Health Informatics Certificate Program
The Columbia University Department Of Biomedical Informatics, along with the Center For Advanced Information Management is offering a Health Information Technology Certificate program starting in January 2011. The program provides the practical knowledge and skills required to use electronic health records (EHRs) in health care organizations.
Health information technology (HIT) is a top national priority to improve health care delivery, reduce medical errors, improve care coordination and efficiency, engage patients in their own health care, and serve public health. The federal government is promoting HIT and the deployment of EHRs, including monetary incentives for “meaningful use” of EHRs, requiring 51,000 new HIT professionals over the next 5 years. Columbia University is uniquely positioned with the experience, faculty, and resources needed to train these professionals.
The Program
A 6-month competency-based certificate program offers a conceptual framework, background knowledge, and workforce skills. The program provides students with a foundation in informatics concepts and imparts practical skills to prepare HIT professionals filling Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) defined workforce training roles to comply with the new "meaningful use" criteria.
Topics include the health care system, clinical computing systems, health care decision making, systems operations, quality, reporting, health information exchange, security, business operations, and project management. Additional topics will ltarget three Office of the National Coordinator Health Information Technology workforce training roles: Health Information Management and Exchange Specialist, Health Information Privacy and Security Specialist, and Programmer and Software Engineer.
The curriculum includes both individual learning and team-based activities to develop collaboration skills, a necessity for this multidisciplinary field. Self-guided materials are combined with team assignments and lectures. Teams, selected to maximize professional diversity, work on case presentations and develop a capstone project, all of which are centered on real-world problems. In-person instruction includes facilitation of team cases and projects in addition to lectures and system demonstrations by industry leaders from clinical, pharmaceutical, and EHR vendor organizations.
The program is offered as a hybrid of asynchronous and face-to-face learning, with seven in-person Friday meetings (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) in New York City on 9/14/12, 10/12/12, 11/9/12, 12/07/12, 01/11/13, 02/08/13, 03/15/13.
APPLYING
Students applying for this program will be expected to have at least a bachelor’s degree and experience/training in health care, public health, or information technology. Prospective applicants apply online.
Contact Information
For more information, please email. Also visit us online or on Facebook (Columbia University Health IT Certificate Program) or LinkedIn (Columbia University HIT Certificate Program).
