The effective delivery of medical care increasingly requires information technology to harness and systematize patient history and treatment records. Through the emerging field of health care informatics, scattered ports of information are pulled together to expedite more comprehensive, accurate care.

As an informatics professional, you can participate in shaping the future of the industry. In simplified terms, health care informatics brings computer science and knowledge management into day-to-day patient care. Its sole purpose is to automate, organize and improve the transmission of information to support the delivery of health care. Health Care Informatics enables doctors and nurses to computerize and centralize their patient records, lab technicians to send electronic test results immediately, pharmacists to view a patient's entire prescription catalog, and much more. The end goal is to improve medical care by increasing speed and accuracy while reducing errors and costs.

Recent changes in the health care industry call for clinicians, administrators and executive leaders who can mobilize innovative technologies. However, there is a critical shortage of qualified professionals capable of applying these technologies and communicating effectively with both health care providers and IT professionals.

By offering a graduate certificate program and two master's degrees in Health Care Informatics, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science is prepared to address that shortage. Graduates of the certificate and/or the master’s programs will be eligible to seek certification as nursing informaticists through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Both nursing and non-nursing graduates are prepared for certification through the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).