Due to the fact that health informatics is a fairly new yet rapidly growing field, there are many jobs in health informatics. Since the government has mandated health care facilities to implement electronic health and medical records into their systems, medical facilities of all types are scrambling to find qualified and highly-trained professionals to help meet their goals. Health informatics offers many career opportunities, and training for this field is offered at almost every degree level.
Health Informatics Consultant
The health informatics consultant, who often works independently, has the task of helping the facility meet federal guidelines while still keeping overhead costs down. Health informatics consultants usually have master’s degrees, although, they were originally hired without degrees when they first started years ago. Other duties this professional has include installing software, monitoring and troubleshooting systems, updating networks and training staff members. This position also offers various areas of specialization, which can affect wage potential.
Informatics Analyst
The informatics analyst has several job duties with the main job being that of a problem solver. The majority of their duties are dealing with data, which allows the analyst to develop different concepts and models to solve problems and find solutions to clinical questions. They also analyze the new data to previously collected data to help better support the system. Informatics analysts will then use the analyzed information to make healthcare facilities compliant and efficient in order to provide high-quality care to patients. This job involves extensive face-to-face education.
Electronic Medical Record Keeper
Electronic medical record keepers are in high-demand since the Affordable Care Act requires that all healthcare facilities use electronic medical records or face serious fines and penalties. These professionals enter specific patient data, such as names, conditions, symptoms, treatments, diagnoses and other important information into the facility’s software programs. Electronic medical records are used by medical personnel, hospital administrators, insurance companies and medical researchers. Their duties include verifying the accuracy of information, assigning codes to patient records, collecting information and dispersing it to necessary individuals, such as family members, physicians and insurance companies. Some examples of electronic medical record keepers are patient account specialists, medical coding and billing specialists and administrative medical assistant.
Nursing Informatics Specialist
Nursing informatics specialists are generally registered nurses in charge of creating patient care plans and ensuring that they are carried out properly. The nursing informatics specialist works with doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers. Some of their duties include helping keep patient care plans simpler yet accurate, addressing and analyzing technological logistics in direct patient care and training nursing staff on medical record-keeping protocol. One of the qualifications for this position is already being a registered nurse.
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Other Jobs in Health Informatics
The field of health informatics offers various other jobs to qualified individuals such as:
- Chief Medical Information Officer
- Informatics Specialist
- Informatics Director
- Informatics Manager
- Pharmacy Informaticist
- Nutrition Informaticist
- Clinical Informaticist
With so many jobs available and positions needed, a graduate of a health informatics program may find himself or herself qualified for various jobs in health informatics. U.S. News & World Report reports that with so many doctors relying heavily on electronic information technology and data, this opens up more educational programs and more career choices in the healthcare industry.