Some of the students enter the program already in leadership positions in health informatics. Other students are preparing to enter or move up in the field of health informatics. Entry positions can include clinical analysts, who work with clinicians to analyze workflows and collect user needs, and application analysts, who work with development groups to develop and select technology to fill the user needs. With money from the American Reform and Recovery Act of 2009 dedicating large amounts of money to widespread implementation of electronic medical records, analysts and consultants who understand the health informatics environment will be in heavy demand, with estimates of 50,000 or more new jobs that will need to be filled.
Students interested in research in health informatics who excel in the MS in Health Informatics program may be interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Personal Health Informatics. The research-focused, interdisciplinary Ph.D. combines a strong foundation in human-computer interaction interface technology and experimental design in health sciences with a research program focused on exploring how technology designed with a patient- or person-facing perspective might transform healthcare and wellness systems. The transdisciplinary nature of the Northeastern Ph.D. program and the focus on how technology can support wellness and improve care from the patient’s perspective distringuishes it from traditional doctoral degree programs in computer science and medical and health informatics.
