What Is Health Informatics?

Today, the health care industry is responsible for approximately 30% of the world’s data volume. This number is projected to increase to 36% by 2025, as the rapid growth of data in healthcare continues to outpace other major industries like manufacturing and financial services. 

If harnessed properly, this data can provide healthcare organizations with valuable insights that can help streamline facility operations, reduce errors, make drugs and medical devices safer and improve the quality of patient care. This is the objective of health informatics. 

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, health informatics is the “interdisciplinary study of the design, development, adoption and application of IT-based innovations in health care.” This broad, wide-reaching health care discipline is focused primarily on the applications of data in medicine and medical research.  

The growing need to manage health care data has shed more light on the importance of health informatics to society, and the wide range of roles available within the field has led more people to recognize health informatics as a rewarding and flexible career path.

What Are The Types of Health Informatics?   

People might associate informatics with electronic medical record (EMR) systems, but the health informatics discipline encompasses a wide range of specialties that focus on different areas of health care and medical research. Among the most important types of health informatics are: 

• Clinical informatics: Also called applied clinical informatics or operational informatics, this sub-discipline focuses on the use of information technology for the delivery of healthcare services.   
• Biomedical informatics: This sub-discipline deals with the applications of information technology in cellular and molecular biology, including genomics and medicinal chemistry.
• Public health informatics: This area of informatics focuses on the use of data analysis and information technology to improve public health practice, research, and learning.
• Pharmacy informatics: This sub-discipline deals with the use of data science in the discovery and development of pharmaceutical drugs, as well as new techniques for administering drugs.  
• Consumer health informatics: This sub-discipline deals with the use of data analysis and IT for enhancing patient experience and integrating user preferences into health information systems. 
• Nursing informatics: This sub-discipline deals with the use of information technology to share knowledge and optimize workflows in nursing practice. Nursing informatics shares some similarities with health informatics, but its focus is far more narrow, as it primarily relates to patient care. 

While these specialties have some skill overlaps, there are also notable differences between them, and switching specialties may require additional training or certification in some cases. Aspiring health informatics professionals need to choose a sub-discipline that suits their interests and aligns with their skills. 

What Is a Health Informatics Specialist?  

In short, a health informatics specialist is a professional who utilizes various forms of data to improve operations in healthcare settings. They are responsible for reviewing a healthcare organization’s operations and implementing computing systems to improve those operations. 

Their day-to-day responsibilities may include collecting and assessing data, evaluating technology performance, researching options for new technology, installing technology and training health care staff to use technology. 

The improvements made by health informatics specialists may relate to the efficiency of workflows, the quality of care received by patients or the accuracy of medical research—depending on their employer. Health informatics can work for a wide range of organizations including hospitals, clinics, private practices, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, insurers and government agencies. 

What Hard Skills Do You Need To Be a Health Informatics Specialist?  

There are several important technical skills that you’ll need to succeed as a health informatics specialist. These skills can be acquired through a combination of education and on-the-job experience: 

• Programming: Health informatics specialists often use computer programming skills to automate statistical analysis functions, allowing them to extract insights from large amounts of data that would otherwise be impossible to interpret. 
• Data analytics: Health informatics specialists use a combination of descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics to discover patterns in data, and transform these patterns into valuable insights.   
• Health care IT: Health informatics specialists must be comfortable using healthcare IT systems such as electronic health records (EHR) and clinical health data systems. They should also know how to analyze data provided by technologies like telemedicine, wearable health devices, electronic prescription services, patient portals and consumer health care apps.    

Demonstrating the right technical competencies is essential for finding work as a health informatics specialist. However, hard skills are not the only thing you’ll need on your resume. In most cases, employers today will prefer candidates who display a combination of hard and soft skills.

What Soft Skills Do You Need To Be a Health Informatics Specialist?  

While hard skills are often highly specific to certain roles, soft skills are more widely applicable competencies that support productivity, creativity and communication in the workplace and beyond. Some of the most important soft skills for health informatics specialists include:  

• Analytical thinking: Health informatics specialists must be able to extract insights from complex data sets and understand how to make informed decisions based on data trends and patterns.
• Communication: Research has shown that effective communication can positively impact an organization’s performance. As interdisciplinary professionals, health informatics specialists must utilize communication skills to make complex data concepts accessible to healthcare professionals with minimal tech experience.  
• Curiosity: Health informatics specialists must be willing to adapt to changes in tech and healthcare and have the curiosity to continually explore new data analysis and health care management techniques and strategies.  
• Ethics: As professionals who regularly work with sensitive patient data, Health informatics specialists must always operate ethically, and remain aware of any risks to patient privacy.  
• Organization: Organizational skills are critical for avoiding mistakes when managing large datasets for complex projects. This is particularly true in health care, as data management errors by health care organizations can impact patients and lead to costly compliance issues. 
• Problem-solving: Problem-solving is one of the most valuable soft skills for Health informatics specialists, as these professionals may be asked to identify actionable solutions to different organizational problems on a day-to-day basis.  

These skills are highly valued by employers, and can be useful in a wide range of professional situations. Demonstrating soft skills in addition to technical knowledge can help you establish a positive reputation in the workplace and set yourself apart for advancement opportunities.

What Jobs Are Available In Health Informatics?  

One of the main advantages of pursuing a career in health informatics is the wide variety of roles available within the field. Whether the role is analytical, managerial, or IT-focused, each health informatics position has an essential role to play in making medicine better.

• Health informatics consultants: These professionals are responsible for the systems and databases that health care organizations and facilities use for patient records. Their work involves implementing, maintaining, and updating data systems and networks at healthcare organizations. 
• Health care data analysts: These professionals use data analysis and visualization to identify health care trends and plan action items, often to improve patient care, reduce business costs, streamline workflows or provide more affordable treatments for specialized patient populations. 
• Clinical informatics directors: These professionals are in charge of implementing data collection and storage systems at healthcare facilities. Depending on the size of their employer, they may direct teams of informatics specialists when managing projects, and help train other administrative staff to use new systems.  
• EHR implementation specialists: These professionals help guide the adoption of new EHR (electronic health record) software systems at healthcare organizations, ensuring that the systems are configured optimally for their organization’s needs.  
• Health data quality managers: Sometimes referred to as quality assurance managers, these professionals are responsible for the quality of an organization’s data. They develop data quality assessment protocols and oversee important processes like collection, analysis and warehousing. 
• Health IT project managers: These professionals are in charge of planning and overseeing information technology projects at healthcare organizations. Such projects may include the implementation of new electronic health records (EHR) systems or other applications. 

Whether your background is in IT, medical management, data analytics or patient care, there is likely a health informatics role out there that suits your skills. However, it’s important to plan for the job you want, as some employers may require specialized education, training or on-the-job experience for certain roles. 

Where Do Health Informatics Professionals Work? 

Just as there are a variety of roles available within the health informatics field, there is a wide range of work environments where HI professionals can find employment. Because big data has so many important applications in the healthcare industry, informatics professionals are needed at many different types of healthcare organizations.

Medical practices, hospitals, allied health networks and insurance companies rely on informatics professionals, but so do research laboratories, consumer health agencies and public health organizations. The work you’ll do as a health informatics professional can vary significantly depending on your specific role and work environment. 

Is Health Informatics a Good Career Choice? 

Informatics is a smart career choice for anyone driven to do transformative work that makes a difference in people’s lives. It’s also a good option for those who value job security. Demand for health informatics professionals is already high and will likely grow over time because the volume of data generated by patient care, research and health finance is exploding.  

Earning an online MS in Health Informatics is the best way to take advantage of the explosive growth in this field. Apply now, and it won’t be long before you have the knowledge and qualifications you’ll need to advance in medical information leadership, technology and analysis.