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Health Informatics Specialist

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AVG. SALARY

$89,800

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EDUCATION

Bachelor's degree

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JOB OUTLOOK

Stable

What They Do

Health Informatics Specialists Career Video

Insider Info

A medical informatician is the person who bridges the computer world to the health-care world. This person manages medical information using computer technology.

Columbia University's website describes a medical informatician as the person who "studies the organization of medical information, the effective management of information using computer technology, and the impact of such technology on medical research, education and patient care."

They may work with information systems, but the most important element of their work is the patients and clients their systems serve.

Medical informaticians and health information science professionals design, implement and manage health information and computer systems for documenting important medical information.

A growing trend in the career is "virtual patient care" or "telemedicine." With the increasing popularity of the Internet, more and more people are seeking health-care information on the web, reports Health-Care Informatics Online.

In addition, physicians and other health-care professionals are turning to this technology as a way to develop and use records to keep track of patients at different locations.

This means more opportunities for individuals in the field of health-care informatics.

Three areas of this growing profession are medical informatics, health information sciences and nursing informatics. There is a fine but important distinction between the three areas.

Dr. Paul Fisher works at a university that offers a comprehensive health information science program. He defines medical informatics as the study of computer and telecommunications applications in medicine.

He defines health information science as the study of how data and information are used by health-care providers -- clients, patients, physicians, nurses, social workers and managers. It's also about how computer and telecommunications applications can be used to support that activity.

"Medical informaticians often work in hospital settings, dealing with clinical findings such as medical data and reports and demographic data. Whereas health information science professionals tend to be involved in the management of all forms of clinical data [and] health-care system management," says Fisher.

Susan Newbold is a nursing informatician. "More and more health-care organizations are installing information systems and recognize that a nurse is an important member of the team from conception to installation to maintenance," she says.

Those who work with medical informatics may work as management consultants or data analysts. As well, they may work as senior employees in government health departments. Or they may work as systems designers and systems analysts.

These medical professionals work in modern office settings, often in hospitals or academic institutions.

People working in medical informatics have a variety of backgrounds, notes Grace Patterson. She is the clinical informatics coordinator at a medical school.

Some are doctors who wanted a change of pace and got training in informatics. Some are clinical fellows, people who have completed medical school as well as postgraduate training. Others are doctors who do medical informatics research along with their medical practice.

As well, there are non-physicians, such as Patterson herself, who work as faculty members in a university. She says there are still other types of medical informaticians with various degrees of training.

Just the Facts

Want a quick overview of what this career is about?Check out Just the Facts for simple lists of characteristics.

At a Glance

Use computers to organize medical data

  • Online patient care is creating more opportunities
  • Most of the work is in hospitals or academic institutions
  • Training in both computer and health sciences is required

Contact

  • Email Support

  • 1-800-GO-TO-XAP (1-800-468-6927)
    From outside the U.S., please call +1 (424) 750-3900

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