The Clinical Informatics specialization is designed to prepare students to master the knowledge and skills reflected in the core content for clinical informatics approved by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), which defines the boundaries of the discipline and informs the program requirements for fellowship education in clinical informatics. This specialization also prepares students for board certification in medical informatics, a designated medical subspecialty.
Curriculum
Core Courses (5 units)
Specialization Courses (7 units)
Course List
Course |
Title |
MHI 405-DL | HIT Standards and Interoperability |
MHI 406-DL | Decision Support Systems and Health Care |
MS_IDS 452-DL | Intro to Data Collection and Analytics |
CIS 413-DL | Telecommunications and Computer Networks |
| Introduction to Clinical Thinking |
| Health Care Operations |
| Information System Acquisition & Lifecycle |
| Consumer Digital Health |
| Data Literacy and Analytics in Healthcare |
| Database Systems Design & Implementation |
| Statistical Analysis |
| Feature Engineering and Text Mining |
| Introduction to Techniques of Predictive Analytics |
| Data and Digital Platforms |
| Research Design for Data Science |
| Project Management |
| Models and Theories of User-Centered Design |
| Data Science, Management, and Business Strategy |
| Global Health Systems |
| Global Health and Technology |
About the Final Project
As a culminating experience, students will put into practice the knowledge and skills they have learned during their coursework through a Capstone Project. Students will have the opportunity to develop and implement a Health Informatics project with an industry or university partner or in their workplace. Alternatively, students can develop a culminating, two-part project. This alternative capstone project will leverage health informatics to provide an innovative, consultative response to a need or problem arising as part of a real-world case study. The project will challenge each student to conduct and integrate comprehensive research and to apply knowledge, skills, and competencies built through coursework they have completed in the MHI program.
In addition to each student’s individual research and project development, the course emphasizes collaboration with fellow students by using the Canvas discussion board to crowdsource strategies and approaches for their Capstone Project. Each student will work with the instructor to establish an “Advisory Committee” for their project which, ideally, will be comprised of a “Knowledge Expert” from the organization they are working with and a faculty advisor from the Northwestern University Health Informatics program.
Course List Course | Title |
| Capstone Project |
| Thesis Research |