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 Certificate in Human Computer-Interaction
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.
HCI Core Courses (6 cr.)
- INFO-I 541: HCI Design 1
- INFO-I 561: HCI Design 2
Specialization Requirements (9 cr.)
- INFO-I 563: Psychology of HCI
- INFO-I 543: Usability and Evaluative Methods in Interactive Design
- INFO-I 564: Prototyping for Interactive Systems