MASTER OF SCIENCE
Healthcare Informatics
Graduate Program
Master of Science in Healthcare Informatics | Graduate Program
The 36-credit-hour graduate program in Healthcare Informatics at Harrisburg University provides unique educational opportunities in this emerging specialty area for experienced clinicians (physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) and clinically oriented healthcare administrators. If you are an international student interested in pursuing a graduate degree, please email CPT@HarrisburgU.edu and the materials will be sent out to you. Or you can complete the online application here.
Many graduate programs miss or short change perhaps the most important skill set for this new kind of practitioner: the translational, communications and interpersonal skills that make the difference between success and failure during selection, implementation, and optimization of healthcare IT systems. What makes our program unique is familiarization with critical skills in change management, knowledge management, project management, organizational psychology, generational differences, human-machine interfaces, and optimization tools such as Lean and Agile.
Today’s multi-institution healthcare delivery systems and even larger stand-alone hospitals employ clinician ‘Champions’ to assist with the implementation of health-related information technology projects such as electronic medical records and meaningful use. Commonly, preparation for this role is simply familiarization with the operation of the system being installed. This does not solve problems such as resistance to change and designs for the optimization of dashboards. A full set of change management skills adds significant value to employing either Informaticists or Champions both during and after initial deployments of new systems or upgrades and optimization of present systems.
The M.S. in Healthcare Informatics at HU addresses the need for healthcare informaticists who require in-depth knowledge in selected informatics specialty areas and prepares students to:
- Interact effectively with analytics specialists to define priority subject areas, evaluate data sources and understand the strengths and weaknesses of analytics results
- Communicate new knowledge and insights to senior management decision-makers
- Facilitate implementation of management’s decisions
Learn more about the admissions process here. For assistance or to receive admissions materials, email Masters@HarrisburgU.edu
