THE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HEALTH INFORMATICS DEGREE CONSISTS OF:
CSCI 523 - Statistical Methods for Business Analytics
This course will focus on the study of statistics from a business analytics perspective to give practical experience on how statistics can be used to help professionals make better decisions based on data.
CSCI 590 - Data Mining for Decision Making
This course will focus on an introduction to predictive and descriptive data analysis methods appropriate for mining information from large data sets.
CSCI 690 - Data Visualization and Predictive Analytics
This course will focus on data visualization techniques with Tableau and the utilization of SPSS for predictive analytical methods including linear and logistic regression. Data manipulation techniques using SQL will be reviewed. A predictive model and visualization will be developed through a group project to provide insight into a problem solution.
HINF 520 - Introduction to Health Informatics
This course provides an overview of health informatics (HI). Core HI concepts and technologies will be emphasized, including current and emerging technology applications and data standards. The role of the health informatics specialist, the variety of HI sub-specialties and examples of various clinical applications will be examined. Perspectives on future directions are included.
HINF 523 - Ethical and Legal Issues in Health Informatics
This course provides students with an overview of the ethical and legal issues which must be addressed by the healthcare system when utilizing an electronic health record. The need for patient privacy and protection from public disclosure, misrepresentation, misinformation and bias from third party payers must be addressed to prevent injustice to the client. The large capacity for the storage of information, the ease of dissemination and the numerous users of patient records present multiple ethical concerns.
HINF 570 - Research Methods in InformaticsThis course provides instruction in the design, formulation and appraisal of a potential health informatics research topic and is the foundational class for an integrated culminating project. The course will enable the student to better understand the research process from conception to completion, including the use of online reference materials. Related topics include descriptive statistics, probability, standard probability distributions, sampling distributions, point and confidence interval estimation, hypothesis testing, power and sample size estimation, one- and two-sample parametric and nonparametric methods for analyzing continuous or discrete data and simple linear regression. In addition, students will be instructed in issues concerning privacy and the treatment of human subjects. A statistical software package will be taught in this class for data management, statistical analyses and power calculations.
HINF 620 - Healthcare Delivery Outcomes
This course explores the impact of health informatics on systems of care, including provider organizations, health systems and the public health enterprise. Students will learn systemic approaches that support interdisciplinary collaboration, the role of the health informatics specialist in facilitating change and methods for evaluating impacts on health outcomes. It examines the broader social context of health informatics and the implications for population health.
HINF 632 - Politics and Policies in Health Informatics
The growth of computer and communication technologies encourages the examination of policy issues related to electronic-based health information technologies. The course will focus on guiding principles for health informatics including privacy, security, interoperability, health information exchange and compliance-related issues. The establishment of institutional policies as well as regulatory and related concerns will be addressed. Administrative interpretation and implementation of information policy will be discussed. Current legislative and public policy initiatives will be investigated.
HINF 660 - Healthcare Project Management
Use of various tools such as project management software, which can assist in the analysis of processes and in the planning for change, is an essential competency for today's HIIM professional. This course will review and examine analytical frameworks and models guiding project management. The various methods, approaches and tools are reviewed. The course addresses the factors which allow healthcare organizations to be successful in carrying out projects. Students will complete a health informatics project.
HINF 673 - Health Informatics Organizational Issues
Organizations are comprised of individuals. Therefore, the most important functions of managers in an organization include understanding and motivating individuals and organizing structural systems within which they can work in a productive manner. The field of organizational behavior deals with these issues. This course will consider the issues as they relate to health informatics at the individual, group and organizational levels.
HINF 690 Professional Practice Experience
Students will gather information and complete projects at area healthcare facilities under the direct supervision of various managers (or their designees), typically within the following departments: patient access/registration; clinical departments such as pharmacy, lab, radiology, etc.; health information services/medical records; information systems/technology/management; finance/revenue cycle/business office; compliance; decision support/clinical decision support; or quality management/performance improvement.
HINF 691 - Capstone
As a capstone course, students will integrate their professional practice experiences with emerging health informatics professional practice issues, culminating in presentation of their final research project. Students will use situations from their professional practice experiences to discuss and integrate various ethical dilemmas, legal issues and emerging issues. Topics may include professional roles, professional development, human resource management, ethics, regulation and accreditation issues, balancing resources, risk management, healthcare reform, the national health information network and many others. Students will explore their own contribution(s) to the profession and develop professional goals.
No more than one “C+” or “C” may be used to meet graduation degree requirements.
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