Health Informatics is aimed towards improving the utilization of health care-related data, information, and knowledge in support of health care research, education, and practice. It is concerned with processes influencing the creation, organization, and manipulation of health information in varying user contexts, such as patients seeking to become more informed about diseases, physicians evaluating treatment alternatives, clinicians conducting controlled studies comparing interventions, nurses using standardized schemes to represent patient contexts and regional health organizations monitoring public health.

Health Informatics is strongly influenced and directed by developments in computing as well as in the socioeconomic context of health care. Health informatics initiatives are typically interdisciplinary involving collaborations among disciplines such as the health sciences, engineering, computer science, information sciences, mathematics, education, law, management sciences and statistics. In particular, a strong computational core is a part of the foundation of Health Informatics.

The MS in Informatics with a health informatics cognate provides flexibility so that students with prior training in the health professions (e.g. medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, or pharmacy) may establish an essential foundation in the computational areas. At the same time, students with academic backgrounds in computer science, engineering, or information science can establish a foundation in the health sciences.

Requirements

The Master’s in Informatics with a cognate in health informatics requires a total of 31 semester hours beyond the bachelor’s degree. A total of 19 semester hours of core courses are required (shared with the Ph.D.; beware of specific core courses required for this cognate), with an additional 12 semester hours of health informatics courses.

The requirements described here are in addition to the University-wide requirements for Master's degrees described in the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College, Section X. 

Students should use the core courses plan of study worksheet and the additional  health informatics worksheet below.

Health Informatics MS plan of study worksheet (use in addition to core courses worksheet)

Select 12 semester hours of these courses: 

EPID:4400 - Epidemiology I

CS:4470 - Health Data Analytics

BIOS:5120 - Regression & ANOVA in Health Sciences

IGPI:5220 - Public health informatics

BIOC:3310 - Practical Data Science & Bioinformatics (recommended for students with biology backgrounds) 

BIOL:4213 - Bioinformatics (recommended for students with biology backgrounds) 

BIOL:4386 - Intro to Scientific Computing (recommended for students with biology backgrounds)

BME:5335 - Computational Bioinformatics (recommended for students with biology backgrounds)

Admission

Admission decisions are based on prior academic performance, letters of reference, and the applicant's statement about background and purpose. Applicants must meet the admission requirements of the Graduate College; see the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College. For more information, see the PhD and MS admissions page.