86 Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine—Health Informatics Program new knowledge and allows providers to begin thinking like epidemiologists in addition to providing patient care. At a population level, public health informatics aims to apply information technology advances to traditional public health research and practice. Detection, management, and prevention of disease across populations—through the collection and analysis of vital statistics and health data—have the potential to be significantly influenced and advanced through the auspices of evolving information technology. People who have a degree in health informatics have a wide variety of career opportunities. The type of informatics career options that individuals can pursue is, to some extent, dependent on their background and selected area of study. Health informatics trained professionals may become • chief medical information officers (CMIOs) • chief medical officers (CMOs) • chief information officers (CIOs) • directors of medical informatics • chief nursing information officers (CNIOs) • project managers • implementation specialists • project designers • researchers • programmers • clinical systems analysts • health information technology (HIT) educators and trainers • HIT consultants • template writers • nursing informatics specialists • account representatives The following are examples of settings in which they might work: • hospitals and health systems • community health centers • physician practices and clinics • h ealth care agencies within the federal and state government • health information technology system vendors • eHealth companies NSU’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Health Informatics Program is designed to train future leaders in the development, dissemination, and evaluation of health information technologies that are utilized by hospitals and health systems, health information technology system vendors, eHealth companies, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions. With its focus on clinical informatics, the program’s curriculum emphasizes the areas of computer science and its clinical applications, management, and evaluation of information technology in the health care environment. The Health Informatics Program offers coursework in both on-campus and online formats to enable working professionals to earn a master’s degree or graduate certificates in health informatics without career disruption. Health informatics is an interdisciplinary field encompassing computer and information sciences, cognitive and decision-making sciences, medicine and epidemiology, telecommunications, business management, education sciences, and a collaboration of a number of other fields. In short, health informatics is the intersection of health care, technology, and people, with the implicit goals of improving the quality and safety of the world’s healthcare systems while reducing cost. As terminology continues to evolve along with the field itself, the more broadly encompassing term “health informatics” can generally be broken down into three more distinct levels: bioinformatics, medical informatics, and public health informatics. At the molecular level, incorporating things such as gene sequencing research and pharmaceutical development, bioinformatics looks to change the way biological data is stored, retrieved, organized, and analyzed, ultimately producing new tools/methods for generating valuable biological knowledge. Health informatics, at an individual patient level, can further be divided into a number of more specific areas including nursing informatics, imaging informatics, pharmacy informatics, dental informatics, and consumer health informatics. Medical informatics aims to manage an individual’s health data—including storage, retrieval, sharing, and optimal use—with the goals of providing safer, more efficient, and more affordable health care. Integration of advanced clinical information systems into the health care decision-making process allows health care professionals to accomplish tasks in a more competent and effective manner. Furthermore, this integration affords development of novel tasks. It produces Health Informatics Program
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