Medical Informatics

Medical informatics (sometimes known as nursing informatics, health informatics, biomedical informatics or healthcare informatics) involves finding new and better ways to store, organize and share medical data. The medical informatics field also involves simplifying the lines of communication between the hospital staff and their patients.

Medical informatics is an indispensible part of the health care process. Because information on a patient’s medical history and current status is vital to maintaining and improving his health, the ease and speed with which a doctor or other health care provider can access that information is critical. When you work in medical informatics, you help ensure that doctors and nurses have quick, accurate and accessible information at their fingertips.

 

Although at first glance informatics might sound like a typical computer science position, most medical informatics specialists focus more on making data easy for users to access and share with others who need it. Because it’s a relatively new field, people who pursue degrees in medical informatics today will be trailblazers for those who come after them.

Currently, higher educational institutions offer more post-graduate degrees in medical informatics than undergraduate degrees. However, it is still very possible to obtain either a bachelor’s degree in medical informatics or major in another subject while pursuing an emphasis in informatics. Medical informatics programs are most widely available at nursing institutions but also can be found at some non-medical schools. A few universities offer dental informatics courses.

Many of the informatics programs are available through online correspondence instead of requiring in-person attendance, which might be an ideal solution for you if you’re already working in the health care industry.

 

Certificate programs are also another online option. While certificate programs typically involve a short-course program on biomedical informatics, they are not equivalent to a degree. Because medical informatics is a competitive field, you will probably need at least a bachelor’s degree to find employment.

 

If you decide to pursue a bachelor’s degree in informatics, it will probably cost between $23,000 and $88,000, depending on whether you attend a public or private institution. However, you can usually expect to make up the cost of your bachelor’s degree within three years with your increased earning power.

Career options for medical informatics are wide-ranging, as the skills learned through a medical informatics degree program can be applied to a variety of work environments. Areas that can benefit from medical informatics include: