Health Informatics

Overview

The Health Informatics program of Northwestern University prepares students for emerging opportunities and roles across the healthcare enterprise in classes taught by thought leaders in the informatics field. Graduates leave the program ready to leverage technology tools and data for more efficient, patient-centered healthcare delivery and improved population health, and apply essential skills such as organizational change leadership and project management.

MHI students come from a range of backgrounds that are reflected in three distinct program specializations: Clinical Informatics, Health Technology Informatics, and Health Administration Informatics. Fully accredited, SPS online courses marry the best aspects of online technology with the interactivity of the classroom in a format designed to work with students' busy schedules.

Career paths

The field of health informatics has evolved dramatically since the 2006 launch of Northwestern’s original Medical Informatics (MMI) Program. Once primarily the purview of physicians and technologists, the field now engages a much broader and growing spectrum of clinical, technical, administrative and financial services professionals collaborating in hospitals, group practices, nursing care centers, home health agencies, laboratories, community care facilities and family services agencies, among other settings. Increasingly, the challenges and opportunities of this burgeoning field also attract innovators and entrepreneurs from industries outside the health care mainstream. Northwestern’s MHI program responds to these dynamic trends to meet the current and future educational needs of individuals who are entering, or are currently employed in, the field of health informatics.