What is Health Informatics?

Students who see health informatics as a career choice often ask the question, ‘What is health informatics?’ despite the fact that health informatics has been around for a long time. Health informatics is a field that deals with healthcare information used to improve the quality and safety of the healthcare provided to patients. While it’s very similar to information technology, health informatics stands alone because, unlike information technology, which deals with all information, health informatics deals with information related specifically to health care.

Basically, health informatics equates to health information. When you think of all the information that is exchanged within a healthcare facility, you’re thinking about health informatics. Health informatics, is the collection, retrieval, storage and utilization of healthcare information necessary to provide quality and safe healthcare to patients while still following laws regarding privacy. It’s a combination of not just communication and healthcare but information technology as well.

When a doctor is entering patient information into the hospital’s computer system, the doctor is working with health informatics in the same way that a medical biller and coder is using health informatics to enter codes for billing purposes. The use of electronic health records is a huge part of health informatics because they allow patient information to be accessible to anyone in the healthcare industry that needs access to that information.

Education/Degrees for Health Informatics Careers

Since health informatics is such a vast field, it offers many career opportunities and is offered in various degree levels. Although an individual can obtain entry-level positions in health informatics with an associate degree, most of the people who pursue health informatics as a career complete a bachelor’s or master’s degree program in health informatics, health information technology, health administration or health management. The undergraduate programs prepare students to work as health informatics specialists, whereas, the master’s degree programs prepare them for leadership or managerial positions. Course topics in health informatics programs include:

• Medical terminology
• Databases
• Health information laws
• Electronic health records
• Computer networks
• Healthcare data
• Healthcare law and regulations
• Healthcare classification
• Healthcare compliance
• Health information technology

Students in health informatics programs complete coursework as well as internships in healthcare facilities to obtain real experience.

Career Opportunities for Health Informatics

Health informatics is used in every healthcare facility, whether it’s a small clinic, nursing home or large hospital. Because of this, it’s a field that offers many career opportunities. If it’s a facility providing healthcare, it’s a facility in need of health informatics specialists. They’re constantly in demand in one capacity or another. Upon completion of degree programs, graduates may be qualified for the following positions.

• Medical and health service managers
• Health information administrators
• Health informatics specialists
• Clinical informatics managers
• Informatics nurse specialists
• Informatics analysts
• Medical records and health information technicians
• Systems data analysts
• Healthcare software engineer

Health informatics specialists may find positions working in clinics, physicians’ offices, insurance companies, hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, health maintenance organizations and similar places. U.S. News & World Report states that because health informatics careers are in such demand, graduates typically don’t have to search for jobs long.

Career Outlooks for Health Informatics Professionals

Medical and health service managers are expected to experience a job growth of 20 percent during the 2016-2026 decade, according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The emphasis on providing good healthcare to everyone is the main reason of the position employment growth. The Bureau reports that medical and health service managers earned an average yearly wage of $111,680 in 2017. Various factors can affect the wages of a health informatics specialist, which is probably why wages ranged from $58,000 to $176,000.

Many individuals wish to pursue careers in health informatics because healthcare is one of the quickest growing industries. Obtaining a job in health informatics is ideal for the individual who wants a career in healthcare but limited patient contact.