Why Health Informatics Is a Great Career Choice Going Forward

No one would debate the fact that any area of healthcare is in great demand of qualified professionals. From nursing assistants, to nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors and IT specialists working in medical records, healthcare is suffering a severe shortage of qualified personnel and so any job in the industry is a good choice.

However, if you are looking for a career in healthcare with better than average (much, much better than average!) prospects for great pay and job stability, health informatics is a great career choice. You can earn a graduate certificate or a masters in health care informatics from online schools like the University of Illinois or you can study on campus if you prefer. The point is, this is one specialty that overlaps IT and healthcare and as a result, there will always be a job for serious professionals.

The Latest Projections on Health Informatics Job Growth

One set of statistics emanating from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS, in 2012 forecast a growth rate within the industry at 22% between the years 2012 and 2022. Can you imagine increasing the labor force in any given profession by almost ¼ above and beyond where it currently is? That, in itself, is an amazing statistic but later forecasts are even higher, some sources stating that they believe growth rate will exceed 24% from 2014 to 2024.

And, the numbers keep getting better as technology advances and more schools are combining Information Technology (IT) with healthcare. Digital healthcare graduate degrees are, and this is no exaggeration, assuring graduates of a high-paying job with a future.

The Broad Focus of HI – Healthcare Informatics

When studying for a career in healthcare informatics you can work within a medical arena or you can work within a digital technology setting. However, the thrust is always going to be providing health informatics that have the focus of sharing information between a patient and his or her provider as well as between the various healthcare providers that a patient sees over time. This could be information gathered by the patient’s primary care doctor and then disseminated to specialists that patient has cause to consult with. It could also be information gathered through wearables that is sent via an internet connection to the healthcare provider to be analyzed by a healthcare informatics specialist on staff.

Health Informatics Career Possibilities

As such, you would then be applying for jobs that were previously unheard of. HI is a new field of study in its relative infancy so jobs will also be expanding as technology advances. A graduate degree in health informatics would qualify you to work as:

• Chief Medical Information Officer
• Nurse Informacist
• Health IT Consultant
• Clinical Data Analyst

And, that is just the very beginning of career opportunities open to you. So then, why is health informatics a great career choice going forward? You could sum it up by saying that technology is the way forward in healthcare and as a health informatics specialist you would be in on the ground floor of a career that has nowhere to go but up.