Nowadays the general trend of hospitals converting medical records from paper to electronic format coupled with new incentive payments from the government under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus program for meaningful use has increasingly compelled health care organizations to hire skilled health informatics professionals. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 50% of fastest growing occupations are in the health care sector, making it a stable and promising career field for those seeking new and rewarding opportunities. Because of such a growth in healthcare, the demand for health informatics professionals in the United States is expected to raise by an average of 16% until 2016 (www.bls.gov).Here in South Florida working professionals can attend both on campus and online classes as they earn a degree of Master of Science in Biomedical Informatics (MSBI) at Nova Southeastern University (NSU). As indicated on its website, this innovative and unique program is developed to train future leaders in the development, dissemination, and evaluation of information technology as it relates to the healthcare environment such as hospitals and health systems, health information technology system vendors, eHealth companies, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions (http://medicine.nova.edu/msbi).
More than three years ago, in June 2008, I joined the MSBI program at NSU from which I
graduated in March 2010. It was one of the best decisions I made in my life. While there, I attained significant knowledge in the areas of healthcare information systems design, analysis, and management, public health information systems, database systems, clinical decision support systems, telemedicine, and project management to name just a few. After graduating from the MSBI program, I used the education and preparation acquired there to launch a successful career in the healthcare informatics arena working as a skilled clinical application analyst, an Adjunct Instructor for the MSBI program at NSU, and recently as a consultant for Siemens Soarian Senior Consultant. In my current position, I work at different hospitals to provide subject matter expertise in using clinical information systems to enhance the performance of clinicians and improve the quality of health care services.
As the field of healthcare informatics grows and develops, new opportunities will emerge for health informatics specialists within the healthcare industry that will allow healthcare organizations to automate clinical processes and provide care services more efficiently and effectively. The ultimate goal is for all healthcare organizations to use those outcomes in more useful ways toward establishing a safer, cheaper, faster, fully automated, and securely integrated healthcare system. I urge all my fellow colleagues in the healthcare industry to become better acquainted with the field as wonderful challenges and opportunities await them.
