Entering the medical field will give you superb opportunities for enjoying workplace stability. You don’t have to pursue interactions with patients if you don’t think that the specific type of work will be ideal for you. The medical sector features other lucrative career development opportunities.
An online graduate degree in health informatics will give you an opportunity to work as the professional that’s the most important link between the patient and the healthcare service provider. Various universities have remote master programs that will give you all of the needed skills and qualifications for successful career development.
Northwestern University
The online master in health informatics at Northwestern University is considered one of the best remote learning opportunities in the field. Students can choose among several fields of specialisation that include clinical informatics, health technology informatics and health administration informatics. All of the students will be required to take the same core courses before choosing specialisation.
Northwestern University’s remote program features a cloud-based online learning platform that can be integrated with other web-based services like Google Docs, for example. There’s 24/7 technical support for easy and continuous access to educational materials.
Students are required to complete anywhere between 11 and 13 online courses to obtain their graduate degree. The end of the program is a capstone project or thesis that’s mandatory for students of all specialisations.
In terms of tuition fees, the estimated cost of the entire program is 49,368 dollars. A technology fee applies to all of the online students.
Kaplan University
When it comes to affordable online graduate programs that still maintain academic excellence, Kaplan University is the definite winner. It has an online master of health informatics that’s much more affordable than what other universities have to offer.
The total number of program credits required is 48. Some of the courses that students can choose among include healthcare statistics, leadership in healthcare, public health biology, legal and ethical issues in health information, clinical terminology, health information systems and healthcare data analysis.
Depending on the time commitment that students can make, the entire program can be completed in as little as two years.
The cost per credit is set at 441 dollars for the 2015/2016 academic year. This brings up the cost of getting a degree to a total of 21,168 dollars.
University of Illinois at Chicago
The master of science in health informatics at University of Illinois at Chicago is the first online program that the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics gave its accreditation to.
The program puts a lot of emphasis on research and analysis. Some of the most important courses include in the curriculum are information sources in health information sciences, ethics and legal issues, application of healthcare information systems, healthcare IT vendor management, health information system analysis and design, management of healthcare communication systems and communication skills in healthcare informatics.
Depending on the time available and individual preferences, students can complete the remote graduate program in two to 2.5 years. Some individuals could also push themselves and complete the degree within an 18-month period.
Currently, the cost of education at University of Illinois at Chicago is set at 750 dollars per credit.
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Here’s yet another high quality remote graduate program in health informatics. Students can choose between two tracks – a research-based specialisation or an applied health informatics track. Both of these opportunities are fully delivered online.
The traditional research program focuses on the collection of biomedical data in healthcare facilities. It also focuses on the most effective manners in which this information gets processed. The applied health informatics focus is mainly concerned with the implementation and evaluation of digital health records. The emphasis is mainly on the development of successful systems in a world of electronic information.
The courses and program requirements will depend on the track that a student has chosen. Both of the programs require 39 credits for completion. Students can choose between full-time and part-time enrolment opportunities.
The cost per credit hour for a local student, according to 2015/2016 academic year information, is 231 dollars for in-state students and 736 dollars for the out-of-state applicants.
