Health informatics is a growing, multidisciplinary, interprofessional field that involves the collection and analysis of biomedical data. Thanks to digital technologies, various members of the healthcare profession have access to more data than ever, and when leveraged properly, that data could help researchers and providers develop and deliver higher-quality treatment and services to improve patient outcomes.
There is outstanding demand for health informatics specialists. If you are interested in working in this important field, you might consider pursuing an online master’s degree in health informatics. As you do, you might decide to specialize in one of the following five branches within the field:
Clinical Informatics
Arguably the closest informatics professionals get to functioning as healthcare providers, clinical informatics involves using data to support clinical decision-making. This can occur in a variety of ways. Informatics professionals may assess and improve existing IT systems within a healthcare setting, helping to improve data storage and delivery to ensure healthcare providers have the tools they need to ensure positive patient outcomes. Informatics professionals within this branch may also develop programs that aid in the analysis of patient information to reduce the number and severity of provider mistakes. Clinical health informatics professionals may work for healthcare institutions, like hospitals, or they may find work in consulting agencies or insurance companies.
Consumer Health Informatics
Healthcare providers are not the only ones responsible for ensuring good health in patients; patients themselves must take some responsibility for maintaining their own health and wellness. Thus, a growing branch of health informatics is consumer health informatics, which focuses on helping patients manage their own health information and improve their own decision-making. Often, professionals in consumer health informatics are involved in the development of apps that facilitate health-related knowledge and understanding; they may provide information about disease management, assist with making health-related observations, promote lifestyle management or facilitate preventative and assisted care. Informatics professionals in this branch could help develop apps for major healthcare corporations, or they could work with startups to produce innovative consumer-facing solutions.
Nursing Informatics
Though often overlooked in healthcare settings, nurses make just as many (if not more!) vital decisions about patient care as physicians do. Data can help nurses improve their decision-making, ensuring better experiences and outcomes for patients. Often, nurses themselves transition into informatics roles, as they understand best the needs and processes that exist in the nursing field. Nursing informatics professionals support the storage and access of medical information, help maintain a nursing facility’s IT systems and work alongside nurses to develop data-driven tools to improve patient care. The implementation of sophisticated solutions in healthcare environments could bridge the gap created by the chronic nurse shortage and allow smoother and more successful operations in many healthcare settings.
Pharmacy Informatics
Gone are the days when a doctor’s illegible scribble was necessary for procuring critical medications. Now, healthcare providers use electronic communications to order prescriptions directly from patients’ pharmacies, reducing the number of prescription errors and improving convenience for everyone. Pharmacy informatics professionals are largely to thank for this advancement in the prescription process. Thanks to informatics, digital systems within healthcare providers and pharmacies are able to integrate and communicate. Still, informatics professionals in this branch are finding new ways to improve the existing systems, such as integrating automatic data analysis tools that warm providers of potential drug interactions to keep patients safer and automated communication tools to alert patients when their prescriptions are ready for pickup.
Public Health Informatics
Thanks to the pandemic, concerns about public health have risen dramatically in recent years, and healthcare providers are generally looking for better ways to address public health issues. Public health informatics professionals help improve digital systems for every group on the public health spectrum. Better information capturing and data analysis can improve predictions regarding disease outbreaks, allowing healthcare providers to acquire necessary supplies to handle a greater influx of patients. Apps may also help share accurate information about disease prevention with the public, helping to end transmission and keep more people safe. Often, those interested in working in the public health sphere find positions in government agencies, though both hospitals and private businesses benefit from public health informatics professionals, as well.
If you are passionate about healthcare and interested in technology, health informatics may be an excellent career choice for you. You can explore all of the above branches of health informatics in an online degree program today.