Health Informatics: Redefining Healthcare Industry and Leading to a Surge of Career Opportunities
Posted by Jason White on Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Under: College Education
Health informatics, also known as biomedical informatics, clinical
informatics and health information system, is a discipline that combines
computer science, information technology and healthcare. It is a
driving force behind redefining healthcare industry and creating
tremendous employment opportunities for a new breed of professionals,
qualified and interested in both IT and healthcare.
Health informatics plays a critical role in ensuring high standards of
patient care at hospitals and clinics. The electronic health records of
patients can be quickly accessed whenever required. This helps in
understanding the medical history of patients at one go. On the other
hand, even patients can contact the hospital when they need any
information on prescription refills, test results, etc.
Health informatics is a rapidly evolving field and most hospitals in the
North America either have implemented this system or are in process of
getting it implemented. This has led to the increase in demand of IT
professionals who can develop healthcare software systems suited to the
needs of diverse healthcare organizations. In addition to this, it has
also resulted in a significant demand of professionals who can work on
these systems at healthcare facilities.
Therefore, current can be considered as the right time to build careers
in this field. As this is a specialized field, aspiring health
informatics professionals will have to undergo a specialized education
program. They not only need to acquire skills to work on such systems,
but also to design, develop, modify and test healthcare applications.
Healthcare Informatics Education
A healthcare informatics program incorporates the knowledge of both
information technology and healthcare systems, preparing students for
rewarding careers in this new and evolving discipline. During this
program, they will learn to analyze and model data, develop healthcare
databases and apply different computer medical-imaging techniques.
Besides, they will also learn to use tools, algorithms and health
informatics methods for schools, hospitals, healthcare agencies and
public health departments.
The three-year post-secondary program emphasizes on object-oriented
software methodologies, user-oriented interface design, data security
and privacy in healthcare systems, telehealth, and data warehousing and
data mining and BI tools in healthcare systems. To help students
thoroughly understand the subject, the program also incorporates live
software development projects. This allows them to put their classroom
learning into practice.
Studying Healthcare Informatics in Toronto
Numerous colleges in Toronto offer post-secondary health informatics courses.
Unfortunately, not all are accredited. Centennial College's program in
healthcare informatics technology is a fully CIPS/CTAB accredited
program. It also incorporates two software development projects,
allowing students to utilize their technical and business skills
acquired during in-class sessions. The program also helps them develop
strong employment skills and prepares them for the world of work even
before you are a graduate.
Program graduates can find employment in clinical, research and
educational environments as health data analysts, software developers,
systems implementation specialists, database developers or
business/systems analysts.
Academic Requirements
In order to apply for this course, you will need:
- Secondary school diploma certificate or equivalent
- Scores in English Grade 12 C or University or equivalent
- Scores in Mathematics Grade 11 M or 12 C or University, or equivalent
In : College Education
Tags: "health informatics program" "health informatics courses"