Health Care Career: Informatics

Mix health care and technology

By Elijah Thomas

Sometimes health care careers overlap with other industries, such as one of the fastest growing industries in two segments — health informatics, which involves both health care and information technology. There is a high demand for professionals who have the knowledge and skills needed to manage both health care data and technology.

Northwestern University points out that since it is such a new field, there is a shortage of professionals who have the necessary qualifications, which makes this a field with competitive salaries and a lot of job security.

Health informatics improves the efficiency and effectiveness of health care delivery. It uses technology to manage and analyze health care data with the goal of improving patient outcomes, reducing costs and increasing access to care.

Common applications

Health informatic professionals handle several different kinds of applications and systems. Some examples include:

• Electronic health records: Digital versions of patient medical records that health care providers and patients can access. They allow for easy sharing of information which can improve care coordination and reduce medical errors.
• Clinical Decision Support Systems: CDSSs are software tools that help health care providers make clinical decisions by providing them with evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. They help reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes.
• Telemedicine: These applications let doctors and other health care professionals deliver services remotely. They allow for consultations and remote monitoring of patients.
• Health Information Exchange: These networks allow for the sharing of patient information between health care providers. This improves care coordination and reduces duplicate tests and procedures.
• Data Analytics: These advance software tools analyze large amounts of health care data to identify patterns, trends and opportunities for improvement. They help organizations improve care quality, reduce costs and identify areas where they can make process improvements.

Careers in Health Informatics

There are a growing number of health informatics careers. Northwestern provides several titles and descriptions of what they do:

Health informatics specialist. This is a catch-all title to describe work done in health informatics. It’s usually an early career title describing someone who works with patient records and data in a health care setting.

Clinical informatics analyst. These professionals compile and analyze health care data  — of which a lot has been collected over recent years. They use that analysis to make suggestions for how the health care organization can adjust their policies, process and procedures to improve patient outcomes. They identify issues and what might be causing them based on the data.

Health informatics consultant. These professionals typically work on a contract basis to advise a healthcare organization on data-related questions, challenges and initiatives. They typically help set up informatic systems and teams.

EHR/EMR implementation managers. These professionals have deep expertise in designing, implementing and optimizing software that handles electronic health records (EHR) — sometimes called electronic medical records (EMR). They set up templates, recommend software enhancements and train others in using the software.

Health information technology project manager. These project managers focus on health informatics projects. They initiate, plan, execute, monitor and close projects.

Chief medical information officer. This executive oversees everything in a health care organization related to health informatics and patient records. They are responsible for overall strategic plans and setting up long-term IT infrastructure.