  • INFO I563   Psychology of HCI
  • INFO I564   Prototyping for Interactive Systems

Recommended Electives (9 cr.)

Although students are free to select those elective courses most relevant to their particular academic and professional interests, they are also encouraged to seek consultation from their graduate advisor. Prior approval for selection of elective is (in most cases) not required from the graduate advisor. The following courses have been approved for use as electives.

Informatics                  

  • I624 HCI Advanced Seminar I
  • I503 Social Impact of Information Tech
  • I505 Informatics Project Management
  • I510 Data Acquisition and Lab Automation
  • I512 Scientific Data Management
  • I535 Clinical Information Systems
  • I540 Data Mining for Security
  • I554 Independent Study in HCI (1-3 cr)
  • I590 Structured Conceptual Design
  • I605 Social Foundations of Informatics

Media Arts and Science

  • N500 Principles of Digital Arts Production
  • N502  Digital Media Motion & Sim. Meth
  • N503 Digital Media Appl Design Proc
  • N504 Advanced Interactive Design Appl
  • N506 Media Arts and Technology Project
  • N510 Web Database Concepts
  • N501 Foundations of Digital Prod

Psychology and Sociology

  • PSY570      Industrial Psychology - Fall, odd yr
  • PSY572      Organizational Psych – Spg, even yr
  • PSY615      Physiological Psych - Fall, even yr
  • PSY640      Social Psychology I - Fall, odd yr
  • PSY655      Cog Development  - Fall, even yr
  • SOC–R 556         Advanced Sociological Theory I
  • SOC–R 557         Advanced Sociological Theory II
  • SOC–R 559         Intermediate Sociological Statistics
  • SOC–R 593         Applied Fieldwork for Sociologists
  • SOC–S 530         Introduction to Social Psychology

Computer Science

  • CSCI 503    Operating Systems
  • CSCI 504    Concepts in Computer Organ
  • CSCI 507    Object-Oriented Design & Prog
  • CSCI 536    Data Comm. & Computer Netw
  • CSCI 537    Intro to Distributed Computing
  • CSCI 541          Database Systems
  • CSCI 550          Computer Graphics
  • CSCI 552          Advanced Graphics and Visualization
  • CSCI 565          Programming Language

Design

  • HER–V501    Design Thinking   (1.5 cr.)
  • HER–V502    Human Factors in Design (1.5 cr.)
  • HER–R511    Visual Research (3 CR)

Communication

  • COMM-C 500 Advanced Comm Theory
  • COMM–C 531 Media Theory and Criticism
  • COMM–C 592 Advanced Health Communication
  • COMM–C 620 Computer-Mediated Communication

Geography and Others

  • GEOG–G 536 Advanced Remote Sensing
  • GEOG–G 537 Computer Cartography and Graphics
  • GEOG–G 538 Intro to Geographic Information Systems
  • GEOG–G 539 Advanced Geographic Information Systems
  • ANTH 501          Fundamentals of Applied Anthropology
  • ED 531            Computers in Education
  • SLIS-S 532  INFO Architecture for the Web

 Research Methods Courses

  • ANTH-E404   Field Meth in Ethnography
  • COM 501     Qualitative Research
  • COM 502     Applied Qualitative Research Methods
  • EDU 520     Strategies for Educational Inquiry
  • EDU 611     Qualitative Inquiry in Education
  • NURS-L 650 Data Ana for Clinical & Admin Decis-Making
  • NURS-R 612 Interpretive Data Analysis (2 Cr.), Summer I-II
  • PSY 600     Statistical Inference (Fall Even Yr)
  • PSY 601     Experimental Design  (Spg Even Yr)
  • PSY 608     Measurement Theory and Interpret Data
  • PSY 640     Survey of Social Psychology I
  • PSY 655     Cognitive Development (Fall Even Yr)
  • PSY-I 643   Field Methods & Exper
  • SOC-R 551   Quantitative Methods – Sociology
  • SOC-R 551   Quantitative Methods Sociology
  • SOC-R 559   Intermediate Soc Statistics
  • STAT 511    Statistical Methods 1
  • STAT 512    Applied Regression Analysis
  • STAT 516    Basic Probability Appl
  • STAT 519    Intro to Probability
  • STAT 521    Statistical Computing
  • STAT-522    Sampling and Survey Techniques
  • STAT 524    Applied Multivariate Analysis
  • STAT 525    Intermediate Stat Methodology
  • STAT 529    Applied Dec Theory and Bayesian Stat  
  • STAT 619    Probability Theory

HCI Final Project (6 cr.)

Required Course Titles

  • I680 HCI Professional Practice 1 (offered only in the fall semester) (6 cr.)
  • I681 HCI Professional Practice 2 (offered only in the spring semester) (6 cr.)

Requirement for all HCI Students

All MS HCI students must complete the final project, with includes two courses: I680 HCI Professional Practice 1 (fall) and I681HCI Professional Practice 2 (spring). Students will register for each course, which includes a formally scheduled class time. Students will work on one final project that extends throughout the two courses, i.e., both fall and spring semesters. Students will receive an official grade at the conclusion of each course, i.e., both fall and spring. Students are encouraged to take on a project that can be realistically finished by the time they complete both courses. Incompletes are NOT be permitted.  Students taking the final project option are not required to take I575 (Informatics Research Design), which is reserved primarily for HCI Master’s Thesis students and Ph.D. students. However, project students may take I575 as an Elective.  

HCI Final Project (6 cr.) (Optional)

Required Course Titles

  • I694 HCI Thesis (6 cr.) (Work should be divided between two semester of 3 cr. hrs. each.)

The Thesis option is reserved ONLY for students who clearly plan to pursue a Ph.D. at a later time, along with a strong interest and demonstrated ability to carry out empirical research, as determined by one of the HCI faculty. Students taking the Thesis option must also take I575, Informatics Research Design.